CARLOS CASTRO ARIAS MAMBO, MUSEO DE ARTE MODERNO DE BOGOTÁ.

The past never dies. It is not even the past, it is the first institutional exhibition in Bogotá of the Colombian artist Carlos Castro Arias, where the figures, idols and references that in different periods have brought together a narrative of the nation are put into dialogue. The name of the exhibition translates William Faulkner’s famous quote The past is never dead. Is not even past, which is particularly relevant to the work of Castro Arias, referring to the way in which the events, struggles, symbologies, and traumas of the past continue to influence the present.In The Absent Fathers (2021-2024) Castro Arias reviews the imagery linked to our Hispanic heritage by reproducing images and details of figures, such as “Christopher Columbus and The Catholic Monarchs”, who are intervened with plastic beads and visual patterns from the Inga culture of Putumayo, juxtaposing iconographies.

Castro Arias also addresses the reappropriation of indigenous iconography and the fusion of medieval European myths and legends with Latin American stories, creating ideological intersections that invite us to reflect on the complexity of our identity and cultural narrative.