Born in London, United-Kingdom, to Colombian parents, Carolina Caycedo is a multimedia artist based in Los Angeles.
Her multidisciplinary art practice, combined with an activist engagement, examines the interrelations between humans and nature from the angles of sustainable development, access to resources, and economic and cultural equity, in order to denounce social and environmental injustices. Her recent research includes the effects of extractivist economies and policies over rural public space and social and natural territories in various bio-regions of the Americas. In her work, art functions as a tool for offering alternative models to inhabit a world increasingly subject to commodification, exploitation and discrimination.
Caycedo exhibits widely in North and South America, Europe and Asia, including in a number of international biennales, such as the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial; “Made in L.A.” biennial Hammer Museum, 2018, São Paulo Biennial, 2016.
POSTED on 2013
LA FLEXIBLE, 2003
DVD. Sound and Color.
14 min.
A boat trip from Rincón, Puerto Rico, to Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic.
with: Raimond Chaves, Chemi Rosado, Olga and Charlie Casellas, Bubu Negrón y Carolina Caycedo.
“La Flexible” (the flexible) is a small yola, or wooden boat used by local fishermen in the Caribbean sea. This yola was found abandoned on a beach near Rincón, in Puerto Rico, probably abandoned by illegal immigrants coming from the Dominican Republic. We were a bunch of friends who decided to restore the yola and make the trip backwards, travelling from Rincón to Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic. Six persons travelled by day, with food, water, gas bottles, and even a CD player blasting reggae and reggaeton, in a yola that usually holds up to 30 or more illegal immigrants, and travels by night with little or no baggage at all. We had a companion boat, for security reasons and documentation purposes. We departed from Rincón at 8 a.m., and enjoyed a smooth and calm sea. Dolphins, flying fish, and birds greeted us during our trip. We even swam in the deep Mona Passage, the strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The 80-mile (130 km) stretch of sea between the two islands being one of the most difficult passages in the Caribbean, it is infamous for its treacherous currents and hungry sharks. A strange feeling reigned in our journey, we wondered whether we would make it or not, as many people drowned attempting to cross the Mona Passage. We arrived at Punta Canas shortly after midday, and local authorities stamped our passports.