Artist Volumes Series, Issue 1, Fall 2023
The selection of work in Felipe Romero Beltrán’s The Body As Index is edited from three series: Magdalena, Dialect, and As a Mother Tongue. Beltrán works within the languages of photography and performance, moving away from the documentary tradition, using the body as a site for speculation where the narrative is multiple. He focuses on social issues, such as alienation and social inequity of migrants in today’s society. Engaging with the body as a metaphor, Beltrán enters into a dialogue with his subjects’ memories, following them over time. He captures the self-realizing tensions that ensue while he instructs his subjects to reenact traumatic events through staged choreographic movements, often with the assistance of Beltrán’s partner, a professional dancer.
Albert Corbí, the contributing writer for Beltrán’s book, writes* :
“There is an unceasing insistence in these works, an unceasing desire that the very nature of the image obstructs (and perhaps inhibits), and that is to make the body the index of something, of something that is left behind (on the other side of the Strait, at the point of departure), of something that occurs without seeming to leave a trace (under the surface of the Magdalena River); to turn the body on its own, and not its translation, to the surface that contains a silhouette…as evidence of something that is essential, imponderable, central, yet impossible to say [...] The tense and mute surface of the body insists in spite of representation, asserts itself as the first of the indexes, irreducible, indelible, beyond violence, active but infinitesimally mute, non-verbal, always persecuted, always irresolvably political.”
*Translated from Spanish into English.
ISSN: 2981-5320
All rights reserved.
© Felipe Romero Beltrán
Images are courtesy of the artist.
All works by Felipe Romero Beltrán.
Text by Albert Corbí and Felipe Romero Beltrán.
Photo editor: Cristina Velásquez
Text editor: Nechama Winston
Design & Art Direction: Cristina Velásquez
Typesetting: Raleway
Printed in Medellin, Colombia by Taller Artes & Letras.
Edited in Colombia.
First edition / 300 copies
October 2023
** Please note the shipping / handling fee is from within the US. To process international shipments outside the US, please reach out to newpoeticsoflabor@gmail.com. **
Artist Volumes Series, Issue 1, Fall 2023
The selection of work in Felipe Romero Beltrán’s The Body As Index is edited from three series: Magdalena, Dialect, and As a Mother Tongue. Beltrán works within the languages of photography and performance, moving away from the documentary tradition, using the body as a site for speculation where the narrative is multiple. He focuses on social issues, such as alienation and social inequity of migrants in today’s society. Engaging with the body as a metaphor, Beltrán enters into a dialogue with his subjects’ memories, following them over time. He captures the self-realizing tensions that ensue while he instructs his subjects to reenact traumatic events through staged choreographic movements, often with the assistance of Beltrán’s partner, a professional dancer.
Albert Corbí, the contributing writer for Beltrán’s book, writes* :
“There is an unceasing insistence in these works, an unceasing desire that the very nature of the image obstructs (and perhaps inhibits), and that is to make the body the index of something, of something that is left behind (on the other side of the Strait, at the point of departure), of something that occurs without seeming to leave a trace (under the surface of the Magdalena River); to turn the body on its own, and not its translation, to the surface that contains a silhouette…as evidence of something that is essential, imponderable, central, yet impossible to say [...] The tense and mute surface of the body insists in spite of representation, asserts itself as the first of the indexes, irreducible, indelible, beyond violence, active but infinitesimally mute, non-verbal, always persecuted, always irresolvably political.”
*Translated from Spanish into English.
ISSN: 2981-5320
All rights reserved.
© Felipe Romero Beltrán
Images are courtesy of the artist.
All works by Felipe Romero Beltrán.
Text by Albert Corbí and Felipe Romero Beltrán.
Photo editor: Cristina Velásquez
Text editor: Nechama Winston
Design & Art Direction: Cristina Velásquez
Typesetting: Raleway
Printed in Medellin, Colombia by Taller Artes & Letras.
Edited in Colombia.
First edition / 300 copies
October 2023
** Please note the shipping / handling fee is from within the US. To process international shipments outside the US, please reach out to newpoeticsoflabor@gmail.com. **
