Cartagena is serviced by a fleet of small yellow taxis. From 7:00 am until after dark one endless traffic jam . In between the taxis is another fleet of motorcycles, motor scooters, motor bikes. The motorcycles transport driver and passenger who holds on to the driver. A paying passenger. Punctuating these are the buses. All types going every direction.
Cartagena was founded by the Spanish in 1533 on the Caribbean coast of what would become Columbia.
Much of the gold and silver destined for Spain went through the port of Cartagena.
The fortress of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas (named after Spain's King Philip IV)
covers a 130-foot-high hill towering over the city. Originally built in the mid-1600s,
it was rebuilt and enlarged several times over the years to become the greatest fortress Spain ever built in the Americas.
Surrounding the city is a large fortified wall which was built beginning in 1583 for protection against French and
English marauders in the Caribbean. All sections of the walled fortifications were not
finished until 1796. The wall encompasses what is now colonial Cartegena or the old city.
Cartagena declared independence a few years after the completion of the wall in 1811.
It is within one of the watch towers on the wall that I decided to project the video.
A video is projected on the interior stone blocks of the turret. The turret is part of Cartagena's fortification. The RIF 6 Cube video projector sits on a flexible camera tripod. The video is a loop of a man and a woman riding tricycle scooters. The original video was taken in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The background was removed and replaced with a solid purple field.
In a previous life. In Cartegena, Columbia. He got off the airplane. The first person that he met was a taxi driver who immediately
asked him if he wanted to buy some marijuana. He declined the offer. Later in the day he met a german couple who were dressed in the
hippy fashion of the day, headband, long, straight blond hair, bell bottomed hip huggers. They had exchanged money with someone they
met on the street. Deutsch marks for columbian pesos at a very good rate. The man started to count out the pesos and then handed them
to the young couple. They gave him the deutsch marks and thanked him before realizing that he had folded the wad of money in half,
thus counting half the money twice.
The next person he met was a Swiss traveller outside his hotel who
had just gotten out of jail, arrested because he failed to produce his passport when asked by the police.
He had left it in his room while going to the corner bodega to buy a beer. The police arrested him and
took him to the local jail. While in jail the police went to his hotel room and took his money
and passport. The Swiss traveller, now stranded, had to go to the Swiss embassy to seek help.
The first 'he' decided to leave Cartegena the next day.