Reconsideration of the historical events of 1985 Palace of Justice siege in Colombia

Cruz Fajardo Yulli Marley Postgraduate student, the department of Western European Art, Saint Petersburg State University 199226, Russia, Sankt-Peterburg, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Korablestroitelei, 20, of. korp. 3. marley_cruzf@hotmail.com Other publications by this author

For the Colombian art of the XX century .  in connection with the political and social upheavals in the country, the topic of terror and violence is of particular importance. Let's focus on the influence that the event of the storming of the Palace of Justice in 1985 had on the art of Colombia. Let's compare the trends in architecture and painting.

The storming of the Palace of Justice ^{[1, 2, 3]}, where the heart of the Colombian judicial system is located, was carried out by a detachment of the rebel formation of the so-called April 19 Movement (M-19). His goal was to publicly condemn the President of the Republic Belisario Betancourt for non-compliance with the Peace Agreement, which was signed in Corinto (Cauca province) on August 24, 1984. In the face of the government's refusal to negotiate, the armed forces regained control of the Palace using disproportionately large forces. There were 350 people inside the building, including staff, magistrates and visitors. After 27 hours of the assault and the subsequent counter-operation of the armed forces, there were 101 dead, of which 11 were magistrates of the country, 12 were missing, four of them were found in mass graves in the period from 2000 to 2017. In addition, many files were destroyed, and the building was set on fire.

Another important point that has not lost its relevance to this day is the question of what happened to the civilian population who left the building alive. There is evidence that indicates that the people rescued from the Palace and taken to the Casa del Florero Museum later went missing. Moreover, according to journalist Daniel Coronel ^[4], the body of one of the magistrates (namely, the assistant of whom?) it was returned inside the destroyed building, although the video confirms that he, being seriously wounded, remained alive and got out of the palace. In addition, there were people who, after the return of the palace to the control of the army, moved in the same direction and were found dead in mass graves many years later ^[5].

What really exploded in society in connection with the storming of the Palace of Justice is the relentless struggle of the relatives of those who went missing. Two hours after the shooting ended, Cesar Rodriguez asked on national radio about the whereabouts of his brother Carlos Augusto Rodriguez Vera, the administrator of the palace dining room. Since November 8, other relatives of the missing began to search for their relatives, and from the same day they began to receive threats. Despite the fact that records show that the canteen workers left the palace alive for the Independence Museum, the investigation into the case against the military, who participated in the alleged murder of civilians, is still being slowed down.

The full truth has not yet been established, but there is some progress ^{[6, 7, 8, 9, 10]}. Renan Vega Kantor, a professor at the National Pedagogical University of Colombia, raises the question of the existence of several truths, each of which differs from the other, such as: historical truth, judicial truth and the truth of the media. So, although the process was extremely delayed, as a result, the court sentenced Colonel Alfonso Plasas Vega, the commander of the cavalry school, who was responsible for the mobilization of armored vehicles ^[1], as well as General Jesus Armando Arias Cabrales, who led the operation from the Museum of Independence.  In addition, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2014 handed down a verdict to the Colombian State, the text of which states that the State is responsible for the disappearance of more than twelve people, as well as for the disappearance and subsequent extrajudicial execution of another civilian. The judicial truth took place, but not thanks to the state, but despite its actions, as well as despite the actions of the media.

The most obvious change for society that occurred in the city after the end of the assault was the destruction of the palace. Throughout the history of Colombia , the judicial system has been housed in three buildings: The first, located at the intersection of 11th Street and 6th Avenue, was neoclassical with eclectic elements, designed by Essipion Rodriguez and Pablo de la Cruz and completed in 1933 (Fig. 1). This building shows that "at the beginning of the XX century, the changes that occurred during the first century of the republic were already accepted as the norm; among them is the imposition of a new architectural language marked by foreign influences, in particular neoclassical style with elements of eclecticism, especially in administrative buildings" ^{[11, p. 16]}. This indicates the adoption of European classicism, typical of the Enlightenment era, as a replacement for the outgoing colonial style.

After the armed uprising of "Bogotaso", which occurred on April 9, 1948, and the fire in the first Palace of Justice, in the 1960s, the company Cruz & Londo built a building in the Art Nouveau style (Fig. 2). The new palace was built in order to centralize power. It is located on Bolivar Square in front of the National Capitol. The theoretical basis for this new construction was "functional rationality, formal abstraction, simple geometry" ^{[12, p. 209]}. From an aesthetic point of view, simple geometric shapes and volume as such were chosen for the building, the architects abandoned any ornaments. The building had to have references only to itself, without any historical symbolism, and everything had to "revolve" around functionality.

The structure of the building was supposed to denote strength, to give officials a sense of security, like a kind of fortress. For this reason, the facades were built of stone. The main facade had elongated windows in the form of blinds falling from the second floor, which made them invisible from the outside. The entrance to the territory was carried out only through Bolivar Square or through automobile access on the other side of the building. All these characteristics gave the building a sense of a closed, impenetrable structure. In this regard , Jose Ignacio Roca notes the following:

"The main question is: to what extent is the safety argument acceptable to justify the tightness of the building? [...]. The disaster at the Palace of Justice showed how this tightness, dictated by the supposed safety, turned into a "boomerang", not allowing proper ventilation or evacuation. It remains to find out to what extent the building itself contributed to the tragedy, not in order to make accusations, but in order to learn from the mistakes made before starting its reconstruction" ^{[13, p. 21]}.

In 1991, at the same place on Bolivar Square, the same company Londo builds the current building of the Palace of Justice. At the entrance we find the only surviving part of the old building: a plaque with the phrase of the general of the era of the struggle for independence Francisco de Paula Santander, which reads: "Colombians, weapons have given you independence, laws will give you freedom."

The building that replaced the 1933 Palace is in itself a statement of intent: the building that burned down in November 1985 was a closed structure, while the new one has access inside from all sides – it can be called an open structure. The palace has two parallel three-storey towers connected by a bridge that passes through a glass dome, which can be perceived as an allegory of the transparency of Colombian justice. In the background is a seven-storey building with a large portico facing Bolivar Square, completing the formation of a central space, the main facade of which consists of three large porticos. In the side porticos there are pairs of columns, in the center of which there is a curved balcony, while the central portico opens access to the inner platform.

The theoretical and aesthetic foundations for the construction of the new palace were the absence of unnecessary elements and transparency. The Ministry of Public Works and Transport set the architect the following task: "it is necessary to avoid the forced and erroneous use of architectural and urban planning concepts of past eras that can falsify the history and image of architecture of our days" ^[14]. However, what really mattered when choosing the project that was to be implemented was fear and the desire to forget what had happened. That is why it was almost impossible to create a building that would be truly affordable, would support the idea of a public purpose of the building and, in turn, would provide security that the previous building could not provide.

According to architect Tania Maya To, with the help of the new building, the following was achieved:

«(...) deprive the structure of its original meaning… The Palace of Justice project was presented as an example of a deliberate refusal to search for meaning, as a case of "endless image cloning" (...). It also seeks to falsify history by denying it, ambiguously appropriating formal elements that characterized the era in order to make it believe that in this way history was transferred to a new time and a new place which, as stated above, when trying to impose an image on matter, can be considered as a simulacrum, a deception." ^{[15, pp. 36-37]}.

The same story has been repeated several times, because the fact that the first two buildings were destroyed in similar circumstances does not seem accidental. Two palaces were destroyed by fire on two of the most tragic dates in the history of the country, at those moments when history is divided into "before and after". The connection between the heart of the judiciary and the destruction of power has long stuck in the collective memory of the country, since the destruction of the symbol is also an attempt to destroy the power that it symbolizes. The fate of the buildings of the justice system has become a silent reflection of the failure of the establishment of justice itself in the country for a century. Colombia's justice system was "burned" to make room for a new beginning, but the attempt to burn bridges behind it only led to undermined security, followed by destruction, pain and death.

However, while the architectural order expressed the desire to oblivion the historical events that took place, the visual arts reacted differently. Let's focus on the work of artists Beatriz Gonzalez and Doris Salcedo.

From the very beginning of her studies at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Beatriz Gonzalez was interested in breaking with the established order by creating her own aesthetics. To do this, she took elements of pop art with images of flat figures close to the aesthetics of "kitsch". This artistic style using pure and bright colors has become her personal style throughout her career. Using images from the media as a starting point for her works allows her to "reconnect with reality", and using objects such as televisions, mirrors, furniture as "canvases" for her works gives a new meaning to everyday objects.

Pop art arrived in Colombia with certain characteristics different from those that this style showed in London, New York or Los Angeles. We are talking about the analytical nature of mass culture and its internal connection with advertising, which were not observed in the Colombian version of the style. It was, rather, a formal aesthetic adoption, to which the artists tried to give a “Colombian" sound. In the works of Beatrice Gonzalez, aesthetics is much closer to appropriation than to pop art itself, as it was presented in England and the USA in the 1920s. When the artist is asked where her style came from, she says that its manifestation can be traced back to her childhood years and comes from the colors of the domes and buildings of her native land - Bucaramanga ^{[16, p. 156]}. 

Colombian-Argentine art critic Marta Traba ^{[17, p. 26]} presented the work of this artist as a work that removes the sacred nature of art: making "kitschy copies" of such famous works as Vermeer's "Lace Maker" ^[2], or using household items such as furniture and curtains to depict popes and presidents ^[3], it cancels the sacralization of art, makes it accessible to everyone, in the context of modern terminology we can talk about the democratization of art and its themes. By giving a new meaning to things and works of art, Beatrice Gonzalez popularizes art, brings it closer to Colombian culture. Thus, based on the concept of cultural consumption, she manages to transform art and make it "Colombian".

But what is really interesting about this artist is the themes and problems that she raises in her works. Her primary interest is focused on the content of the work, the aesthetics that she uses is only a means by which she plays the theme of barbarism in Colombia over and over again. The artist says that her goal is to touch a person, to raise awareness of what is happening in the national reality, to repeat and repeat in her works "images of violence" until we really see them and stop treating violence as something ordinary ^{[16, p. 156]}. Her work for more than 60 years of her artistic activity documents the pages of violence in Colombia, which is helped by her disinterest in permission from the authorities. Its themes are mass killings, kidnappings, guerrilla seizures, but, above all, it is the pain of the victims. Her style allows through images not to represent, but to assume barbarism, they are not a photographic image of violence, but rather represent a photonegative from it, and, as in photography, allow images to "manifest".

Beatrice Gonzalez often said that the events in the courthouse determined her position as an artist. According to her own words, "after that day I knew that I couldn't keep laughing, that that day I stopped joking" ^{[16, p. 55]}. After the assault, the artist completed a series of four works that, in appearance, would seem to be exactly the same: President Belisario Betancourt at a table with his cabinet of ministers, various figures are visible in the background, a giant hand holding something from above. The number of people around the president, the objects on the table and the colors change in each of the works, but they all refer to the phrase said by the ministers to Belisario Betancourt at the moment when the events took place in the Palace: "Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment."

The first work that we will analyze was done in 1986 and is entitled: "Anthurium" (Fig. 4). The picture is dominated by black, as well as a range of orange and white. In the foreground we see the president with a bouquet of orange anthuriums on the table, next to him at the table are three people, the character to the left of the president wears glasses and is dressed in white. There are four people in the background, one right behind the president. In the depths of the composition, in the middle of the flame, a pair of hands can be seen rising to the sky as a sign of distress. There are no military men in this picture, only people in suits.

The second work, also from 1986, is called: Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment (Fig. 5). Here we see a change in the palette of colors: gray and green predominate. We also see that the anthuriums, this time white, were rearranged on the table in the background. And on the table where the president is sitting, there are charred bodies. The number and location of people in the office does not differ from the previous composition, with the difference that the character on the left side of the president is dressed in army green clothes. Despite the fact that the drawing in both works does not have much realism, the calm face of the president stands out. These works with a palette of dark and cold colors seem to be preparatory drawings for those that will be executed in 1987.

In the painting "Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment" (Fig. 6), we see that the tropical flowers are red and are located in the center of the table, as in the painting "Anthuriums" (1986). The President is surrounded by only two people sitting on either side of him, while two military men stand opposite each other. There are also two people in the background, one of them immediately behind the president, as in Illustrations 1 and 2. Although the giant hand is still present, we see that one of the hands rising to the sky disappears in this image. The chaos, which is evidenced by the drawings in the background, is replaced this time by strokes that differ in color.

The fourth work related to the theme of the Palace of Justice is a sketch of Indianapolis (Fig. 7). The composition is close to the previous work. We see that the image is tilted to the right, loses its central position, various elements of the scene disappear. In the background, we see only one person, while in the upper part of the picture, the faces of the military in profile catch the eye. These bright colored works show one of the features of the artist's work: the skin of her characters changes in color, passes through green, yellow, purple, etc., and compared to the drawings in which we can notice some volume, the paintings are given completely flat figures, without depth.

The aim of the artist in these works is to condemn the negligence of the government of Belisario Betancourt in the face of the events that took place just a few meters from the presidential house. Through repetition, Beatrice Gonzalez presents us the same scene again and again with different minor characters, but the president remains in the center of the picture, a giant hand behind, tropical flowers and a sense of indifference towards the victims.

After the storming of the Palace of Justice, the theme of Beatrice Gonzalez's works focused on the pain of the victims, the missing, and the experiences of the families of the victims. One of her last most sensational works was performed in 2009 in the columbariums of the Central Cemetery in Bogota. This work is called "Anonymous Auras". On it, the artist depicts black figures, very close in style to rock art or to the images that are found on tombstones. They are a symbol of the dead, who had nowhere to rest. The controversy unfolded due to the fact that the mayor of the city wanted to destroy this symbolic place in order to create a park there. Subsequently, in 2020, the District Council for Cultural Heritage declared these funeral structures the property of the District Cultural Interest, which became a way of recognizing the historical processes that took place and a way of honoring the memory of the dead.

Much like the work of B. Gonzalez, the work of sculptor Doris Salcedo is an art saturated with pain caused by violence. Her work connects artistic activity with the search for answers to questions that have no answers. Her sculptures are a constant quest to find meaning in violence. As for stylistics, we see a strong influence of constructivism in Salcedo's work from the very beginning of her career. Also, her sculpture is largely influenced by the idea of social sculpture used by Joseph Beuys, linking Salcedo's work with theoretical concepts of the social, cultural and political function of art. The purpose of many of Doris Salcedo's works is to restore memory, a call not to forget the wounds of the past.

The theme that runs through all of her work is the struggle for space and the use of objects as metaphors for the missing body. The artist herself commented on this topic as follows:

"I don't think the space is neutral. The history of wars, and perhaps even history in general, is nothing but an endless struggle for the conquest of space. Space is not just a settlement, but what makes life possible. It is the space that makes meetings possible. This is a place of closeness where everything intersects" ^{[18, p. 12]}.

The materials she uses for her installations are related to the deceased, sometimes they are clothes of the deceased or missing, sometimes they are objects that were in places where violent acts occurred, in other cases she uses the space that people should have occupied if they had remained alive. The combination of organic materials with industrial gives her objects weight: filling cabinets, shoes and clothes with concrete, Salcedo seeks to give a different meaning to these things, to turn them into something tangible, into something heavy.

Many of her works are located in public space, such as the installation "Empty Chairs" in 2002 (Fig. 8), created to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the storming of the Palace of Justice. Salcedo speaks about this installation as follows:

«(...) the building was destroyed along with its inhabitants, the ruins were subsequently demolished, and a building was built on this holy field that deliberately ignores the events that took place. (...) To combat the fact of the past, the memory of which was purposefully erased, objects and places bearing traces of violence were destroyed in order to impose oblivion, I am trying to turn this oblivion into the present, or rather into a presence. In the absence of physical traces, only one thing remains - the dates of November 6 and 7" ^{[19, p. 2]}.

The installation was based on the idea of hanging wooden chairs on the walls of the new Palace of Justice, drawing a parallel with each of the lives that were taken that day. The action of this installation began at 11: 45 a.m. on November 6, to commemorate the moment of the murder of the first victim of the events, and from that moment the chairs gradually lowered down over the next 53 hours. With drawings and verified timekeeping in her hands, the artist controlled the action from under the descending chairs. In this installation, such important aspects as the names of the victims, the motives for their murder and the role of those grieving for them were left aside. Its main meaning was to criticize the government for silencing the situation and the lack of answers to the questions asked by society, until today. This "non-screaming" work of art was intended to attract the attention of passers-by who found themselves on Bolivar Square, its purpose was not to directly tell about the events, but rather to force passers-by to recreate in memory these events of seventeen years ago. 

Every year, Doria Salcedo's work was increasingly focused on the memories of the victims' relatives. She spent a lot of time together with the families of the missing, creating collective works with them aimed at helping them overcome the pain of loss and connect the subject of violence with space. As Charles Mereveter notes, "her work is aimed at distracting the viewer from the show of violence and leading him to an affective dimension of the experience of loss and creating a connection between memory and tangibility that will end the anonymity of the missing" ^{[20, p. 108]}.

The role of relatives of missing persons in that long night of violence, which did not end for the country for many years, is noteworthy. In addition to the echo of voices that disappeared after the events in the courthouse, the voices of relatives of victims of other public tragedies also thundered during these three decades, and art also played a role in this.

An example of this can be found at the exhibition entitled "Where are the missing? Disappeared without Explanation", held in 2014 and organized by the National Center for Historical Memory. This exhibition was presented in various places in Bogota and Medellin, such as the Center for Memory, Peace and Reconciliation, or the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Cultural Center. There were two types of works at this exhibition: executed by relatives of the missing, as a way to symbolically heal the pain of their loss, as well as the works of artists who, with the help of photographs and installations, seek to remind of the dead.

In the first group we find an exhibition of works created by the Organization of the Families of Colombia and Constanza Ramirez Molano, which is an installation made from documents discarded during the search for missing persons. Among other things, there is a photo album of the victim who was found and whose body was handed over to relatives, and another album with photos of people who have not yet been found, images that are simply projected, appearing and disappearing from the album. In the background, the voices of people who witnessed the transfer of the remains to the relatives of the victims can be heard. They talk about the bureaucratic machine that relatives had to go through.

In the second group we find two works, the exhibition "Downstream" by Erica Dittes and the exhibition "Requiem NN" by Juan Manuel Echavarria. The first one was made together with the relatives of the victims. It is a series of photographs where water is used as an element in which the personal belongings of the missing float. This is a way to preserve the memory of people who disappeared in rivers. The second exhibition is photographs of NN graves at the Puerto Berrio-Antioquia Cemetery. This work highlights the reality of the locals who to some extent "accept" the dead who come down the Magdalena River, give them a name and take care of their graves as if they were their own relatives to ask for a favor from the dead. These two exhibitions have as a fundamental vector the humanization of the dead.

Thus, the events of November 6 and 7, 1985 had a huge impact on the history of Colombia, creating a deep wound in the collective perception of the world. The struggle of relatives against the oblivion of the victims led to a "war" for the preservation of the memory of the missing and those killed on this day. This struggle to find answers that were not given in 1985 is going so slowly that it increases the likelihood that oblivion and time will eventually take over in the battle for justice.

Constant tension was observed in the development of palace structures. The neoclassical building of 1933 was marked by the growing influence of European Enlightenment ideas, at least in terms, and this aesthetic decision marks a significant shift compared to colonial structures. After a subsequent fire during Bogotaso, the 1960s building was built using modern aesthetic solutions. However, we see that there is a certain connection between aesthetics and the needs of the building. We observe such characteristics and elements as heaviness, volume, stone walls, inaccessibility from the outside, giving a military-strategic advantage to those who are inside. All this gives the architectural work an image of justice like an impregnable fortress. At the same time, the 1991 building moves away from any aesthetic orientation, relying on the ideas of security and openness. These two ideas, in turn, claim to embody the Idea of justice of the 1990s, but the most important element of the image of this construction is still the need to forget what happened there.

November 6 and 7, 1985 had a significant impact on the work of artists, in particular Beatrice Gonzalez and Doris Salcedo. These two artists dedicated their work to social condemnation, the examination of barbarism and the restoration of the historical memory of the country. They have repeatedly demonstrated through their art the meaning of what happened in the Palace of Justice. In addition, this work to restore historical memory with the help of art "included" the voices of the victims' families. Using art as a way to avoid oblivion, artists such as Erica Diettes and Juan Manuel Echavarria presented works made in collaboration with relatives of the victims. Even in this case, art on the themes of violence becomes an art that fights for the restoration of memory, which fights to give a voice to the dead and missing in the Colombian armed conflict.

One of the topics that arise in connection with the voices of relatives of victims of the events in the Palace of Justice: missing persons. The insistent demand for an explanation of what happened to the 11 people who left the palace alive and were taken to the Independence Museum became a harbinger of thousands of cases of enforced disappearances that have taken place over the past 40 years. The artists, in turn, joined the voices of the families, which became a way to restore the memory of the victims and, at the same time, was realized as a way to help those grieving for the dead. This theme is becoming more and more obvious as violent acts in Colombia are repeated more and more often: currently, artists such as Carlos Saavedra, for example, work hand in hand with the mothers of "falsely missing", as it is customary to call young people killed by representatives of the military forces in order to extradite them for the partisans. To date, there are officially 6,402 of them.

After the events at the Palace of Justice, there is a tendency in national art to appear themes focused on national reality: violence, clashes, but above all on the topic of missing persons. The styles used by artists to reflect these realities are borrowed by them from European and American art trends. Colombian artists have adopted these trends due to their flexibility and openness to new influences, but we cannot talk about our own style that arose in the country against the background of the topics under consideration or their various interpretations.

Fine art has been transformed into a way of rebuilding the social fabric. It explores pain and suffering in order to be able to formulate and define grief. Art becomes a space where memory and testimony interact in search of reconciliation based on memory, on presence, and not on forgetting what happened or the dead, because: "death is not complete death. Complete death is oblivion. So there are no dead more dead than those who have been consigned to oblivion."

Thus, different types of art are able to react differently to the same historical events, since they are created at the request of different socio-political orders.

Illustration 1. Gumercindo Cuellar Jimenez (1891-1958). The old Palace of Justice. 1930. Photo from the collection of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia.

Illustration 2. El Spectador. Palace of Justice, archive.1985. Photo. Archive images, newspaper El Espectador.

Illustration 3. Marley Cruz (1988-). The Palace. 2012. Photo, personal archive.

Illustration 4. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Anthuriums. 1986. Charcoal on paper. 150x150cm, private collection.

Illustration 5. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment. 1986. Paper, pastel, charcoal. 150x150cm, private collection.

Illustration 6. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment. 1987. Oil on paper. 150x150cm, private collection.

Illustration 7. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Sketch of Indianapolis. 1987. Oil on paper. 150x120 cm, private collection.

Illustration 8. Doris Salcedo (1958 -). Empty chairs of the Palace of Justice. 2002. Installation at the Palace of Justice on November 6 and 7. Images from the Chicago Museum of Modern Art.

^[1] Although the mentioned colonel was acquitted in 2015. See: El Tiempo, Redacci?n. (December 16, 2015). The Supreme Court acquits Colonel Placas Vega. Time. https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-16460067

^[2] See: Gonzalez, Beatriz. (1973). Lace maker on the website. [Enamel on a metal sheet. Assemble the wicker furniture. 20x25x40cm, private collection]. Received from https://bga.uniandes.edu.co/catalogo/items/show/615 .

^[3] See: Gonzalez, Beatriz. (1971). Saluti da San Pietro. Trisaggio [Enamel on a metal sheet. Assemble the metal furniture. 38x38x62cm, Collection of the Medellin Museum of Modern Art]. Received from https://bga.uniandes.edu.co/catalogo/items/show/585 .

List of images

Illustration 1. Gumercindo Cuellar Jimenez (1891-1958). The old Palace of Justice. 1930. Photo from the collection of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia.  // URL https://babel.banrepcultural.org/digital/collection/p17054coll19/id/1848

Illustration 2. El Spectador. Palace of Justice, archive.1985. Photo. Archive images, newspaper El Espectador. // URL https://www.elespectador.com/colombia/mas-regiones/35-anos-de-la-toma-del-palacio-de-justicia-mi-version-del-holocausto-article/

Illustration 3. Marley Cruz (1988-). The Palace. 2012. Photo, personal archive.

Illustration 4. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Anthuriums. 1986. Charcoal on paper. 150x150cm, private collection. // URL https://bga.uniandes.edu.co/catalogo/items/show/1622

Illustration 5. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment. 1986. Paper, pastel, charcoal. 150x150cm, private collection. // URL https://bga.uniandes.edu.co/catalogo/items/show/1628

Illustration 6. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Mr. President, what an honor to be with you at this historic moment. 1987. Oil on paper. 150x150cm, private collection. // URL https://bga.uniandes.edu.co/catalogo/items/show/1647

Illustration 7. Beatrice Gonzalez (1938-). Sketch of Indianapolis. 1987. Oil on paper. 150x120 cm, private collection. // URL https://bga.uniandes.edu.co/catalogo/items/show/1636

Illustration 8. Doris Salcedo (1958 -). Empty chairs of the Palace of Justice. 2002. Installation at the Palace of Justice on November 6 and 7. Images from the Chicago Museum of Modern Art. // URL https://www3.mcachicago.org/2015/salcedo/works/noviembre_6_y_7/