In this interview focused on the topic of art criticism, artist Bernardo Salcedo expresses his opinion of Marta Traba’s assertion, made just days before, that there is no significant art criticism in Colombia and furthermore, that this is due to the country’s failure to have trained critics. While he does not directly confront Traba’s statement, Salcedo implicitly refutes it by asserting that art critics would not be necessary if the mass media placed due value on culture. He adds that in Colombia, there is a tendency to enshrine individuals and art enthusiasts. Elsewhere in the interview, Salcedo avoids the subject of criticism, asserting that there are authors who write about that topic, such as Charles Baudelaire, Comte de Lautréamont and Vicente Huidobro. Salcedo also clarifies that art neither informs nor instructs; it is not didactic and cannot teach you how to read. He defends the poetic power of art that in his view undermines reason.

In most of the numerous interviews given by Colombian artist and critic Bernardo Salcedo (1939–2007) he addresses topics central to the controversies in the Colombian art scene. He was one of the few artists who dared to directly take on important figures and institutions in the art world, always in an ironic tone and with scathing arguments. In looking at the interviews as a whole, it is clear that his opinion is given a privileged space, especially when a bold and powerful reflection from the voice of an authorized figure is what is called for. In this text, it is evident that he disagrees with the statements made by Marta Traba (1930–1983); he formulates other horizons in which to question the role of criticism. Without mentioning her name or ideas, he makes it clear that she is one of those enshrined individuals. As one of the artists that enjoyed Traba’s abiding respect and admiration, Salcedo is likely to have chosen oblique language in discussing what he considers her excessive influence and power. Indeed, it is through humor that Salcedo relativizes the place of the Argentine critic when, in his own project in the realm of criticism, he uses the pseudonym “Marta Taba,” evidencing his stance on some of her judgments and assessments. In this text, Salcedo also makes humorous reference to the valuation of his own work as one of the implications of criticism. He is not direct about this point either, stating that art collectors, not he, are the ones to have set the price of his works, which in the first three years of his career climbed to twenty times their original value. In his view, this is a problem for the collectors themselves who now have to pay twenty times as much, even though the production costs have not changed.