Yosman Botero

Yosman Botero's creative universe can be defined as a space built of doors and mirrors, where everything is reflected and confronted with the objective of cartography, revelation and questioning the balance of power. Influenced by multiple references from history, literature, documentaries and art, Yosman has built up an archive collection rich in mixtures that he uses at the time of creation. It stands out for its ability to detect signs and symbols to develop narratives which, in a visual and conceptual dimension, challenge both ideological and institutional tensions as well as that of the economic system in a society that bears decades of repression and brutality, articulating an essentially political work.

Yosman develops a creative process in which he first situates an act of colonization, then determines the exercise of exploitation to which it corresponds. His work criticizes the inappropriate use of natural resources by mining, the manipulation of information by the powers that be, and the frantic cravings for enrichment. At this point, much of his work stems from the need to visualize the void, to generate processes of resilience in the viewer.

There is a marked interest in the architecture and the landscape which acquire a dimension of the territory. Thus, his working method could be defined as the study of the ecology of war, where he expresses an interest in those landscapes which, during armed conflicts, acquire value only to the extent that those - these can be a resource for the enemy.

The theoretical references of Yosman's work are numerous. Among them is the American writer, philosopher, filmmaker and photographer Susan Sontag who, in her books, reflects on the meaning of her art. “That a bloody battle landscape can be beautiful - in the sublime, astonishing or tragic of beauty - is a commonplace of images of war scenes made by artists. The idea does not fit well when applied to images taken by cameras: finding beauty in photographs of war scenes seems cruel. But the landscape of devastation remains a landscape. In the ruins, there is beauty. »(SONTAG SUSAN, Regarding the pain of the others. De Bolsillo, 2010. P. 68)