Oscar B. Castillo - Emergency Fellowship 2020/21

For more than 6 years I have been extensively documenting the story of Free Convict, a hip-hop collective born inside the General Penitentiary of Venezuela, a prison built for 750 inmates that had at some point 10 times its capacity. The project was born inside a prison under the total control of the bosses of criminal bands that with their own arsenal of weapons decided on the functioning of the prison, the unwritten strict criminal code of behavior, and the lives of the inmates. They were as well the organizers of the parties, the administrators of the visits, the sponsors and coaches of the sports activities, and were even in charge of the infrastructure as the government has virtually abandoned its duties towards the prison and the care of the peοple under the state's responsibility.

With the support of the Onassis ΑiR Emergency Fellowship, I'm looking to deepen the research and conception of a photobook and multimedia box set about the intimate and unique story of the Free Convict collective, its members, and their relatives. Ι want to examine how to put together in pages this story from the inside about a surreal prison and the long-distance run on a process for reinsertion and reconstruction –a story that is by extension an in-depth look at the upside-down Venezuela of today, a place of chaos and hardship, but also of peοple constantly fighting for hope and dignity, whose story deserves to be shared.

Through traditional photography and with an expanded audiovisual documentary approach made of archival research and documents, collaborative interventions, first person written memories, collages, and music specifically created to accompany the book, this project aims to interconnect the multiple dots of childhood, adolescence, violence, educatiοn, exclusion, family, the nocive mirage of power and aggressive masculinity, and the reality of fast death or hard work for self-redemption.

This period of experimentation and research aims to look at what would be the most compelling way to share an in-depth reflection on how these young men, living in a system that sees them as a lost cause and with all the odds against them, independently built their own plan for change and reinsertion to the society.