Inner Disruptions is a project with indigenous women from different communities and ethnic groups of the department of Vaupés, in colombian amazon. After a close encounter with each one of them I used their life’s stories in order to put together in each case a different prosthesis which extends, limits, covers, outlines or highlights their bodies or one of its parts. Thus transforming objects into symbols of pain or loss and into material manifestations of their suffering and strength. They are five women who have led strenuous lives for different reasons, among which the estrangement of their traditions, displacement from their territories, violence caused by armed groups and different forms of everyday hardship, and who have transformed such situations into seeds of reinvention.
The word prosthesis is usually used in the medical context. It is seen as an artificial device placed or implanted in the body of a living being to replace other part, organ or limb. However, it is possible to understand this concept in other contexts such as the artistic one, as sometimes what we need is not physical or material and these objects can also symbolize or replace other kind of necessities.
The prostheses were built in Mitú and thereabouts, in different communities along the Vaupés River, where the pictures were taken. The materials used were mostly organic or found exclusively in the region. The construction and development of the prostheses was carried out with the help of artist and industrial designer Cristina Borda. Donal Edward Arango, a local artist, collaborated with the project’s production and art.
Liliana Merizalde – Colombian documentary photographer and visual artist based in Bogotá.
