Elkin Calderón

In this piece, artist Elkin Calderón and artist, critic, and writer José Aramburo, both Colombian, combine a banana bonsai tree with a bunch of “bananitos”, the common name for cigarettes that mix marijuana and cocaine. Through a precarious assembly of the bonsai and the “bananitos” the artists condemn the powerful policies that operate in relation to the most extractable products in Colombia, mainly those coming from the United States, that have generated a complex scenario of localised violence. Both drugs and bananas are understood in this context as export products that, regardless of the legal or illegal nature of their cultivation, have irreversible effects upon the environment, farmers and local populations.