Johan Samboni: Rewriting Urban Histories

In his work, Samboni revisits photographic tradition and identity within both real and fictional contexts, reflecting on the relationship between users and characters in video games. His painting seeks to counteract digital im materiality with physical materiality, reflecting social and cultural concerns such as protests and power dynamics.

by Gi Manara

Wed 31 Jul, 2024

C& América Latina: Your paintings make direct reference to images and visual distortions that appear online. What other intersections between online and offline life can be seen in your work? What do you perceive around you?

Johan Samboni: I believe the first point of intersection would be painting itself. I am interested in giving physical substance to digital images, which I consider fragile and ephemeral. This is a response to my experience as someone who grew up during the transition from analog to digital images in a marginal context, where access to technology is restricted. The images from my adolescence are lost amid the lack of access to digital devices and the difficulty of managing and storing that data. In response to this, I have developed an attraction to the medium of painting, which I interpret as a way to slow down those images, akin to a sleeping policeman (speed bump), a physical presence on the surface that forces you to pause a little bit. Additionally, I am very interested in video games as simulations and fictional constructions of reality, especially those that allude to very specific realities, such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a game that my generation grew up with and which depicts the context of Los Angeles in 1992. Regarding the marginalized neighborhoods of this city, I found a strong connection with Cali, and many of us who played this video game noticed these similarities, which partly stem from the influences of Afro-descendant and Mexican cultures in the USA. One of the most important aspects of the game for me is its low-resolution characteristic, typical of a 2004 game. I am intrigued by the social class dimension that can be found in this characteristic, as well as the anachronistic way in which we relate to this content.

Johan Samboni, Essay on Gangs, Video Games, the Internet, and Palm Trees, exhibition at Program C. Courtesy of MAMM. Photo: juevesdoce

C&AL: Rewriting the Routes was an activist project that also became a multidisciplinary work encompassing performance, video, drawing, and painting. Could you tell me more about how it started and your role in it? And what is the connection between the protests in Colombia and those in Los Angeles, which are featured in your paintings?

JS: The project Rewriting the Routes began as a drawing for an exhibition in the communal hall of my neighborhood. It was a sort of collective dream and an exercise in re-signifying the space formerly known as Puerto Rellena. It was an area known for selling fritanga (fried street food), and during the 2019 strike, it was decided to rename the space, which was used as a gathering point for those protests. By 2021, following that exhibition, the social uprising erupted, with Puerto Resistencia becoming a national symbol. I brought the modified route map, which bore the new name of the space, to those protests. The demonstrators used it as a protest sign, and I found it very powerful that it actually circulated on the public transportation of eastern Cali, specifically the jeeps.

Regarding the connection between the protests in Los Angeles and Cali, it comes from a set of relationships I establish with the video game GTA San Andreas. I remember that within the game, there were references to protests that occurred because a corrupt police officer was released, leading to the city being engulfed in flames and chaos, within the graphical possibilities of a 2004 game. When the protests happened in Cali, I recalled scenes from the game and started investigating what they were referencing in real life. It turned out that these demonstrations occurred because a judge had released four police officers.

Johan Samboni, Incidente "se están nos metiendo a los conjuntos" ("they are getting into our sets"), adhesive letters on cardboard, 28 x 35 cm, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

C&AL: Se nos están metiendo a los conjuntos (They are entering our residential complexes) discusses dynamics that, while particularly pronounced in Colombia, remain taboo. Do you believe that power dynamics in the arts in Colombia have changed over the years? And how does your art fit into this context?

JS: I’m not sure if I fully understand the dynamics of power and their changes. I can observe a gradual entry into these elitist art dynamics of individuals from historically marginalized and invisible sectors. What I perceive is that the spaces given to artists from these contexts also come with conditions established by a colonial order, which I hope will begin to be questioned. That’s why I’m interested in bringing these questions and statements to the forefront—what does this “art of the poor” do in the house of some gomelo (wealthy Colombian yuppie), this art that raises questions for the viewers and for oneself as a creator. I believe that there are many processes underway in the art world, which perhaps have more strength in the institutional and museum fields, and they are making powerful transformations in the ways of creating art and relating to the institutional. Many more collective dynamics or those with a more pedagogical emphasis manage to have an impact on a broader audience than one can find in the market. I am interested in occupying spaces in both realms; I feel that this is the challenge. I am interested in channeling some of the art world’s money to places it previously did not reach.

Johan Samboni. Incidente "se están nos metiendo a los conjuntos" ("they are getting into our sets"). Photo: Lyan Cuartas

C&AL: What are you working on?

JS: I am working on reflections about my own identity construction as an Afro-Indigenous person, from the experiences that affect me. Media, sports, music, stereotypes, contradictions, the colonial wound, exoticization as a problem seen from a hegemonic perspective. For this project, which was presented in April in Bogotá, at SGR Galería, I used construction materials, sports jerseys, pirated sneakers, photography, bling-bling, 3D printing, and oil painting.

Translation: Manyakhalé „Taata“ Diawara