A tribute to the Satellite Space Centre of Colombia by artist collective, La Decanatura.
On 25 March 1970, less than a year after the arrival of man on the moon, the Space Communications Centre of Colombia was inaugurated in the municipality of Chocontá (Cundinamarca). A microwave transmission satellite dish was built and located in the middle of the landscape. In 1981 the second antenna or Terrestrial Station for International Communications, was constructed. This completed the set known as the Centre of Space Communications.
Chocontá, north east of the capital city Bogotá, from that point on, began to be recognised as the Satellite City of Colombia. For two decades tours flocked to the site of the antennas. Four decades on, the antennas are in their decline.
Below is video footage of the inauguration of the space communications centre installed in Chocontá, along with the original advertisement of the National Telecommunications Company of Colombia Telecom. The newspaper headline reads, “From today via satellite direct and permanent communication from Colombia to the world.” The communication via satellite, provided the ability to send and receive telephony, telex, radio, telegraphy, telephone and television signals.
Artists and filmmakers, Elkin Calderón and Diego Piñeros, have worked together under the collaborative name of La Decanatura since 2013. Their 2015 project Satellite Space Centre of Colombia ( · ) ( · ) is presented as a tribute to these monumental structures. The Chocontá Children’s Symphonic Band, whose members are between seven and fifteen years old, never knew the antennas in their splendour, and so made their own particular interpretation of the structures. Among the three obsolete antennas, the young band members attempted to musically evoke the sensation of the glorious past and uncertain future.
Below are stills from the film and the trailer
The year the antenna were erected there was a drastic amount of modernisation and investment across parts of Colombia.
In 2018 the film was exhibited as part of the Cali 71, Ciudad de América exhibition at Museo La Tertulia in Cali, Colombia. The show presented a pivotal moment in the history of the city – 1971 when the capital of Valle del Cauca hosted the 6th Pan American Games. Approximately 3000 athletes, from 32 countries descended upon the city to take part in the event. A large amount of money was spent developing the city in order to facilitate the occasion, including the construction of specialist sports venues and facilities, the construction of the Palmaseca airport and of the Transportation Terminal, which became the first in the whole of Colombia and the first building with electric stairs in the city.
In the same year Cali hosted the American Biennial of Graphic Arts (Bienal Americana de Artes Gráficas). The city became a centre of sport and graphic arts – a thriving, modern city. The exhibition presented many news clippings from the Documentation Centre (Cedoc) – one of most important national and Latin American archives on modern and contemporary art. The clippings offered a wider context to this landmark moment – referencing the Cold War, the first moon landing, modern architecture and protests within the city.
It was an time of radical change which is alluded to within the tribute – Satellite Space Centre of Colombia ( · ) ( · ) – a work which honours relics of that modern era.
Further information
La Decanatura is a collective made up of Colombian artists Elkin Calderón and Diego Piñeros.
V: @ladecanaturacolombia F: ladecanatura I: @diego_pinerosgarcia
*Main article image from Space Center Satelital de Colombia ( · ) ( · ) ©La Decanatura
