Raul Marroquin, Artist in distribution, Colombia, 1948
Raul Marroquin was born in 1948 in Bogota, Colombia, and lives in Amsterdam. He attended the School of Fine Arts at La Universidad Nacional in Bogota and did postgraduate studies at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. Marroquin's works have been exhibited globally and he is considered to be one of the pioneers of video art in the Netherlands, where he has lived since 1971. In his videos Marroquin combines lengthy excerpts from advertisements and popular American TV shows with acted scenes done in purposely low production quality. The resulting narratives emphasize their own artificiality and the degree to which we often perceive the simulated space of television as more real than 'real life.' Furthermore, Marroquin's pieces deal with surveillance and its implications for personal freedom in public and private spaces.