Pre-fair Program // Atrato, Majestic Mother

Radiophonic Performance

Greetings to those listening to us from Cerro Plateado, Los Farallones del Citará, and the Gulf of Urabá; greetings to the birds, the stones, the sardines, the rabicoloradas, the bocachico, the lizards, the armadillos; to the espantos, the spirits, the chimbilaco, the sky, to the Ciénaga de Beté. To the river itself, which is all of you together.

Welcome to Atrato, majestic mother, a radio series by Noís Radio for the second season of “Cuando el río suena” (When the River Sounds), a podcast by the Banco de la República de Colombia. In four episodes, co-created with storytellers, writers, musicians, and social leaders from Chocó, we immerse ourselves in the knowledge and mysteries held by the sounds of the Atrato River, the third largest river in Colombia, which originates and flows through the Department of Chocó and empties into the Caribbean Sea.

Radio taught us that listening is undoubtedly the most intense way to communicate and accompany one another. Javier Montes says in his essay “La radio puesta” (2024) that “Radio, fire, river, rain: these four things have in common that they do not need our attention: they sound, they burn, they flow on their own.” Ah, but when we listen to them... what worlds appear! What shadows are illuminated! What signs do we see!

In Beté, Ms. Cita told us, “I haven't seen this, but I have experienced it.” That's what this podcast is like. It let's us experience the voices, silences, music, and ebbs and flows of a river so real and majestic that it seems to have been imagined by the poetic minds of the people of Atarazana.