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Transcript/ScriptBOLIVAR BILLS STREET ART - Diaz
HEADLINE: Bogota Artists Rediscover Value of Almost Worthless Venezuelan Bolivars
TEASER: Currency’s depleted value prompts Colombian street art collective to use the bills as their canvas
PUBLISHED AT: 07/14/2022 at 12:11 p.m.
BYLINE: Jair Diaz
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Bogota, Colombia
VIDEOGRAPHER:
VIDEO EDITOR: Cristina Caicedo Smit
SCRIPT EDITORS: Enochs, Cobus
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA original
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV __ RADIO __
TRT: 2:01
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE:
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO)) [[Venezuela’s national currency, the Bolivar, has lost almost all its value over the past 10 years. That has prompted artists in neighboring Colombia to use the almost worthless bills as a canvas. For VOA News, Jair Diaz has the story from Bogota.]]
((NARRATION))
Ernesto Rojas Tellez is a Venezuelan artist living in Colombia. A few years ago he started collecting the inflation-ravaged Venezuelan currency called the Bolivar. Using colors, brushes and iconic characters, he is turning this almost useless currency into art.
He calls his project the "Complement Two Art" project.
((Ernesto Rojas Téllez – Venezuelan in Colombia)) ((IN SPANISH))
“Around 2018 or 2017 people literally threw the bills on the floor. Walking around and seeing all that money I realized the only value it had was emotional, so I would pick it up and take it home.”
((NARRATION))
The Bolivars loss in value has inspired Tellez to set up an art collective with his colleagues, who now work in Bogotá, Colombia, using the Bolivar as their canvas.
((Ernesto Rojas Téllez – Venezuelan in Colombia)) ((IN SPANISH))
"It was born as the idea of making an initiative where we can share the knowledge, how to prepare the canvas, the materials, how to manage the proportions.”
((NARRATION))
Ernesto does not work alone. He is joined by Juan Carlos, a Colombian who firmly believes that fate brought them together to work together on something they love.
((Juan Carlos Alomy Acuero – Colombian painter)) ((IN SPANISH))
“In each bill, in each work, in each representation that I do, I try to leave the love. Whoever takes it, not only takes a piece of cardboard or a piece of canvas, but also takes the love the artist puts into it.”
((NARRATION))
Characters like former U.S. President Barack Obama are part of this work of art drafted on bills worth roughly $22 to $25 dollars.
((Ernesto Rojas Téllez – Venezuelan in Colombia)) ((IN SPANISH))
“We have characters from the United States, icons of struggle, Martin Luther King, Obama, Nelson Mandela in Africa, singers like Edith Piaf, movie characters in Disney, Colombian fighters.”
((NARRATION))
Tourists and residents can watch the artists as they work.
((Silvana Sáenz – Colombian citizen)) ((IN SPANISH))
“I find them pretty, very expressive. I think it's great how they can use it to express art.”
((NARRATION))
Using something with no value as their raw material, these artists have given the Bolivar a second life, and transformed this money into a new way to make a living.
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Bogota, Colombia
Embargo DateJuly 14, 2022 16:20 EDT
Byline((Jair Díaz in Bogotá, Colombia; Cristina Caicedo Smit VOA News))
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
