Iconografía precolombina en el arte urbano y el grafiti en Bogotá. Un acercamiento a la prácticade pintura mural precolombina en espaciosconvencionales y no convencionales

Abstract

The past, far from being a remote time framed in remi-niscence and faint imagery, is latent and susceptible to change. The main objective of this paper was to applymethodologies provided by fields of knowledge such asethnography, sociology, and art history, in order to capture and delve into the presence of pre-Columbian iconography in urban art and graffiti in the city of Bogotá, in both conventional and unconventional spaces; taking an epistemological approach to the practice of mural painting with allusions to pre-Columbian elements. In this way, through urban drifts, iconographic and iconological visual analysis, mapping, and qualitative interviews, we examined over twenty mural paintings, from which theoretical approaches were derived in relation to the use of public space, on the one hand, and the use of symbols, on the other. The conclusion reached is that artistic interventions, by participating in the construction and reconstruction of the social fabric, allow us to understand space as a volatile phenomenon; likewise, in the exercise of reflecting on the presence of art in the city, it is critical to pay attention to the conditions of production under which a piece is made, insofar as images have historically been powerful semantic toolsthat embody a purpose. Finally, the paper is an argument in favor of observation as a space of learning. The present reflections were part of a research process developed for the class “Uses of the past in the present: The Iconography of Antiquity in the Contemporary Culture”, at the Universidad de los Andes, first semester of 2023.