In this interview, Doris Salcedo and Hans-Michael Herzog discuss the different stages of Salcedo’s artistic career, and the concepts and ideas important to her, specifically: her vision of herself as a “political artist” from a third world country; her interest in fragility and vulnerability as traits shared by all human beings; the persistence in the contemporary world of concentration camps akin to those found during the Holocaust; violence in Colombia and the world at large; and the effects and repercussions of that violence on individuals and societies. They also discuss specific characteristics of an artist’s tasks, including the importance of surface and of materials; public space versus interior space; the conceptual and intuitive facets innate to an artist’s work; works of art as monstrous and autonomous creatures; the presence of the “uncanny” in works of art, and Salcedo’s conception of beauty. Herzog and Salcedo make reference to certain specific pieces, including the one Salcedo made for the Istanbul Biennial, Noviembre 6 y 7 [November 6 and 7], Tenebræ, and Unland.

This interview is featured in the catalogue published on the occasion of the traveling exhibition Cantos Cuentos Colombianos, organized by Daros Latinamerica in Zürich (Switzerland). In addition to this interview with Doris Salcedo (b. 1958), the catalogue contains interviews with other Colombian artists, such as Oscar Muñoz (b. 1951), Juan Fernando Herrán (b. 1963), Delcy Morelos (b. 1967), Juan Manuel Echavarría (b. 1947), Fernando Arias (b. 1963), Miguel Ángel Rojas (b.1946), José Alejandro Restrepo (b. 1959), Nadín Ospina (b. 1960), María Fernanda Cardoso (b. 1963), Oswaldo Maciá (b. 1960), and Rosemberg Sandoval (b. 1959). The catalogue also features texts by Colombian writers, such as Fernán E. González (b. 1939), Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza (b. 1932), Alfredo Molano (b. 1944), and William Ospina (b. 1954).   Salcedo discusses some of her newest work in relation to recent changes in her perspective: at the time of the interview, the artist had stopped working directly with victims of violence in Colombia. Her awareness of violence—now understood as a universal phenomenon—is broader; she emphasizes human qualities, such as fragility and vulnerability, and concentrates on the effects of violence, as in the loss of a habitable space, the sense of disorientation, and the speeding up and slowing down of time, as well as a lack of innerness and beauty. Salcedo’s new outlook provides novel and rich ways of understanding works produced from the late nineties, as well as the complexity and depth of her thinking as a “political artist.”