There is very little documentary information about the work of Carlos Blanco (b. 1961). His career began in the late 1980s when several major Colombian cities fell prey to “narco-terrorist” attacks and he sought to convey his reaction to those events in his art. His work is interesting because of his very unusual use of air, which he “traps” in inflatable pieces of many different shapes, such as suit cases, clouds, wings, or even “bomb cars” like the one he presented at the exhibition Erase una vez [Once Upon a Time] (Galería Casas Riegner, Bogotá, 2007). These works prompt reflections on change, displacement, migration, and death because all it takes is the release of the air for the piece (which becomes portable) to “occupy” a different space. His works have therefore “occupied” and “unoccupied” many galleries and public spaces, including the Venice Biennial (solo exhibition, Italy, 1993) and Documenta IX (solo exhibition, Kassel, Germany, 1992).
This article includes unreferenced photographs of two of the artist’s works; in each one the technique and the allusion to the complex issue of Colombia’s violent conflict are recurring themes. The first photograph is of Cultivo Intensivo [Intensive Crop] (2002), a static group of air-filled yellow bodies with poppies on their chests (presented at the Galería Diners in 2003). The second photograph is of Los inmigrantes [The Immigrants] (1996), a huge inflatable bottle with a displaced family in it, suggestive of shipwreck survivors. The size of Blanco’s pieces and their obvious reference to commercial inflatables represent an open invitation to the public. At the Proyecto SALE (galería ASAB, 2000) viewers were invited to have their photo taken wearing an air-filled jacket. At the Érase una vez exhibition (Galería Casas Riegner, Bogotá, 2007) he created a traffic jam on the Carrera Séptima when he rolled out a gigantic ball decorated with military camouflage colors. And, finally, at La Maleta [túnel del tiempo] [The Suitcase (Time Tunnel)] (2000), an enormous air-filled installation was placed in the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, where passersby were encouraged to walk through an interior passageway filled with images that evoked days gone by.