Published on a virtual discussion platform, this article by José Ignacio Roca—one of the most widely recognized critics and curators in Colombia—presents arguments and references crucial to understanding La incapacidad adquirida de escapar, a work performed by Colombian artist Guillermo Marín [Rico] (b. 1970) at the northern campus of the Alianza Colombo-Francesa in Bogotá in July 2000. The text was published in Roca’s column “Columna de Arena.” Although it was written before the performance had taken place, the article shows considerable knowledge of the artistic references that that work would entail as well as the importance it would place on “the citation,” a resource used widely in art from the eighties due to what the author calls “postmodern theorization.”
Guillermo Marín has worked in the realms of performance, photography, education, and curatorship. He is the curator of Contemporánea, a venue for contemporary art at the Universidad del Cauca (in Cali), where he has taught art history since 1998. Marín’s performances include El Canto del deseo exaltado que va a encontrar la calma [The Song of Exalted Desire that Will Find Peace] (2002) based on the myth of Leda and the swan; Venus Surtida [Sorted Venus] (1999) in which the artist lies like a marble statue amid hallucinogenic drugs; Desde este lugar se ve el cielo [From This Place The Sky Can Be Seen] (1999); and El ataque del presente al resto de los tiempos [The Present’s Attack on All Other Times] (1996)—more widely known as La novia— his degree project at the Instituto Departamental de Bellas Artes of Cali.
His work at the Instituto Departamental de Bellas Artes, Marín—along with artists Wilson Díaz (b. 1963) and Juan Fernando Mejía (b. 1966), cofounders of the Festival de Performance de Cali in 1997—is considered instrumental to the consolidation of the performance genre in Cali in the mid-nineties.
“Columna de arena: Reflexiones críticas desde Colombia” (http://www.universes-in-universe.de/columna/index.htm) was an online column of contemporary art criticism directed by José Ignacio Roca. The website compiles sixty-nine articles written from 1998 to 2005. An art critic and curator, Roca studied architecture as well as curating and art criticism. He was the curator of temporary exhibitions at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango (Bogotá) from 1994 to 2008, and of shows and events, such as Trienal Poli/gráfica in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2004), the twenty-seventh São Pablo Biennial in Brazil (2006), the Encuentrode Medellín MDE07 (2007), and Cart[ajena], urban interventions in the city of Cartagena de Indias (2007). In 2007, he was selected to be a member of the jury at the fifty-second Venice Biennale (2007).