In this essay, the Colombian artist and theoretician Juan Mejía discusses independently two images of a rhinoceros, each of which appeared at different times in the history of Colombian art. The first image is part of a mural painted on the wall of a sixteenth-century house in the Colombian city of Tunja. The second is Lilith, José Alejandro Restrepo’s video of two rhinoceroses copulating. In his discussion of the first image, Mejía draws on historical data to speculate on the chain of events that might have led to the portrayal of a rhinoceros in a decorative painting in a sixteenth-century house. He also mentions the symbolic implications of the image of the animal within a variety of contexts, alluding to a range of cultural possibilities suggested by its presence in the mural. Mejía addresses the second image by discussing the mythical and symbolic role played in human thought by the image in Restrepo’s video, Lilith. Mejía concludes that when human beings look at an animal, they see something of themselves in an otherness that is brimming with symbolical and mythical possibilities.

In this essay, the Colombian artist and theoretician Juan Mejía, who was born in the United States (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1966), posits an interesting relationship between two works in the history of Colombian art that are separated by a time span of approximately four hundred years. This document is important to the field of Colombian art because of what the author suggests through the connection he makes between the past and the present. In his opinion, we can ignore dominant mindsets and turn to alternative ideas as a basis for our own identity. Mythical and artistic thinking is thus valued over scientific-empirical dogma as relevant and necessary to the development of a human view of the world.

This essay appeared in a publication that collected the prizewinning essays in the contest sponsored by the Mayor’s Office in Bogotá, Colombia through the Visual Arts Administration of the District Institute of Culture and Tourism. That publication, which was produced in 2005, included the prizewinning essays in the category of Historical, Theoretical, or Critical Essay on Colombian Art from the 2004 Compilation of Essays.   

Juan Mejía is a visual artist at the Universidad de Los Andes and got his Master’s in History and Theory of Art and Architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He has worked as an artist since 1995. From 1996 to1997, he (and Wilson Díaz) developed curatorial projects that supported the work of emerging artists in Cali (see “IIFestival de Perfomance” [2nd Performance Festival] doc. # 1102548). Mejía is currently (2009) a professor in the art department at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.