Born in Paris in 1983, Marcos Ávila-Forero typically works in challenging terrains or inaccessible places such as remote villages in rural Colombia. His practice is based on research that he conducts within communities and along with their residents, allowing him to bring to light experiences that remain beyond the reach of conventional communication. Instead of documenting the object of his research, Ávila-Forero immerses himself in the worlds he explores. He sees his role as that of an activist fighting for social issues he considers important, not just as an artist but as someone who uses art as simply one vehicle among others.
In 2011 he travelled to the Amazon where he produced “A Tarapoto, un manatí”, he displayed said piece in the exhibition Le Vent d’Après and won the Prix Multimédia Des Fondations De Beaux-Arts. In 2012 he travelled to the Moroccan-Algerian border and worked with several clandestine immigrants to produce the video “Cayuco – Una estela de Oujda a Melilla”. In 2013; after receiving the Prix Découverte Du Palais de Tokyo, he travelled to Colombia and worked with communities displaced by the armed conflict, in a shanty town called Suratoque; with that name and in the name of the families he met, he produced a piece and an individual exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo. Later he received the LOOP Award 2014. He travelled back to one of the epicenters of the armed conflict in Colombia in order to produce the project “Atrato”, that later would be exhibited in the Biennale di Venezia 2017 and acquired by the CNAP (National Centre for Visual Arts) in France. In 2018 he has produced two significant individual exhibitions at The Grand Café Art Centre in France and at The Pori Art Museum in Finland, and in 2019 he won the 21st edition of Fondation d’entreprise Ricard Prize.
