What do Sand and Politics have in common?
Sand Artist Joe Castillo had the opportunity to perform a SandStory telling the story of Columbia for President Juan Manuel Santos.
President Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos has been Chief Executive of the Colombian Coffee Delegation to the International Coffee Organization in London, Sub-Director of his family owned newspaper El Tiempo and a columnist for 14 different newspapers. He was Minister of Foreign Trade during the administration of president César Gaviria in 1991. In 1992 he was appointed President of the VII United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for a period of four years. In 1999 he was appointed as President of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and served as Director of the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) for the period 2001–2002.
Santos also founded the Social National Unity Party (aka Party of the U) to support the presidency of Álvaro Uribe. He was named Minister of Defense on July 19, 2006. During his tenure as Defense Minister the administration dealt a series of blows against the FARC guerrilla group, including the rescue of Fernando Araújo Perdomo, the death of FARC Secretariat member Raul Reyes in a March 2, 2008 air strike against a guerrilla camp located within Ecuador’s borders, and the non-violent rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt held captive since 2002, along with fourteen other hostages, including three Americans.
Sand Artist Joe Castillo
The most compelling new art form to come around in decades!
Sand scattered on a light box is formed and reformed into ever changing shapes and images that tell visually powerful stories. Choreographed to music these images inspire, challenge and motivate in a captivating way. Joe Castillo is one of the first and certainly the premier “SandStory” in the world today! Joe Castillo’s many years in advertising has enabled him to produce customized Sandstories for a variety of clients. Many people have been introduced to this new art form by Kseniya Simonova (a new comer to performance art) who won the Ukraine’s Got Talent in 2009.
