In our work with the youth of Jaguos por el
Territorio we've been able to experience many
creative expressions used as valid tactics in the struggle for the defense of
territory; muralism has been one of the most important strategies as well as
photography and theater. This year the Jaguos collective received financial support
to collaborate with diverse allies in the creation of an art process for land
defense called Geochoreographies.
Geochoreography comes from the words geography,
or the study of space, the environment, land and territory, and choreography,
or the organization or structure of actions within a space. 
Geochoreographies
is made up of two simultaneous processes, one body and the other audio-visual.
Geochoreographies
is made up of two simultaneous processes, one body and the other audio-visual.
The body process consisted of 16 workshops that
took place over 4 months in four municipalities nodes of actions, with training
in performance arts, theater, puppets, and contemporary dance. The nodes of action
were in La Jagua (Garzón), Gigante, El Agrado, and countryside of Paraguay
(Oporapa). In La Jagua there were also participants from Tarqui, and in El
Agrado there were participants from El Pital. Each hub was its own working
group, with a diversity of ages, experiences, knowledge, and interests. 
The audio-visual process is still ongoing. Since
August, 15 workshops have taken place in La Jagua, with youth from La Jagua, Paraguay,
El Pital and Garzón participating. The workshop facilitators for the
audio-visual process were the artist La Cloud and
professors from the Mother
Earth Teaching Program at the University of
Antioquia. During this process they've created various shorts about different
themes related to territory, including fishing, coffee growing, and
displacement. The audio-visual training process will continue in 2015, and will
culminate in the First Street Film Screening Series in the middle of this year.
This traveling film series will be the official premiere of all the material
created in the workshops, and have an open call for film entries from
everywhere but directed primarily to audio visual material from Huila, Caquetá
and Putumayo.
Just like the diverse participants, each
workshop facilitator came from a different background and had experiences and
knowledge to offer based on where they are from. The performing arts teacher, Fernando
Pertuz from Bogotá, led all of his teaching
through workshops about Practices of
Resistance. The theater teacher, Lucenith Castillo, who comes from the
group Esquina Latina in Cali, started with
exercises to analyze reality that gave a basic foundation for presenting scenes
through Theater of Neighbors (community/neighborhood based theater). 
The contemporary dance teacher, Eduardo Oramas, led workshops in scenic improvisation, and our friends
from the Colibrí
Collective shared their experience with puppetry
in Cauca with a workshop called How to Give Life to Metaphors. Each group
evolved in its own way, and the results were very distinct. Struggles in
defense of territory were ongoing during the course of these workshops and so
they were a big influence. The workshops continued, but also the struggles for
land continued in all the many ways that people practice resistance.
In La Jagua on November 1st a
blockade began on the road to Tarqui, which effectively paralyzed the Escalereta
resettlement work in the neighborhood and the oxidation ponds in La Jagua, as
well as their respective areas of preventive archeology. This blockade demanded
compliance with ruling T-135 of the Constitutional Court, which ordered Emgesa
to immediately open a new census of the affected population. The blockade
lasted until November 25th, when there were no longer guarantees
from the State, which through ESMAD (riot police) was going to use violence
against people to move them.
The blockade coincided with a gathering of Ríos
Vivos [the Living Rivers Social Movement], and people from the Ríos Vivos
Movement arrived from all over Colombia: from Bajo Sinú (Córdoba), the Cauca River Canyon (Antioquia), the Sogamoso River (Santander), the north of the Department of Cauca and also
from Neiva, Oporapa and Isnos, Huila. At the same time, the final action of
Geochoreographies was taking place in La Jagua, which included a night of
street theater in public space in town. During this action more than 300 people
joined hands and created a human spiral, to close with an activity of offering
and a fire at the site of Las Peñas on the Yuma (Magdalena) River. 
The next day there was a paseo
de olla con sancocho (an outing to cook stew by the river) for everyone, that
included demonstrations of throwing fishing nets, artisanal miners showing
samples of their work, hanging a banner on the cliffs, puppet theater, rock
painting, tubing on the river, and spelling out the phrase “ríos vivos” with
our bodies on the warm rocks by the side of the river.
The blockade coincided with a gathering of Ríos
Vivos [the Living Rivers Social Movement], and people from the Ríos Vivos
Movement arrived from all over Colombia: from Bajo Sinú (Córdoba), the Cauca River Canyon (Antioquia), the Sogamoso River (Santander), the north of the Department of Cauca and also
from Neiva, Oporapa and Isnos, Huila. At the same time, the final action of
Geochoreographies was taking place in La Jagua, which included a night of
street theater in public space in town. During this action more than 300 people
joined hands and created a human spiral, to close with an activity of offering
and a fire at the site of Las Peñas on the Yuma (Magdalena) River. The next day there was a paseo
de olla con sancocho (an outing to cook stew by the river) for everyone, that
included demonstrations of throwing fishing nets, artisanal miners showing
samples of their work, hanging a banner on the cliffs, puppet theater, rock
painting, tubing on the river, and spelling out the phrase “ríos vivos” with
our bodies on the warm rocks by the side of the river.
The group from El Agrado and El Pital, who were
mostly adolescents and some children, did two days of action. The first day was
in public space in a rural area at the bridges over the Yaguilga creek and the
Balseadero Bridge over the Yuma River, and the second day was in parks in El
Agrado and El Pital. During the geochoreography at the bridges they did some
spontaneous graffiti, a human spiral, a presentation of River Theater (as
oppose to street theater) called “the Bombarded Frog” and decorated the
Balseadero Bridge with paper lanterns and a banner. 
On both days of action they
made dozens of purple fabric bands painted with the names of native species of
flora and fauna that are impacted by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project, raising
awareness at the bridges and in the main public parks about the other affected
populations that aren't being recognized by the company Emgesa. In the parks
they presented a couple of works of invisible theater, the Burial of the Land
and the Displaced Fishing Net, and made a human spiral that incorporated the
public. 
On both days of action they
made dozens of purple fabric bands painted with the names of native species of
flora and fauna that are impacted by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project, raising
awareness at the bridges and in the main public parks about the other affected
populations that aren't being recognized by the company Emgesa. In the parks
they presented a couple of works of invisible theater, the Burial of the Land
and the Displaced Fishing Net, and made a human spiral that incorporated the
public.
In Gigante children and youth from the Casa de la Cultura theater group did an invisible
theatre intervention in the market plaza that grabbed a lot of attention. Some
pretended to be working for a multinational company, selling bottles of water
from Páramo de Miraflores or from the Yuma River for 1 million Colombian pesos
each to people in the market, while groups of thirsty children followed them
around begging for water. At the same time, another group was walking around
the market gifting hugs and bracelets that say Territorio Matambo
(Matambo being the patron Peak of
the region) and inviting people to the next play happening in the
central park after mass. 
In the park they made another human spiral, and did a
play where the Ceiba of Freedom came to life, talking to the people of Gigante
from the heart, inviting them to liberate the land. This activity culminated
with a paseo de olla con sancocho in the El Arado creek.
In the park they made another human spiral, and did a
play where the Ceiba of Freedom came to life, talking to the people of Gigante
from the heart, inviting them to liberate the land. This activity culminated
with a paseo de olla con sancocho in the El Arado creek.
In Oporapa, San Ciro and Paraguay they presented
the river-serpent, a 25 meter long blue puppet that wove through the streets
until it confronted a dam that blocked its path. They also did the street coreographies of Los Macheteros y Los Cafeteros (The
Machete Wielders and Coffee Growers), as well as human spirals.
Between the Geochoreographies of Oporapa and San Ciro they took a break at the
El Guayabo Creek, and in Paraguay after the presentation there was a community
stew cooking where everyone was invited. 
These last actions coincided with
protests against the COP20 in Lima, Peru, and also
the participation of representatives from ASOQUIMBO and Ríos Vivos in the
People's Summit on Climate Change in Lima. All of
the participants in the final presentations received posters, Territorio Matambo bracelets and
a Certificate of Participation.
These last actions coincided with
protests against the COP20 in Lima, Peru, and also
the participation of representatives from ASOQUIMBO and Ríos Vivos in the
People's Summit on Climate Change in Lima. All of
the participants in the final presentations received posters, Territorio Matambo bracelets and
a Certificate of Participation.
Geochoreographies as a project has come to an
end, but the audio-visual process is just taking a break and will be continued
in 2015, ending its first cycle in the middle of the year. After much work and
reflection it is clear that these kinds of projects in rural communities are
needed and desired, especially those that are impacted by extraction projects.
We hope to evolve this first experience into an arts and communication school
for the defense of territory, in the not too distant future. 
It is clear to us
that there is no lack of interest or energy for participating in these projects
in the communities that relate to an intangible cultural inheritance that
reinforces rootedness to the land. Now the challenge is to facilitate a second
round, and deepen political formation and artistic and cultural creation as
tactics for direct action and for personal and collective transformation of
communities in the process of defending their territory, their lives, and life
itself.
It is clear to us
that there is no lack of interest or energy for participating in these projects
in the communities that relate to an intangible cultural inheritance that
reinforces rootedness to the land. Now the challenge is to facilitate a second
round, and deepen political formation and artistic and cultural creation as
tactics for direct action and for personal and collective transformation of
communities in the process of defending their territory, their lives, and life
itself. 
