‘Venezuela: The Collapse of a Dream’

VENEZUELA: THE COLLAPSE OF A DREAM
A photography exhibition by OSCAR B. CASTILLO

WARM Festival at the Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo, June 2018
Co-produced by the WARM Foundation, the Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents and the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo

For years I have been working on a long-term independent photographic project about the causes and consequences of violence in Venezuela and its relationship to socio-political rupture — a cancer fed by hatred, polarization, economic interests, corruption and constant impunity. I have seen the structure falling to pieces both inside and outside the home, among my subjects and my friends, developing through this a broad vision of my country by following its main events and gaining intimate access to very closed circles.

Through more than six years of work, these documentary images aim to give an idea of the chain of events that have marked the continuous free fall of the country to levels that were hard to foresee. The project moves in two directions: on one side, it seeks to cover the concrete factors that have played a leading role in the country’s social decay and how they interconnect to build a network that, ironically, represents a torn social fabric. On the other side, it addresses the moral, emotional and psychological dimension of a society increasingly marked by pain and collective depression.

The exhibition is composed of two related bodies of work: one focused on Venezuela’s recent history and the chain of events mentioned above, and a second body of work, currently in progress, centered on my own family, relating large-scale events to the intimate realities of everyday affected lives.

— Oscar B. Castillo