The brochure Trastorno: diálogo entre Jaime Iregui y Carlos Salas records a conversation held between the two Colombian artists in May 1999, days before their joint exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Pereira. The Pereira exhibition would take them back to their experience with the installation Obra en Tándem con Carlos Salas created by Iregui at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá in August and September 1997. In this way, the document is a link between the factors involved in Bogotá and the expectations that arose from the designated space in Pereira, which they only knew from floor plans. The dialogue between Iregui and Salas is divided into sections, each with a subject related to the central themes addressed in the installation. They include the role of the viewer, thoughts on Abstract painting in the 1990s, copyright, the Internet as a communications medium, their range of work and how it relates to art and the art market. From there, they go on to discuss originality and the copy, bearing in mind the development of information technology. It is an intense discussion that opens the door to the positions of each of these artists regarding his own work and the processes taking place in 1999 and the run-up to that year.

This dialogue between Jaime Iregui and Carlos Salas is a unique document. It is one of the few records of an exchange of views between two contemporary Colombian artists who focus on the differences between the Abstract art of their predecessors and the Abstract painting of the 1990s. This text is also important because at the turn of the century, it analyzed contemporary art practices throughout Colombia, bearing in mind the development of technology and communications.

The two different personalities and positions emerge clearly here. On the one hand, Salas describes himself as “anachronistic.” During those years, his work returned to a purity in the materials of the pictorial tradition—as opposed to the early 1990s, when he executed assemblies and more complex structures [see “Pintando con números”, doc. no. 1134646">1134646]. Iregui, on the other hand, states his interest in the Internet as a communication platform for his projects and believes that the idea of the artist still working in his own solitary framework has now “run its course.” This being the case, he sets up a comparison with the traditional Colombian artist of the early twentieth century who “organized exhibitions,” published journals, etc. 

Jaime Iregui earned a master’s degree in the History and Theory of Art and Architecture from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Starting in 1999, he became editor of esferapública [www.esferapublica.org] and El Observatorio [see doc. no. 1132949], independent Web sites that fostered discussion and thinking. As of 2010, he was coordinator of the Cultural Projects Division of the Art Department at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. [For further information on Iregui’s other projects, see doc. no. 1132933.]  

Carlos Salas is an architect at the Universidad de los Andes who studied painting at the École Nationale Superieure de Beaux-Arts, in Paris. He has participated in numerous exhibitions, including: Por mi raza hablará el espíritu; Intercambio artístico México-Colombia, in the Museo Universitario del Chopo at the UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico] (Mexico City, 1995); and A través del espejo: Autorreflexión de la pintura, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (1998). As of 2010, he was director of the Galería Mundo. [For more information about Salas, see doc. no. 1132853, doc. no. 1133804, and doc. no. 1134646">1134646.]