Spectral Presences in the Magdalena River

This sculptural and sonic installation materializes ethnographic research on Colombia's feral hippos, introduced by Pablo Escobar. Their population of 189 is projected to reach 1,500 by 2040, risking the river. A transparent cube displays visuals and symbolic field objects alongside a multi-layered sonic remix with recordings and interviews.

"Spectral Presences in the Magdalena River" is a sculptural and sonic installation that materializes fragments of our interdisciplinary research concerning the unusual presence of hippos in Colombia. Introduced in 1981 by drug trafficker Pablo Escobar for his private zoo (which included 1,200 animals), these hippos have since become feral, reproducing and spreading along the Magdalena River. Colombian scientists project that the river's hippo population, currently at 189, could grow significantly, reaching 1,500 by 2040, putting the river and its human and non-human inhabitants at risk.

The implicit risks are not entirely concrete but manifest themselves in a wide range of concerns, from unpredictable ecological impacts to conflicts with local communities. Furthermore, their association with Escobar's past transforms them into spectral figures: a disturbing manifestation of a painful past that underscores the complex interaction between human action, nature, and the collective memory of a country still suffering from the violence derived from drug trafficking.  The hippos represent diffuse and potential risks that project them toward a catastrophic future as persistent shadows and latent possibilities of environmental and social disaster.

The Ethnographic Archive and the Ecology of Drug Trafficking

The objects on display are part of the ethnographic archive and come from Pablo's Shop (La Tienda de Pablo), a souvenir store visited by hundreds of tourists on the grounds of the former Hacienda Nápoles in Doradal (Antioquia, Colombia). Today, the location is an immense amusement park built upon the residues of the old drug trafficking empire, including buildings, luxury objects, and the animals descended from the zoo, such as the hippos. These remnants currently sustain a powerful tourism industry where the hippos coexist with tourists, residents, and images that glorify Pablo.

Pablo's Shop condenses this emergent ecology, where the African hippos have become the region's souvenir. The images of the female hippo Vanessa (a captive descendant who was the park's mascot until her passing in 2024) are the most popular. Magnets, keychains, and t-shirts featuring Vanessa coexist with objects associated with Pablo's image. The park administration encouraged tourists to call Vanessa by name and feed her. Thus, the sonic experience of this and other captive and feral hippos has been closely associated with the curiosity and interest they spark in national and foreign visitors.

These and other sonic experiences are explored in the exhibition through the editing of sounds collected during fieldwork. This includes soundscapes recorded both in the amusement park and nearby locations, as well as sounds registered through collaboration with engineers, biologists specialized in bioacoustics and rural inhabitants who coexist with the hippos in these ecologies. These audio recordings originate from both terrestrial and aquatic environments and register dozens of birds, insects, and fish that also inhabit these places.

This remix seeks to foster speculative encounters that heighten sound sensibilities through sensory contact with other-than-human entities—both animate and inanimate. We invite the public to listen with us, the hippos, and the water, being aware that this confronts us with the existential void of not knowing what the future of a Colombian river inhabited by hippos will be like.

Collaborators

Chocolate Napol’s: Diego Marín, Marcela Bernal, Daniel Marín

Equipo Vibsionary Rescuing the Planet

Daniel David-Gutierrez – Biologist specialized in Hydroacoustics 

Diana de Mulder – Industrial Engineer

Sam Henry – Anthropologist and Photographer

Manacus: Angela María Mendoza-Henao - Biologist specialized in Bioacoustics

Grill@ Recorders: Hoover Pantoja-Sánchez – Electronic Engineer specialized in Bioengineering

Listening for Coexistence: Reconstructing Nápoles' History Through Animal Sounds. 

Listen to some preliminary results of the collaboration between biologists, anthropologists, and engineers. From February to June 2025, an interdisciplinary group joined families living on the border of a large amusement park and near lakes currently inhabited by hippos. These families have developed projects for the care and restoration of the forest, with the goal of protecting the habitat of birds, monkeys, squirrels, and other animals that share the space with them. We joined together to listen alongside them to those non-human beings that coexist with them on the lands that were once Hacienda Nápoles.

Acknowledgments

Alejandra Osejo-Varona and Carlos Gustavo Román doctoral studies are supported by Minciencias, Colombia’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation and the Fulbright Commission–Colombia. 

Alejandra's fieldwork and interdisciplinary collaborations have received support from major institutions, including the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Additional funding and support were provided by Rice University's Center for Latin and Latinx Studies, the Department of Anthropology, the Social Sciences Research Institute, and the Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies

Alejandra Osejo-Varona y Carlos Gustavo Román