Patricia Bonilla & Santiago Rueda

“[…] The exercise of photographing and recording an environment, as well as the photographic self-portrait, are traditional to the art of Niepce and Daguerre. After obtaining the results, Patricia Bonilla reveals on a transparent sheet, and then a second procedure begins, which has nothing to do with the photograph itself, although it must be followed as a mere drawing, to route the elements that will illuminate her definitive work. Consequently, it would be a differentiated work »of Illuminism, a system related to the avant-gardes of this century from Braque and Picasso, including Dada.

Collage is the second step to invent chromatic situations by arranging different glossy, opaque, smooth, patterned prints, controlling and creating a background that, while remaining rigorous, does not abandon the capricious dose. The greatest chromatic load is related to popular iconography, its variations and recreations that it makes arbitrary; thus that apparent realism, transformed through installations, does not cease to have a surreal atmosphere. "

This year we have invented a new interview format. PUNTO DE FUGA has resumed the dialogue with photographers, seeking to convey something of the oral language of these conversations that have been made through ZOOM. It is a way of reflecting the pandemic time in which we live.

P.D.F .: Good morning, I greet you from PUNTO DE FUGA where we are doing this conversation from Bogotá. We have invited Santiago Rueda, art curator and author of Photography in Colombia in the 1970s among other titles, and Patricia Bonilla, a photographer who became known for series such as El Colombia color, which we are going to talk about in this episode. . Santiago has just inaugurated an exhibition of three photographers at the Espacio Continuo gallery in Bogotá entitled Bonilla / Herrán / Vásquez / Photographs.

SR: For me it is a very special occasion because for a long time I wanted to have this conversation with the two of them, and celebrate on a day like today this meeting with Patricia, of whom I am a great admirer, whom I looked for years through many means and with who we met last year. We have been talking about his work, his life and we have this beautiful collective exhibition where Mónika Herrán and Laura Vázquez also participate in the Espacio Continuo gallery. An opportunity to take this trip back in time and revisit El Colombia color. Let's get into the matter, making an account of your life. How did you get to photography? but a little earlier: How did you get to acting? Because you started as an actress before you got to photography.

P.B .: I started as an actress when I was very young. I ran away from school, and immediately entered the Teatro Estudio of the National University. There I did some plays that I loved. For some reason or another I got to do television and while on television I had my first contact with the cinema. I married Luis Crump, who was a film director at the time. In 1978, when our marriage started, Cuartico Azul was made, the black and white short film that tells the story of a peasant couple who arrived in the city recently married in search of better opportunities, directed by Luis. At the entrance to the city they are robbed and an insufferable life without employment, alcoholism and family violence is unleashed.