Pencil on mirror polished stainless steel
290 x 100 x 95 cm

Abrazos III, commissioned for the 16th edition of the Biennale de Lyon, was initially installed as "Monumento a Los Héroes", with additional works by the artist, reproducing a freedom fighter memorial and space for resistance in Bogotá, where large numbers of demonstrators gathered during protests and strikes since its inauguration in 1825 until its brutal destruction in September 2021. The sculptures consisted of a fountain made of reclaimed materials, precarious constructions that were previously makeshift accommodations, and hand-drawn pictures on aluminum and mirror-polished stainless steel.

​The work of Daniel Otero Torres is grounded on the reconstruction of ideology through drawings done by hand over aluminum and steel. Moving in the frontier between drawing and sculpture, Otero Torres’ origami-like constructions appear as uncanny grand-format black-and-white photographs. Upon closer inspection, one realizes the images are handmade drawings, laboriously done with graphite pencils over a flat surface with the visual weightlessness of paper but the actual density of the metal.

The artist’s unusual technique succeeds in creating a dislocation of materials as well as of contexts: his images often represent not a single individual but a visual and historical collage created from many sources: from antique archives and books to found images in contemporary newspapers or online sources that reflect the artist’s process of understanding the role of marginalized or largely ignored populations that have, nonetheless, played essential roles in recent and past history around the world. 

Daniel Otero Torres, born 1985 in Bogota, Colombia. He lives and works in Paris, France.