Jonathan Carvajal - Megalomania

The Jaime Duque park opened to the public on February 27 to 1983. Located in the town of Tocancipá at kilometer 34 of the North Highway, 30 minutes from the capitol of colombia. The park is the realization of a dream of Jaime Duque -constructor and founder of civil aviation- who wanted to let the Colombians an important cultural and recreational center, which in turn would generate resources to support the disadvantaged of society. It was built after he mysteriously became a man with a large amount of money and who lived until his death on the park. Far from the formal purity of the original styles, these buildings and “monuments”, erected between the 1980’s and 1990’s, show an adulterated civic variation –born under the aegis of the golden decade of drug trafficking in Colombia- that upsets the tradition of their architecture and enthralled followers attracted by theh symbol of a new social power. In the bizarre and elaborate creations of Parque Duque, resulting from the most intricate military megalomania -exemplified in the live size replica of a half-breed Taj Majal- as well as in the opulent residential buildings. Swiss pine trees, medieval fortresses, classical Roman architecture, the US Capitol building and Doric columns cohabit in an implicit mannerism, in which a now picturesque lyricism dominates and expresses itself in a new visual tropicalia. Even thought the intention of the park was to bring the 5 continents to Colombia when you visit the park you find a place without identity, its oddness and extravaganza makes it original, not felling in India or Colombia, just felling the sense of not belong to anywhere.