IVÁN HURTADO: DÍAS VIOLENTOS
September 30 - November 19, 2023
Días violentos, the first solo exhibition in Panama by Iván Hurtado (Medellín, 1970), aims to showcase the complexity of the devastating armed conflict that the Colombian people have endured over the past seventy-five years. Rooted in historical, economic, and social factors, the conflict involved multiple actors, including guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and state forces, later exacerbated and complicated by drug trafficking and other criminal groups. This violent struggle for power and natural resources—especially land—has resulted in a high human cost, with countless victims, displaced persons, and disappeared individuals, many of whom were innocent. It is precisely the variety of actors, both victims and perpetrators, that has made the Colombian conflict one of the longest and most complex in the Americas.
Curated by Emiliano Valdés (Guatemala, 1980), the exhibition includes 23 works in which the artist describes the events of the conflict, carefully and movingly portraying its protagonists. The works, from the series Inocentes (2000–2001), Días violentos (2001), and Mil días (2001–2003), are mixed in the exhibition to relate people who voluntarily or inadvertently crossed paths in the history of that country, which has left deep scars in its society, human fabric, and politics.
IVÁN HURTADO (Medellín, Colombia, 1970)
Iván Hurtado studied architecture at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín and art at the Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo. His works recall ancestral Colombia and evoke moments of sociopolitical crises that invite reflection on violence through elements that evidence lived experiences. He employs geometry as a tool for exploring territory and geography.
His work is part of various collections in Colombia, such as the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Museo de Antioquia, Museo del Banco de la República de Colombia, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, among other institutions.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Emiliano Valdés (Guatemala, 1980)
Emiliano is the chief curator of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM). He has been an associate curator of the 10th Gwangju Biennale (South Korea), co-director of Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala), curator and head of visual arts at the Centro Cultural de España in Guatemala, among others, and has worked at institutions such as dOCUMENTA (13) (Kassel), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), and contemporary Magazines (London). Valdés is a member of the arts and literary arts panel at the Bellagio residency of the Rockefeller Foundation and an advisor to the Kadist collection (Paris/San Francisco).