Retoños Del Fuego

From the exhibition *Paisajes Interrumpidos* (Interrupted Landscapes), curated by Viviana Mejía.

A year ago, a fire ravaged part of the Suesca *páramo* (high-altitude moorland). For days, flames, smoke, and wind unleashed an emergency that united the community around a single mission: protecting life. From that experience comes “*Retoños del Fuego*” (Sprouts of Fire), an exhibition that reflects on the devastation, but also on the regenerative power of collective effort and the bond with the land.

Atop a mountain where silence is wind and the horizon breathes mist, Adriana Cuéllar has forged a radical intimacy with the land. She has developed a profound sensitivity toward the species inhabiting the *páramo*—owls, opossums, eagles, otters, and foxes—and toward the memory of those that are no longer there, such as the spectacled bear, the deer, and the puma.

Beetroot ink—a natural pigment of intense color and ephemeral nature—evokes both blood and the fragility of life. The choice of material is symbolic: it alludes to both the danger of extinction facing these ecosystems and their beauty. Intense yet fleeting, beetroot ink symbolizes the fragility of life and the urgency of preserving it.

The images of *páramo* animals serve as a way to capture what might vanish, to invoke the species and landscapes we need to protect.

“*Retoños del Fuego*” seeks to raise awareness, connect with the territory’s environmental memory, and pay tribute to those who defend life.