Ausencias

Owning a house or having a hoem is a privilege. Colombia's armed conflict has forced rural populations to migrate to the country's largest cities, with the capital receiving the highest number of displaced people. For these families, securing a place within the metropolitan area is almost impossible. As a result, the government has developed what are known as Social Interest Housing projects, enabling many families to become homeowners by purchasing apartments within the city—something that is increasingly difficult to achieve today.

However, these developments present several challenges. One of the main issues is that these small apartments are often located far from the city's urban core and from the workplaces of most salaried workers. Daily commutes can take up to three hours because of traffic. While homeownership is highly valued, the difficulties of living in these areas have led some families to abandon their properties.

This is the case of Sebastián and his mother, Ruth Sánchez. She was awarded a home through this programme, but the exhausting daily commute eventually led her to make the difficult decision to leave the apartment she owned and rent a house in a location with easier access to transportation and work.

Private property gradually loses its meaning. The space is surrendered to time, dust, and the longing for what once was. It becomes transformed by the accumulation of failed attempts to adapt it to the needs of its inhabitants—people who, before long, ceased to inhabit it at all.