Echavarria was a writer for thirty years before turning to fine arts to make use of the pictorial and documentary qualities of this medium for his socio-political concerns. In his photo series and video films he deals with the power of the drug cartel and various forms of violence in Columbia that have become – after fifty years of civil war – shockingly normal.

Bocas de ceniza /Mouths of Ashes – is what the Spanish conquerors of Columbia called the estuary mouth of the Magdalena River, so named because of the day of its discovery (Ash Wednesday). Today the name is cynically ambiguous: the corpses of victims of the devastating drug wars are found floating in the river again and again. In the video Echavarria portrays the Afro-Columbians living on the Caribbean coast of Columbia. Most of them are poor farmers, until recently a minority with almost no rights caught between all the war fronts. In keeping with their oral traditions, they sing self-composed songs about their traumatic experiences.
51st Venice Biennale, 2005

Juan Manuel Echavarria, born in Medellin, Columbia, lives and works in Bogota.