Con los ojos en el cielo y los pies en la tierra

"Con los ojos en el cielo y los pies en la tierra" (Eyes in the sky, feet on the ground) is the title of four new works created by Berlin-based artist Roberto Uribe-Castro for Projektor HAWK during a recent residency in his hometown, Bogotá, Colombia.

In his works, the Colombian architect combines the historical relevance of the observatory in Bogotá with that of the former Berlin observatory, which was located at the present-day Projektor exhibition site before moving completely to Potsdam after 1945. His work comes as a result of his interest in the observatory as the physical manifestation of the intertwined professional relationship between the Colombian astronomer Francisco José de Caldas and the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who is closely related to the construction of the observatories in Bogotá and Berlin.

In his works for NARRATIVE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, which are composed of video, photography, and sculpture, Uribe-Castro examines the overlay of facts, myths, and legends that shape history. He focuses on describing lesser-known fragments of indigenous and post-colonial Colombian astronomy, which lag far behind the achievements of European researchers in terms of popularity, in order to draw attention to one-sided transmissions of historical events.

With artist Tomislav Topic