Jorge Restrepo or the world’s incapacity to…

Allan Núñez

Art critic and curator of the project

On the afternoon of last November 10 (2009) in a field located on the campus of Zamorano University, the Colombian artist Jorge Restrepo carried out his work entitled Carrying capacity. Given its accomplishments, it is probable that this piece is one of the most revealing of the general meaning of his work with respect to concepts and the context that drives it. For some time no one like him has known how to combine the teaching exercise and artistic practice with such favorable results. He mixes them so well that during his actions it is difficult to identify where the lecture ends and where the performance begins, where we forget the artist to pay attention to the guidelines of the professor and vice-versa. Nevertheless, the result is always a wise lesson.

Carrying capacity was developed in three actions and involved 99 agronomists about to graduate, who first walked along a farm road of the University, used for taking cows to the milking shed.  Then they were all placed in a corral for feeding the cows. Finally, the agronomists dispersed spontaneously in the field, expecting to be surprised by the photographer.  At first glance, it would appear that we are looking at a weekend excursion. However, beyond the picturesque landscape is hidden a truly esthetic feat. With this work Restrepo reminds us that our planet is incapable of sustaining so many human beings, which, like the cows, walk endlessly in search of food, leaving behind exhausted soils. The problem of the world’s overpopulation also receives a, should we say, poetic treatment when the photographer portrays the march of the agronomists toward the horizon, which for our poets, but not for the astronauts, was a metaphor for limits, the end of the world, finishing.

The second action of the work, which we already mentioned, was developed in the corral, where the cows are fed. The agronomists had to ‘fight’ for a space in such a reduced area. The overcrowding again denounces the problem of excessive demographic growth vis-à-vis the food deficit in today’s capitalist world. Different from the first action that took place on the farm road, here the limit is concrete, tangible: The metal fence indicates that there is no space for one mouth more.   

Lastly, the agronomists informed us that each field has a given carrying capacity; that is, the number of beef cattle that the field can handle without eroding the land and, most importantly, while maintaining an optimal standard of animal production. Then when the agronomists finally got out of their enclosure in the corral and were established in the field (third action), the landscape could not have been more eloquent. We now know that if for Restrepo a man is equal to a cow, the world, that “tiny blue dot” as Yuri Gagarin referred to it, will be an authentic field. It is impossible to forget the looks of the young men and women posing on that hectare of land; it was as if the afternoon sun would sink with them into the exhausted and unproductive soil.

Lastly, there is a certain elegance, poetry and insight in the way that Restrepo takes on the great problems of humanity. His works?I refer to when he began his series of Black Moons up to the work that stimulates us today?delve into the topics of loss and fragility. Taking into account the most degrading aspects of the contemporary ambiance, the artist looks around with his biting criticism, knowing that behind each of his questionings, there is a lesson to be learned by everyone.

San Antonio de Oriente, Honduras, 20 November 2009

Translated by Gertrude Brekelbaum, PhD

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Photos Action I

Photos Action II

Photos Action III

                

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