Río (River), 2005

At the end of 2004, the Project of theHerbarium of artificial plants  carries out the Putumayo Expedition, an itinerary along this river in the Amazon basin, searching this natural border for specimens of "Made in China" plastic plants.

The 17-day journey  was made aboard River Patrol Boat 611, of the National Navy, on its maiden voyage. The herbarium of artificial plants was able to verify the different forms of adaptation of this particular exogenous "vegetation" in the different towns through which we passed. In turn, the videographic record was able to document other acts of military presence in this border area.

The work alludes to the forms of documentation of European travelers and expeditionaries. Their impressions were recorded in travel diaries, reports and opinions of a scientific nature o  under the extensive genre of Travel Literature, for European urban societies that found in these documents a form of knowledge – recreation. . Many times, in the form of romantic paintings, they conveyed a utopian idea of American nature and therefore of society and its inhabitants. Today these practices take the name of  “tourism”  where “travel” is a popular way of summarizing, simplified knowledge, social encounters or provision of services from one culture to another.