Movement of the Liberation of the Coca Plant

This work stems from a larger project that explores the many and varied meanings embodied by the coca plant. The initiative was begun by Díaz in collaboration with Amy Franceschini, a North American artist and educator concerned with the impact of human food production on the natural landscape. While recalling language-based works in neon by artists such as Joseph Kosuth, Wilson Díaz’s work here moves beyond the formal and theoretical concerns of Conceptual art to address everyday sociopolitical realities. In its call to “liberate” the coca plant, Díaz’s sculpture represents the search for an alternative to the violent nexus of narcotraffic and insurgency that has shaped life in contemporary Colombia.