Juan Manuel Echavarria, Bogota, Colombia. "Silencio Blanco, Sabaneta, Sucre, Colombia". Digital C-print, 2018. All proceeds donated to the Museum by the artist. Juan Manuel Echavarria was one of many artists in the Museum's ground-breaking exhibition The Disappeared in 2005, followed closely by his solo exhibition in 2007, and group exhibition Artists and War in 2008. The Disappeared told the story of those who disappeared under military dictatorships throughout South and Central America in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. About the "Silencio" project Echavarria states, "On March 11, 2010, I was invited to the old town of Mampujan, in the district of Los Montes de Maria, Bolavar, Colombia. The community commemorated the 10th anniversary of their displacement by the paramilitary group Heroes de los Montes de Maria (Heroes of Los Montes de Maria). In the abandoned rural school of Mampujan, which had no roof and a floor covered with vegetation, I found a blackboard in one of the classrooms, and on the wall next to it, vowels were drawn. The calligraphy and colors of the letters caught my attention. They seemed to be fleeing from the blackboard: the a, e, i, o, u were legible despite the damp and the abandonment . . . the "o" was vanishing. In a second classroom, I saw a blackboard hidden in the thick vegetation, faded and in very bad condition. I hesitated to photograph it. A few days later, while inspecting the image, I discovered that in that silent blackboard an almost invisible sentence appeared: "Lo bonito es estar vivo" (The beautiful thing is to be alive). Those blackboards encouraged me to seek other schools in Los Montes de Maria, other memories that could be found before fading forever, like that "o" in the school of Mampujan. For over seven years, I, with Fernando Grisalez, have found more than 100 schools that have been abandoned because of Colombia's ongoing war.

27 x 19 in