Zona en Reclamación is a conceptual mural that extends the diagonal ‘claiming’ lines of Guyana to the entire country of Venezuela, suggesting that all the Venezuelan land needs to be reclaimed. The black and white stripes not only create a kinetic effect but also insinuate the existence of two parallel nations; of two groups of people that live in permanent tension; of a culture based in uncertainties and endless contradictions.

This work refers to the Venezuelan territory called Guayana Esequiba, also known in the Venezuelan maps as “Zona en Reclamación” (Zone in Reclamation). It is the territory of Guyana claimed by Venezuela since colonial times. In 1819, José Rafael Revenga, with instructions of Simón Bolívar, reminded Great Britain government about the legal border between Venezuela and the British colonies, despite the existence of English settlers in the Venezuelan territory. In 1966, before Guyana’s independence from Great Britain, both countries signed the 1966 Geneva Accord (number 8192). After that, Venezuelan maps show the entire western Essequibo region as "Zona en Reclamación”, depicting repeated diagonal lines over this the territory, which has an area of 159.500 square kilometers.

Zona en Reclamación was originally installed in a busy street of Mérida City, an Andean town located in Venezuela, founded in 1588. It remained intact for two weeks. Afterward, the mural was vandalized and destroyed.

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