CÁMARA DE COMBATE
An Exhibit by
Carlos Colín

Courtyard Exhibition – The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St)
August 24 – September 1

Curated by Juliana Silva

During Latin America’s history, and notably in the 20th century, a basis for Third Cinema and Latin American conceptualism was created. Third Cinema and Latin American conceptualism established the idea of art and cinema as social benefit and political action against imperialism (and Hollywood), dictatorships, colonization, genocide, and other social oppressions. Cámara de Combate consists of creating a series of new artworks inspired by Third Cinema and Latin American conceptualism. Through the citation of Third Cinema filmmakers who used the camera as a political weapon to engage social, cultural, and political movements in the region, I make a direct correlation with Latin America’s contemporary political context as it relates to US, Canada and European interventionism and oppressive regimes. Latin American Cinema continues to develop a politicized aesthetic. The camera continues to witness the atrocities of Bolsonaro’s regime in Brazil, in Venezuela with Juan Guaidó, the humanitarian and geo-political crisis in Nicaragua and Haiti, the oblivion from the USA in Puerto Rico as an associated state, and the neoliberal oppression in Argentina with Mauricio Macri, in Chile with Sebastián Piñera, in Peru with Martín Vizcarra, in Ecuador with Lenin Moreno, in Colombia with Iván Duque, and in El Salvador with Nayib Bukele, just to name a few.

Carlos Colín (Mexico, 1980) has been living in Vancouver since 2011. He has two Masters of Fine Arts: from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and from UBC, and is a PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC. Carlos was the recipient of the City of Vancouver’s Emerging Visual Artist Award (2016) and Artist Studio Award (2017); and a Canada Council for the Arts grant to mid-career artists (2018). Carlos has been exhibiting his work internationally with recent exhibitions in Mexico, the US and Canada. He currently has an exhibition at the Reach Gallery in Abbotsford, BC exploring the conditions and cultural heritages of Mexican migrant workers.