Feliza Bursztyn was born in Bogotá to Jewish immigrants from Poland who found refuge there from the rise of Nazism. She studied in New York and Paris before returning to Bogotá in 1960, where she began creating welded assemblages: while plaster and bronze were out her price range, junk was not. Her 1961 debut exhibition featured the first of her Chatarras, the Spanish for “Scraps,” made of welded scrap metal. She later incorporated motors into her sculptures, transforming them into kinetic and unwieldy performers. Although her career was never overtly political, her oppositional stance and the undercurrents of feminism in her work made her a divisive figure in the complex politics of Colombia in the 60s and 70s, eventually leading to her self-exile.