Nadín Ospina, Idolo con Muñeca/Idol with doll, 2000. © University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art (UECLAA)

The Glyn Vivian Gallery in Swansea is presenting the largest ever exhibition of contemporary art from Colombia in the UK, until January 6 2007.

The exhibition is entitled Displaced, as the central theme taken on by each of the 15 artists in the show is that of mass migration and displacement of identity.

Photography, sculpture, video, painting, drawing and installations are all on display, from both artists established and emerging on to the international scene.

Oscar Muñoz, Linea del Destino/Line of Fate, 2006. Courtesy the artist

The core theme explores what is meant by belonging to a place, and deals with local and global displacement disrupting the sense of self. Mass migration is a significant phenomenon in Colombia, as it is across the world, affecting social and cultural changes, and people’s everyday lives.

In Colombia, there is constant movement of people due to warring factions, politics, changes in natural resources and economic reasons – searching for a better standard of life. Some of Colombia’s problems are well known, and its revolutionary people’s army, FARC, has gained notoriety in recent decades for its guerrilla campaign against the ruling forces.

In the exhibition, a video by Wilson Diaz focuses on members of FARC performing traditional Colombian folk songs (The Rebels from the South, 2002), while paintings by Delcy Morelos explore racial hierarchies. José Alejandro Restrepo uses archive footage in his film Paso del Quindio II, showing the human carriers that took passengers, often early explorers, across dangerous terrain.

Humberto Junca, Damned Right, 2006. Courtesy the artist

Power and the issues arising from displacement are also taken on in the work of Nadin Ospina, whose sculptures merge pre-Colombian artefacts with modern America – Mickey Mouse holds a doll-sized Mayan or Aztec in Idol with Doll, for example.

Living tree sculptures inspired by colonial design feature in Maria Elvira Escallón’s photographs, while Alberto Baraya has put artificial plants into a herbarium to comment on imposed meanings and obsessive categorisation.

Displaced has been supported by the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, and the Colombian Embassy in London. In the UK, funding has come from the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Wales, Visiting Arts, the British Council, Wales Art international and the Friends of the Glynn Vivian Gallery.