Building a collection is a task that requires method: selection parameters are established, specimens are searched for, classification is carried out and curated. Some people display their collections in large display cases for others to admire, while others prefer to keep them locked away for personal enjoyment. It is difficult to determine at what point a collection is complete, and each new item represents an expansion of the spectrum of possibilities.
Artists such as Andrés Sotelo remind us that the task of the collector is a single, open process that is only exhausted when the will to continue searching is exhausted. In his case, the collection, storage and exhibition of specimens are activities that, curiously, do not revolve around the object itself, but rather become the manifestation of a process of reflection closely linked to the meditative act. Almost following the peripatetics, Sotelo walks through the streets of Bogotá as an active meditation and, along the way, collects fallen leaves. With layers and layers of paint, which he applies meticulously over the course of entire days, he encapsulates the present time of each one, removing its past and future. Carrying out this iterative, insistent and serial process leads the artist to a state of concentration similar to that produced by the recitation of a mantra.
