The article written by the journalist Fabián Forero Barón and published in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo (December 2007) reviews the visual artwork of the collective Excusado Printsystem, and its impact in Bogotá since 2003. It places major emphasis on the development of the festival Desfase, a project focused on spreading the word about the work of urban action events organized by collectives and national artists. In the long term, this project seeks to become the annual event that brings together independent designers and artists who work directly in the streets. The article includes photographs of the Excusado Printsystem’s urban actions in the streets of Bogotá, the workshop where the collective operates, and the Desfase festival in which it participates. In addition, the article highlights the publication of the book Decoración de exteriores (2007), which features a great deal of the collective works.

This article is important for its focus on the actual work produced by the collective Excusado Printsystem (DeadBird, SaintCat, StinkFish, and Ratsonrop, pseudonyms of its members), which has been working in Bogotá since 2003. By way of contrast, other reviews and articles by journalists have focused solely on the legal and/or criminal aspects related to their urban action events or have told stories about the collective’s experience with the Colombian authorities. Barón proposes that the work involved in the collective’s urban action events has great cultural value, representing an important contribution to the city of Bogotá and to the Colombian art scene. His reason is simple: this work generates alternatives to the venues for circulating [exhibition], to arts events, and to the type of popular imagery.

The collective’s artwork revolves around action events in outdoor public spaces in the city such as graffiti, posters, stickers, and stencils [see “Excusado Pasquín Intercisternario” in Digital Archive ICAA (1092473)]. Trained at the School of Graphic Design at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the members of the collective propose a new role for the contemporary graphic designer in the city. In their opinion: “You learn a lot more about posters by putting them up than by designing them: making the paste and getting your hands dirty. The only way you can understand how a graphic works is by seeing the reactions on the street when anyone notices the piece of paper and stops to read it, even though it does not offer salvation, money, or a product” (Excusado Printsystem, “Transgresiones Urbanas: Construcción del espacio público mediante el vandalismo gráfico.” In 5 Festival Internacional de la Imagen. Manizales: Universidad de Caldas, 2006. pp.105-110).