Muralist - Sculpture - Fine Arts
Descolonización de la Justicia Boliviana
La Paz, Bolivia – 12m x 7m (39.37ft x 22.96ft) | Medium: Acrylic and oil on stainless steel | 2012
Painted on the walls of a public legal institution Ministerio De Justicia in La Paz, this large-scale mural grapples with one of the most profound transformations in contemporary Bolivian society: the decolonization of its judicial system. The work visually narrates the ongoing tension—and emerging reconciliation—between two systems of justice that have long existed in parallel: the Western, colonial legal tradition imposed by European powers, and the Indigenous legal frameworks rooted in centuries of communal knowledge, spiritual accountability, and restorative practices.
At the heart of the composition is a symbolic representation of the “marriage” between these two worlds. The mural neither idealizes nor condemns either system, but rather confronts the contradictions, frictions, and urgent need for balance. Figures of Indigenous leaders and legal scholars are placed alongside judges in robes, while scales of justice hover in unstable symmetry. Woven into the imagery are elements of Andean cosmology, sacred geometry, and historical memory—reminding viewers that law is never neutral, but shaped by culture, power, and resistance.
Commissioned in 2012 during a period of major constitutional reform, this piece reflects a pivotal moment in Bolivia’s struggle to reclaim its sovereignty—not just politically, but legally and culturally. The stainless-steel surface acts as a metaphor for both rigidity and reflection: a surface where modernity and ancestral wisdom collide and potentially coalesce.
More than a mural, Descolonización de la Justicia Boliviana is a public declaration that justice in Bolivia must evolve beyond colonial legacies and toward a future that respects and integrates Indigenous systems of governance, values, and voice.