Daniel Otero Torres’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses installations, sculptures, and drawings, all of which are community-based movements of resistance carried out by marginalised groups. Aguacero (2024) unfolds from his prior work Lluvia (2020) and is an ephemeral site-specific installation made of collected locally and recycled materials, reflects Otero Torres’s engagement with the impact of ecological crises on the lives of marginalised Colombians. The work evokes the unusual system of vernacular stilt architecture of the Embera community along the banks of the Atrato River, designed to collect rainwater and provide the inhabitants with unpolluted water. Paradoxically, although they reside in one of the most rainfall-abundant regions, the Emberas face severe challenges in obtaining clean water due to extensive pollution caused by illegal gold mining. Through metaphorical recreation, Torres draws attention to the challenge of ensuring access to clean, drinkable water faced by communities worldwide, an issue that is intricately connected to the processes of privatising and financialising nature. As an open structure to the eyes of the world, the work reveals the journey of flowing water and its many meanings.
This is the first time the work of Daniel Otero Torres is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Amanda Carneiro
