One Body of Water
The work of Carolina Caycedo
Sustenance refers to materials or actions that are regarded as sources of strength and nourishment.
It is what allows the maintenance of someone, or something, in life and existence. Sustainability is the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. I am suspicious of the term sustainability because a system that continues to exploit life in any of its forms is not, and will never be, sustainable. How can we think of our practice, whatever shape it takes, in terms of sustenance instead of sustainability? How can our work become nourishment for communities and peoples on the frontlines of environmental struggles?
–Carolina Caycedo
Carolina Caycedo, If The River Ran Upwards, 2017 installation view Banff Center for the Arts, photo courtesy of the artist
Carolina Caycedo, A Cobra Grande, 2019, installation view at Lille3000 Triennial, France, photo by Theo Romain
Carolina Caycedo, Still from Thanks For Hosting Us. We Are Healing Our Broken Bodies/Gracias por hospedarnos. Estamos sanando nuestros cuerpos rotos, 2019, HD Video, color and sound, 11 min, photo courtesy of the artist
Carolina Caycedo, In Yarrow We Trust, 2021, installation view, Carolina Caycedo: Care Report, Oxy Arts, 2021, photo Courtesy of Oxy Arts
Carolina Caycedo, still from Be Dammed/Rios Vivos, photo courtesy of the artist
Carolina Caycedo, Still from A Gente Rio/We River, 2019, Single-Channel HD video, color and sound, 29:09 min. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Carolina Caycedo, Water Portraits / Retratos del Agua, 2019, installation view at Orange County Museum of Art, photo courtesy of the artist
Carolina Caycedo, Still from Apariciones / Apparitions, 2018, single-channel HD video, color, and sound. 9:11 min, with: Marina Magalhaes (Choreography), Isis Avalos, Samad Guerra, Celeste Tavares, Bianca Medina, Jose Aviles, and NataliMiciche, commissioned by The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, and the Vincent Price Art Museum, photo courtesy of the artist
One Body of Water
I’ve always been here, carrying the blood of the mother
cleaning her
soothing her
wetting her limbs
cooling her down
A long time ago abuelo fuego y pacha mama (grandfather fire and mother earth) loved each other and
fire penetrated the mother through a million holes at the same time and the body of the mother
trembled so strongly and with so much pleasure that she spitted lava, ice and fire and she trembled for a
thousand years, and she continued to tremble for a million more
The mother gave birth to countless daughters and sons, trees, mountains, vines, swamps, snakes, birds,
flowers, emeralds and gold
The happiness of seeing her children being born made her cry tears of love and blood, and her tears
filled up those holes where grandfather fire had deposited his love and that is how us, lakes and
lagoons, were born and there was so much blood that we overflowed breaking mountains and forests,
forming brooks, streams and rivers
And we flow with the blood of the mother feeding our sisters and brothers and reaching the oceans
where we connect with other rivers and lagoons, in one body of water
And we carry the blood of our mother
cleaning her
soothing her
wetting her limbs
cooling her down
[ALL THE RIVERS MAKE WATER AND HUSHING SOUNDS AND PLAY INSTRUMENTS]
Carolina Caycedo
Carolina Caycedo is a London-born Colombian artist, living in Los Angeles. She participates in movements of territorial resistance, solidarity economies, and housing as a human right. Carolina’s artistic practice has a collective dimension to it in which performances, drawings, photographs and videos are not just an end result, but rather part of the artist’s process of research and acting. Her work contributes to the construction of environmental historical memory as a fundamental element for non-repetition of violence against human and non-human entities, and generates a debate about the future in relation to common goods, environmental justice, just energy transition and cultural biodiversity.
She has held residencies at The Huntington Gardens, Libraries and Art Collections in San Marino, California and the DAAD artists-in-Berlin program, amongst others. Caycedo has received funding from Creative Capital, California Community Foundation, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Harpo Foundation, Art Matters, Colombian Culture Ministry, Arts Council UK, and Prince Claus Fund.
Recent solo museum shows include Care Report at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź; Wanaawna, Rio Hondo and Other Spirits in Orange County Museum of Art, and Cosmotarrayas at ICA Boston and From the bottom of the River at MCA Chicago. In 2019 her work was part of the 45 Salón Nacional de Artistas Colombia, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Film sector of Art Basel in Basel, and the 2020 Wanlass Artist in Residence at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Caycedo is the 2020-2022 Inaugural Borderlands Fellow at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands-Arizona State University and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. She is a member of the Los Angeles Tenants Union and the Rios Vivos Colombia Social Movement. Learn more at carolinacaycedo.com.