Miguel Ángel Rojas
Regreso a la Maloca
March - August 2021
MAMBO - Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá, Colombia
With a trajectory of more than 50 years, Miguel Ángel Rojas (Colombia, 1946) is a pioneer of experimental visual art practices in Colombia. His work has always provocatively addressed identity, gender, and politics, focusing on marginalized populations and minorities, like LGBTI+ and indigenous communities.
Returning to the Maloca focuses on the effects of colonial rule on indigenous civilizations in the Colombian Amazon and their present consequences: heavily affected by armed conflict, drug trafficking, political insensibility, displacement, and environmental exploitation.
Exhibited are three new site-specific commissions and pieces developed over the last 25 years. Additionally, for the first time in the artist's career, highlighting specific working materials which will show the process behind Rojas' work.
Yari Yaguará. Regreso a la Maloca [Yari Yaguará. Returning to the Maloca] 202, Economía Salvaje [Savage Economy, Territorio de Poder [Territory Of Power] 2021, Aquí Estamos, [We Are Here] 2021, are the parts that make up this exhibition, which touch on themes such as the forced displacement of indigenous and peasant groups, the relationship between deforestation and drug trafficking, the soil and mestizo origins, and the rupestrian art present in Colombian territory, which involves the actions of Muisca children who hand-printed some of the works.
