Hi. We are in downtown Los Angeles, California at LA Art Show 2024 in booth 1362 for Mythstories by Carlos Castro Arias. The project is curated by Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogota Gustavo Ortiz in collaboration with DIVERSEartLA. Would you please introduce yourself?

Hello. My name is Carlos Castro and I am from Colombia. I am currently living in San Diego, California. I am an artist. We are having a show here at the LA Art Show curated by Gustavo Ortiz. He is the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogota.

Would you tell us where your parents are from?

My parents are from Colombia. My father is from a small town called La Mesa de Elias and my mother from Marizales. These are in the mountainous region of Colombia.

Would you tell us how your Colombian culture influences your art here at the LA Art Show?

I love history, I love contemporary history, and I love art history. I appropriate images from art history to show current situations I am interested in. This show in particular is about myths and the project is called Mythstories. It is about the transition between history and myth, what we believe is true, and stories we don’t really know about. For example, one of the tapestries that I am showing is about Pablo Escobar and how he created a zoo in Colombia. He brought all the animals in a single Hercules plane. What is interesting about that is that it is a new version of Noah’s ark. My tapestry where you see Pablo Escobar is called Narco Ark. I am taking this story from Colombia and appropriating European images in the traditional form of tapestry.

The Great Narco Ark by Carlo Castro Arias

You describe your work hanging on these walls as tapestry. Would you tell us more about that?

Yes, they are tapestries inspired by medieval tapestries where you see images of unicorns and strange creatures that you see represented in my contemporary tapestries.

How long does it take you to create one of these?

With the research process and finding the right images, it takes about five months for each.

You have a lot of art hanging on these walls and it is beautiful work. Would you give us more information on another tapestry as you did with Narco Ark?

Yes, one that is very current and we still feel is The Creation of the Virus which is about the corona virus. In that one I am representing different ideas of myths of how the virus came about. For example, we see Putin. Some people think the virus was a chemical weapon made by the Russians or by the Chinese people. Some people say it was created in a bad soup. We can see images related to Bill Gates and how he knew everything about the virus before it happened. It is interesting. There are also ideas about the vaccine and those supposed chips they will insert in you. That was the reason many people did not want to take the vaccine because they were afraid of that and actually died because of that. Those ideas and those myths still affect the lives of people and how we face something like a pandemic.

Area 51 by Carlos Castro Arias. Part of The Creation of the Virus can be seen on the right side of this photograph.

You have historical Colombian figures in your art. Have you been influenced by Colombian artists or artists from elsewhere?

The sculptures you see here are not actually Colombian people. They are conquistadors from Spain. For example, we see the arm of Christopher Columbus. I am interested in those European sculptures we see in many plazas in America but here you see them in new layers with the symbols of indigenous people covering or colonizing these European sculptures.

Would you tell us about the indigenous cultures you reference?

The Inga culture is in the Putumayo River and in the Amazon. Those are their symbols and the way they represent some of their memories.

Could you tell us about the Putumayo region?
It is close to the Amazon and a jungle in a way. There are many indigenous cultures there. It is a place we don’t know much about and full of wonders.

From studying Latin America, the jungle remains a mystery for many people who have the Amazon within their country’s border. The Amazon jungle is a geographic border that separates cultures and some people are even afraid to go into it.

It is great in a way because it keeps us from ruining those landscapes. If the jungle was easily accessible, then many tourists and people would go. It may be good that we leave it alone.

Sticking Deep Inside by Carlos Castro Arias

The DIVERSEartLA message notes there are concepts of artificial intelligence in the exhibitions. Did you include artificial intelligence in this exhibit?

Yes, this exhibition has two parts. There are the tapestries and we also have a computer where people can type myths they know about and they can create their own images. That is how we are tackling the artificial intelligence thing.

Thank you for your time. Would you like to add anything I did not ask about? And please tell us where our readers can find more of your work.

My website is CarlosCastroArias.com and there you can see other projects I have created.

http://www.carloscastroarias.com/projects/en/

http://www.mac.org.co/

Mr. Gustavo Ortiz would you like to add information about the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogota?

As a representative of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogota, it is a pleasure to present this special project of Carlos Castro because we know of his work 20 years ago when he had his first exhibition in our museum following his graduation studying fine arts in Bogota. We invited him to the 10th anniversary show and the 20th anniversary show this past year. When LA Art Show invited us, I think he is the best artist for us to show here because his work is related to memory, artificial intelligence, and his work fits perfectly with this show.

Thank you both for your time.