Send message to Contributor

Contribution short abstract:

This roundtable proposes a reflection on the power that images have in the construction of our reality and how “Yuruparí” was the premonition of Colombia’s present. By taking a closer look at its archive, ¿can we reconcile the images of beauty and horror of a country to reveal new probable futures?

Contribution long abstract:

The forbidden image of the ethnographic-documentary series “Yuruparí” (1982-1986), portrayed two characters, Pedro and his daughter Elda, sining the assassination of a former guerrilla leader in the 1950s after an amnesty with the government. This image became an imminent premonition of the current reality of the political leaders in Colombia after the signing of the Peace Accord in 2016. A cycle of perpetuity between cinema and reality.

Laura A. Ogden, in her book “Wonder and Loss at the World's End”, understands speculation as a way “to indicate the experimental reframing that makes possible the ontological reorientation with our practices with respect to the environmental world.” She proposes how life forms are always in a process of becoming, which means that the future is one of possibilities. “The goal of the thought experiment is not to speculate about possible alternative futures but to reveal the tensions that are a part of becoming within the confines of the world’s predetermined categories (what she calls “probabilities.”)”

By exploring the expansiveness of different audiovisual mediums to deepen an ethnographic observation, I wish to convey her idea, not only as a concern for the environmental world, but also for the world of images. In the process of montage –slowing, pausing, expanding, contrasting, and fast forwarding images to reveal their inner tensions and nuances–, I am interested in re-reading the past using archive materials to reveal and generate new probable futures.