In November of 2006, Juan Manuel Echavarria visited a cemetery in Puerto Berrio, on the banks of the Magdalena River in Colombia. Within the cemetery, a particularly colorful mausoleum stands apart from the others. The tombs are marked with the letters NN: Ningun Nombre--No Name. Within each tomb lies a corpse or part of a corpse that the people of Puerto Berrio have rescued from the Magdalena River. Most are victims of massacres from the drug war, many mutilated, many simply discarded for convenience, anonymity, to feed the vultures. But here the people save the nameless and decomposing bodies from the waters and bury them in the cemeter. Then they perform a second ritua. A NN can be "escogido"--chosen--by a person who agrees to take care of its tomb, to pray for its soul, in exchange for favors from the dead. The blessed one adopts the NN, decorates the tomb with flowers and often a marble slate saying, "Thank you NN for the favor received." Some caretakers even name their NN, often granting them their own family name, inscribing the given name on the marble.

On one level, the living makes a business-like proposition with the dead: In return for a favor, I will keep up your tomb, decorate it, paint it, bring a glass of water so your soul will not be thirsty, bring you flowers, humanize you by giving you a name. But collectively they are saying, we won't let the violence erase you, we snatch you away from those who have made you disappear, we take care of you, we give you names. Their pact with the dead resists the perpetrators of violence and reconstructs the social fabric. --Juan Manuel Echavarria, 2007

Born in Medellin, Colombia, Echavarria lives and works in New York and Bogota. Death and the River will run at the Josee Bienvenu Gallery through April 5, 2008. (excerpts from gallery press release)