Zoraida Anaya

Temps riche, temps pauvre/Time Rich, Time Poor (2024)

This video documents an intervention carried out in the summer of 2024 at the salt flats of Galerazamba, located in the Atlantic region of Colombia. In northern Colombia, the rainy season—or winter—coincides with the Canadian summer. During this time, rainfall washes over the salt flats, causing the salt to vanish.

“The intention behind the video, titled Time Rich, Time Poor, is to capture the longing to return to a past where time stands still and people simply be. I returned to this idealized place forty years later, but it was no longer the same—it existed only in my memory. Yet, the locals were rich in time. They were being, not doing. I thought I could do the same, but I could not because I was time poor; I had to leave, I was running out of time. I discovered that the creative and production processes involved in plein art differ greatly from those in a controlled studio environment. In this intervention, the outdoors became my studio—an expansive space where I engaged with time, clouds, rain, water, sand, rocks, wind, extreme heat, humidity, the locals, and mosquitoes. In my trying just to "be" I allowed the rain to fall freely on me and on my phone, letting nature actively participate in the making of the work.”