Eduardo Márceles Daconte, the critic and art historian, reviewed the art produced in Colombia’s Caribbean region in a number of essays that were later published in the book Los Recursos de la Imaginación: Artes Visuales del Caribe Colombiano [Resources of the Imagination: Visual Art of the Colombian Caribbean] whose appendix included the transcript of “Testimonio y Manifiesto del Grupo de Arte Experimental El Sindicato” [Testimony and Manifesto of The Union Experimental Art Group]. El Sindicato was a group based in Barranquilla. This manifesto, published in January 1977, was originally distributed free, and was this experimental art group’s attempt to explain their objectives and methodologies. The manifesto discusses the group’s goals and the strategies they used in the development of their projects, stressing the producers’ interest in privileging a work’s underlying idea rather than its permanence.    

This important document sheds a great deal of light on the objectives of one of the country’s most dedicated art collectives, a group whose significant contributions fueled a renewal of the arts in the 1970s and early 1980s. Furthermore, considering the dearth of “manifestos” written by artists in the history of Colombian art, this document is also important because it preserves the memory of the Grupo El Sindicato [The Union Group] and their creative and theatrical activities.

In January 1977 the Grupo de Arte Experimental El Sindicato [Union Experimental Art Group]—which included the theater director and journalist Aníbal Tobón (b. 1947) and the artists Efraín Arrieta (1942-2006), Ramiro Gómez (b. 1949), Carlos Restrepo, and Alberto del Castillo, decided to distribute this typewritten document titled “Testimonio y Manifiesto de El Sindicato” [The Union Testimony and Manifesto]. The goal of this document was to forge a closer and clearer relationship with interested parties by clarifying the group’s objectives more precisely. The Sindicato also explained that the name of the group referred to its workplace and was not an attempt to define its political alignment.

The document also outlines the group’s creative strategies: it identifies its areas of operation (the visual arts and the theater), and insists on the right to act on any particular issue. The manifesto announce the roles of each member, as follows: documentation, Efraín Arrieta; revision, Alberto del Castillo; alternate member, Efraín Cortés; collections, Ramiro Gómez; public relations, Carlos Restrepo; and writing, Aníbal Tobón. 

For more information on this matter, see other documents deemed to be artists’ manifestos: “Los independientes” [The Independents] (see doc. # 860304), “Taller 4 Rojo” [Red Workshop 4] (doc. # 1130853), and “Los Bachué” (doc. # 1074707).