Yamile Calderón Narcos & Homes Book Launch

In Conversation with Dragana Jurišić

Wednesday 27th October 6pm

Gallery of Photography Ireland is delighted to be hosting the launch of Narcos & Homes by Yamile Calderón, who will present a discussion about the project with artist and lecturer Dragana Jurišić.

Narcos & Homes documents the lavish houses of Colombian drug lords – narcos – seized by the state. This is a personal project for Calderón, evoking memories of her upbringing in Colombia during the 80s and 90s, when drug trafficking was at its peak. With assistance from her father she photographed seven of these houses in different parts of the country, and one storeroom with personal belongings. These once luxurious mansions have now become contemporary ruins.

The images are accompanied by short texts drawn from Calderón’s own experiences of living in Colombia during the violence that took place between 1985 and 2001. The preface to the book was written by Nelson Gónzalez Ortega, professor in Hispanic Literature and Culture at the University of Oslo, on the new ethics and aesthetics emerging from the diverse subcultures of drug trafficking in Latin America.

The publication of this project has been supported by the Norwegian Art Council and the Norwegian Photographic Fund. 

 Artist and Speaker Bios:

Yamile Calderón is an artist born in Colombia, now based in Oslo. She studied photography at Bergen National Academy of Arts. She recently has published her second photo book,  Narcos & Homes, and was awarded Bildende Kunstnernes Hjelpefonds (BKH)  Fotokunstprisen 2020 (Photo Art Prize). She has participated in various collective exhibitions and has presented her work internationally, at Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, in Hong  Kong, Helsinki, Copenhagen, New York and Oslo at Oslo Kunstforerning, Kunstnernes Hus, Noplace, Fotogalleriet, Galleri BOA and Galleri Brandstrup. Calderón’s work is inspired by  memories from her childhood and personal stories. In her artistic practice, she draws from her early experience and education as a journalist to use, among others things, documentary  practices to investigate social phenomena.

Dragana Jurišić is an award winning artist with an international reputation. Her project, My Own Unknown, has been exhibited globally including Gallery of Photography, Dublin (2018); Centre Culturel Irlandaise, Paris (2017); Rawson Projects Gallery, New York (2016); and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2016). Jurišić’s photobook and series, YU: The Lost Country, is world renowned and has been exhibited at Noorderlicht Photogallery, Groningen (2018); Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb (2017); RHA Gallery, Dublin (2014); and originally at Belfast Exposed (2013). She is in many collections including National Gallery Ireland, Trinity College, Dublin City Council. Her major work 100 Muses (2015) is in the public collection of the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2019, Jurišić completed the IMMA 1000 residency, and was nominated for the Zurich Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland for her portrait of poet Paula Meehan, from their collaborative book Museum, commissioned by Dublin City Council. Since August 2019 Jurišić has been an Assistant Professor at DCU . She is also Visiting Fellow at the University of South Wales (2018-2021) and an International Mentor at the MA in Photography - Photography Studies College, Melbourne, Australia.

Book Information

Narcos & Homes is self-published by Yamile Calderon’s own WASHAWASHA BOOKS

Numbered edition of 100

Size: 24.5 x 29.5cm

Cover: Lined with velvet paper embossed with hot foil stamping and laid-in image on debossed case.

Binding: Case Binding.

Printing: Full CMYK colour with HP Indigo 12000HD.

Designed and produced by 34 Studio in Paris