La caída de un general

This project tackles the way in which colonial relationships -exercised by the Spanish Crown from the XVI until the XIX century- get replicated, and also reflects on how that system was appropriated by a new Colombian political elite that copied the same inherited domain and exploitation models. In addition, it addresses how contemporary society has lost historical memory and normalised a system of governance based on the colonial structure, through an argument of freedom and democracy. This work seeks to reinterpret the film, photography, cartography and legal documentation archive from one of Colombia’s most significant historical event in the XX century: the assassination of General Rafael Uribe Uribe, Liberal Party’s political leader, on 15 October 1914, Bogotá. Several speculations have been generated in relation to the causes of this murder, however, this work focuses on the real authors and how this event had an impact on the stigmatisation of the Colombial capital’s cultural and social practices of the working classes.

After a night party, carpenters Leovigildo Galarza and Jesús Carvajal planned to kill Rafael Uribe Uribe with their axes. The next day, still a bit drunk and guided by their frustration and their tough economic situation, they continued with their plan and caused his death by hitting him several times on his head with their axes. This crime was investigated by Prosecutor Alejandro Ordoñez Forero, who interviewed witnesses, people involved and murderers in order to throw light on the murder’s causes and collected all that information in a document of incalculable documentary value: the Fiscal View. On the basis of this document, Alberto Mayor Mora wrote -in chapter 6 of his book “Cabezas duras y dedos inteligentes”- a chronicle about the 24 hours prior to the murder of the liberal leader.

The central piece is a mapping/video installation which broadens and reinterprets the archive while combining some scenes of “El Drama del 15 de Abril” (a documentary that portrays the General’s murder with cartographies and images of the murderers and the politician himself). These scenes make a contrast for the sake of stigmatising and exercising state classism by extolling the virtues of the white man as a politician and leader as contrasted with the peasant/native-like appearance of the murderers. The mapping shows an experimental video via four channels with the same number of axes, a tool which represents the working class and was redefined by the government as a lethal weapon in order to stigmatise the working classes and exert a social control over them. The installation is complemented by archival, bibliographic and cartographic material that illustrate the historical event. Next to it: a number of videos of the current transit and the citizens’ lack of knowledge when passing through the great monument built in its remembrance at the Parque Nacional.

https://morenoricardo.com/la-caida-de-un-general.html