Colombian photographer Édgar Jiménez walks around a room exhibiting “Adam and Eve,” his portrait of two of the first hippopotamuses that were brought to Colombia by late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the 1980s.

Jiménez, who once served as Escobar’s personal photographer, recalls taking the picture from only four meters (13 feet) away, without any kind of protection and unaware of the danger they po sed. That same pair of hippos later attacked and killed a camel.

Escobar continued adding to his hippo collection until his death in 1993. The population has since exploded to more than 160 specimens, which have been declared an invasive species in Colombia.

Jiménez was invited to participate in “Microdoses to Tame the Inner Hippopotamus,” a new exhibition in Bogotá featuring 20 artists who offer a political critique of what the hippos represent.

"They became a kind of mafia and drug lord symbol because they belonged to Pablo (Escobar), but the truth is that these animals have now become a symbol of tourism," he said.

Santiago Rueda, curator of the exhibition, said the show does not intend to be moralizing but invites people to see how such a paradoxical figure as Escobar's hippos can be the subject of a political critique.

The exhibit features everything from oil paintings and graffiti to photographs and a unique cultivation of psychoactive mushrooms grown in hippo dung.

Another piece features a hippo nicknamed “El Gordo” (The Fat One), offering a reward of up to $264,000 for its capture.

The exhibit opened Thursday at Casa Échele Cabeza, a project focused on drug regulation and harm reduction, run by the nonprofit Acción Técnica Social.

AP Video shot by Marko Alvarez