The most recent project presented by Alcuadrado, the well-known mobile exhibition space, was Severa Vigilancia, by the Berlin-based Cali artist François Bucher. The show, comprising a series of photographs and one video, was displayed in a dilapidated house in one of Bogotá’s fanciest neighborhoods, a house that had been raided in the 1990s by the National Drug-Enforcement Directorate is one among the many properties of a drug lord whose activities marked a tempestuous period in recent Colombian history.
The series of photographs, which were mostly large and black-and-white, described another raided building, the property of the famous emerald merchant and Medellin trafficker Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, a.k.a. “The Mexican.” This building is located nearby the site selected for the show; it would have been chosen for the show if it were not in such a dangerously devastated state after years of neglect. Scavengers searching for hidden treasure destroyed its interior structures, and indigent squatters invaded it. The photographs showed the passage of time on what must have once been a majestic mansion filled with outlandish luxury and clandestine excess. In the photos, only traces of that cartel world remained. There was evidence of crossfire on the walls and on the bulletproof windows of the automobiles, and there were public-transport vehicles that were likely used to conceal the capo’s illicit activities.
