Plano Negativo: Colectivo de Investigación de Arquitectura Forense en Colombia is a collective of visual artists, architects, social scientists, earth scientists, designers, and artists who conduct collaborative investigations on human violence and environmental conflicts in Colombia and Latin America.
The project began with the collaboration between Forensic Architecture and the Colombian Truth Commission, which was published in Bogota in December 2021. The work gathered significant interest in the country, and different Colombian groups asked for support for their endeavors. With the help of CHRA, Plano Negativo started an inquiry into the case of Dilan Cruz, a teenager who was murdered by police in the 2019 national strike in Bogota.
The support of CHRA helped Plano Negativo to conduct an investigation and to start the process of working with Colombian architects, designers, lawyers and animators to establish a studio in the country.
At the moment, Plano Negativo is working with several organizations in Colombia:
In addition to The Killing of Dilan Cruz, Plano Negativo is currently conducting two other investigations: Sculptures of Devastation: a visual history of coal mining in the Colombian Caribbean; and Deforestation in the Colombian Amazon. Finally, the work supported by CHRA has helped in the construction of a Latin American network of visual counter forensics with other groups in Mexico and Brazil.
The case of Dilan Cruz has several different outcomes and presentation forums.
Video
Gallery
2. This image represents the 2.5 seconds (75 video frames) prior to the shot, beginning when Dilan returns the second tear gas canister. We froze all the positions of the two figures in the 75 frames to understand the relationship between the movements of Captain Cubillos and Dilan Cruz. In this way, we were able to trace the tracking of Dilan by Captain Cubillos. (Forensic Architecture, 2023)
3. Top view of all the movements made by the different actors during the 2.5 seconds before the fatal shot. (Forensic Architecture, 2023)
4. The time between the moment Dilan returns the second tear gas canister and the shot fired by Cubillos was recorded by eight cameras over 75 frames. Each camera recorded different aspects of the scene, with four cameras capturing Dilan, two cameras capturing Cubillos and two cameras capturing both of them. (Forensic Architecture, 2023)
5. A comparison between cameras 01 and 02 to determine the landing point of the tear gas canister returned by Dilan. We can see that the perceived distances on the Y-axis of camera 01 are distorted by the vanishing point, which makes everything seem closer to the camera’s point of view. (Forensic Architecture, 2023)
Images 9 – 11 from previous projects focused on land dispossession in northwestern Colombia:
Credits
Project leaders
Sofia Prado Zapata, Camilo Garcia Rivera, and Pedro Sanchez
Researchers
Paulo Murillo Sandoval
Remote Sensing consultancy
Manuel Correa
Video editing
Gerald Bermudez
Field Production
Andrés Jurado
Narration
Alvaro Rodriguez Badel and Julian Angarita Bernal
Animation
Kishan San, Nick Masterton, Eyal Weizman, Sarah Nankivell, Elizabeth Breiner, Ali Suriel Melchor, Bob Trafford, Lorenzo Morales and Jamon van den Hoek
Project support