Spatial Constructions is Jairo Llano’s most recent series and captures broad landscapes of Colombia. Within these images are rectangular forms that have been created using the dimensions of his own bedroom, whereby implanting his own living space within the uninhabited environment. Each manipulated space is created through a reflection of the surrounding area, adapting itself to its location while at the same time, taking it over.
Llano utilizes these broad landscapes as a visions towards a future where we assume the territory as our own, just as our ancestors colonized and appropriated land. His reflective bedroom, a space sufficient enough to survive, has been embedded within the land in order to present a vision of what’s possible within and surrounding the limits of the spaces we inhabit. Llano's travels have taken him to various uninhabited territories through Colombia that include Santander, and, giving a wide perspective of the types of environments representative of this land while also envisioning their slow deterioration through occupation.
Many of Llano’s broad landscapes are reminiscent of American photographer Timothy O’Sullivan, who captured the unparalleled spectacle of the American west in the 1870s with the goal of bringing further colonization to these uncultivated lands. Similarly, William Henry Jackson and Carleton Watkins captured the natural beauty of Yosemite and Yellowstone parks, causing a profound impact and admiration for these sites when the images were brought to congress and declared national parks; in other words, spaces that we inhabit, or own, but that belong to no one. In Llano’s images, we imagine these territories as owned, a result of our claim on land as individuals and a reflection of our desire to expand and maintain a legacy.
As the artist explains, “It is in this series, where the same private world that expresses itself as a cultural intervention in space; the parallelepiped implanted makes reference to a room as a private space and establishes the relation between each one of us and the exterior world.” The genesis of this intervention has its roots in the work of the Brothers Bisson in France, who in the 1850s, dedicated themselves to landscape photography – architectural and natural environments – their work required an intervention of space; it was an affirmation that “I was here” or “I intervened in this place.”
Jairo Llano is a Colombian artist and architect located in Bogotá. He divides his work in two categories: in the first exists a registry of the territory in which he intervenes, while the other is an archive where he repeatedly creates daily activities with quotidian elements. Llano received a master’s degree in photography from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain and has shown in various locations throughout Spain and Colombia.
