Abecor, carving a path for freedom of expression in Bolivia

Abecor uses art to challenge censorship, demand justice, and defend human rights.

His work is both deeply personal and profoundly political. In this interview with Justice & Peace, Abecor shares his unique perspective on activism and art as not just a form of expression but a tool for protest, positioning, and self-empowerment.

“Cartooning is a way to express many meanings and crucial facts such as injustice, inequality, corruption and everything that can happen within a country. It is also a way to write its history through drawing.”

From creativity to conviction

Can you share how your journey as both an activist and artist began, and how the two have influenced each other over time?

As a child, I always had a penchant for drawing and was supported by my father, who was a plastic arts teacher. By imitating him, I realized that I felt good as I leaned more and more towards the arts. I started working in newspapers first out of necessity and later out of conviction.

“Those moments make me see how necessary being an artist is; to showcase through an image how unfair something can be for many and give a critical sense to things for reflection. It has a great contribution to society.”

Becoming an activist is something I feel very proud of because creating an impact allows the principles one has to stand out more. The principle of being human, the journalistic principle, the principle of telling the truth, the principle of narrating information that needs to be reported, and the reality of a situation.

Power in knowledge and social art

What are the main social or political issues driving your work?

I think it is important, and I give a lot of space to visualize inequalities, to show the freedoms one might lose in their country, such as freedom of expression, and to talk about human rights. Totalitarianism has many negative aspects. That is what drives me to create caricatures with criticism, satire and humour. I want to make people reflect by creating this link to a representation of a society that is missing.

What does your work mean to you, and what emotions or ideas do you hope it evokes in others?

My work – my sculptures – took an important turn in Europe. I was already looking to develop a specific style for forming a sculpture that could transmit my internal world. My sculptures have a social meaning and frame an extremely crucial issue in my country: knowledge. The basis of empowerment, of not being deceived, and something sorely lacking in my country. That is what I am trying to express. It is a way of saying that the most beautiful and safest companion you can have is information, a book. That’s the metaphor I’m trying to convey as my call to action.

Books feature heavily in your work —how do you see them as a symbol in your mission for freedom of information and knowledge?

Reading is fundamental. It is related to politics and what can happen in the growth process of a country. Reading is the empowerment of oneself, it is wisdom, it is having that understanding that with books, you open doors, you open barriers. This metaphor is also used in my sculptures.

People always ask me, “How do you do it?”. When someone who doesn’t know me meets me, they say, “If I hadn’t met you, I wouldn’t have believed you. Seeing your work, I thought you were a grumpy old man sitting in his armchair, disowning everything”. In fact, how I have struggled and established myself is in this art.

“The art, the music I create, and the sculptures I make are obviously a release. They are a way of positioning myself and owning a different kind of energy about what I do, and are always related to the social. Because art has always had that importance, it has that essence, that principle, that of being a social art.”

Creative and spiritual transformation

In 2024, Abecor joined the Artists’ Safe Haven residency and was hosted by Justice & Peace in The Hague, Netherlands. During his stay, he collaborated with local artist Hettie Looman, who offered her studio space for his work. There, Abecor explored bronze sculpture techniques and prepared for his first international exhibition, “Images, textures, and freedom”. This exhibition, held in The Hague, was a deeply personal milestone for him, fulfilling Abecor’s aspiration to showcase his work in Europe and engage with an international audience.

Can you tell us more about your exhibition?

The “Images, textures, and freedom” exhibition was made with a lot of energy, with a lot of soul and spirit. I have been making sculptures in Bolivia for so long, and I felt something different about these artworks here, which is peace. My artworks here have vision and tranquillity. They are figures with a message, in the sense that they compile what a book says, what you can think of from a book, and what you can get from it. I believe that through them, you find peace. They reflect a state of mind that I will take with me onwards. I want to continue with that same mental/ spiritual state that The Hague has offered me because it has also generated many changes within me.

How has your time in the Netherlands, particularly as part of the Artists’ Safe Haven initiative, shaped your views on and approach to activism and freedom of expression?

“Participating in Artists’ Safe Haven reinforced my motivation to continue doing what I do. I deem such initiatives important because they lead to the realization that I am not alone.”

Expressing things that seem fair to me and fighting for freedom of expression in my country means that I am not likeable within certain sectors. Here you find peace, a substantial form of support, and obviously, you realize you are not the only one.

How have the people you met and worked with impacted your creative process and the way you approach your art?

Being in this new environment and all the people I met and worked with have had a deep influence. I have been given so much security here by so many people, especially at Justice & Peace, as well as the strength to keep going. And it’s hard for me to have others worry about me.

“It has also allowed me the time to do what I like, my art, my caricatures. I can do them here with freedom, with tranquillity, which brings out in me more feelings, more spirituality, more of everything. It is very gratifying to be able to have this kind of interaction, to get to know other people and realize that I am not alone in this struggle. I think I am strengthened.”

We thank Abecor for his determination in defending the right to information and his impactful art advancing social transformation.