One of the poorest and most exotic regions in Colombia is the state of La Guajira. It is located at the extreme north of the country and it is essentially a huge desert next to the sea: the temperatures are really high and there are not sources of fresh water for most of the communities that live in the area. It is so isolated and extremely hard to inhabit and deal with, that the Spanish did not colonise this region, which allowed various indigenous communities to survive and preserve their lifestyles, which they maintain until these days. For the majority of Colombians “La Guajira” simply means ‘far away’, ‘indigenous’, ‘poverty’, and ‘no water’.

On the other hand, as an opposite experience from that of La Guajira, there is Bogotá, the capital of the country, a huge city with 10 million people in the metropolitan area. It has two major rainy seasons, one in March-April and the other one in October-November. Although that happens every year, the city is significantly unprepared for the rainfall increase. The sewage system has problems and the streets are flooded oftenly, so besides the usual delays people experience in a big city, everyone has to wait an extra time before walking outside because of the rain.

Every time I thought about intervening a public space, the great chance of rain falling was a factor to consider. Frequently, I found myself downtown, hiding with many people under a small roof at a busy corner, waiting for the rain to stop so we could resume our ways. It was really engaging for me to watch those people´s faces and listen to the conversations they had with each other. I could see a lot of resignation, angriness, and just how everybody´s life seemed to stop at those corners while we all watched the drops of water hit the ground. One of those times I realized that I was in a good scenario: there were hundreds of people under those roofs, just looking around, with no hurry in the middle of the agitated city, and instead of being worried about the rain, I could use their time and attention as part of a project.

To exhibit documentary photographs of an isolated region of Colombia that lacks water while in the middle of a thunderstorm in the centre of the very rainy capital. The place for the intervention is the Seventh Avenue, the most historical street of Bogotá, at two of its busiest corners. Five people are specially dressed in black and with typical clothing of an indigenous community from La Guajira. Three of them are holding up some of the photos I took and the other two are holding up signs. They all walk slowly around the place, showing the pictures to the people waiting for the rain to stop. Meanwhile, I record the performance with the help of one more person.

It is known that weather affects people´s behaviour, and I have always been interested in how that happens. With this project I want to bring a particular situation to people´s minds: a situation that is widely ignored by the mainstream media and the general society is suddenly right in the middle of the city, and people are forced to think about lack of water issues at the very moment they are detesting the excessive amount of water they get.  

I think that people have the right to feel bad about the rain and complain about the sewage system and the weather in Bogotá, but with this action I am trying to present a different perspective, bringing, for just a few seconds or minutes, a different reality to them, one that can make them re-evaluate their present situation. And hopefully, maybe, this intervention can get people to talk more about a topic that so much needs our attention.    

The most challenging part was coordinating six people to go downtown with me, and getting them dressed and ready to perform, under a rain heavy enough to make people want to hide. In Bogotá it is well known that you cannot trust the weather forecast, because the conditions change abruptly and frequently; that has led us to attempt the performance four times until now.

We did not have the desired amount of rain for the first three times. The fourth one was much better but not perfect. Although that situation is frustrating, I understand that it is part of the project, and it comes to remind me that the public space is a complex matter, you are dealing with elements you cannot control. Regardless of the lack of rain, we have performed all of the times, aiming to test the act, explore other possibilities and register part of the activity.

The reactions we have gotten from people have been good. Hundreds of pedestrians have taken pictures of the performance and thousands have seen it. Since I am filming, I am closer to people and get to hear what they say about it. Some of them repeat the number of deaths caused by lack of water, some others are surprised, and some have the exact reaction I hoped for, remarking that we have a lot of water in Bogotá and nobody is paying attention to the issues in La Guajira. Many people also have congratulated and encouraged us to continue performing.

It has been nice to see so many people looking at the photos I took. If I exhibit them in an art gallery for one month, they would get the same number of viewers we had in only twenty minutes in the street downtown. When I planned the performance, I thought that a heavy rain would cause the people to look at the photos with no rushes, but comparing the results, we have received more attention under a lighter rain. The pedestrians seemed more interested in approaching the performers to ask about what they were doing, while with a heavier rain they were paying less attention to their surroundings. But even when people showed less interest, I was hoping the message would better resound under the heavier rain. Overall I have learned a lot with the experience.