The 22nd Bienal de Arte Paiz Opens: Lost. In Between. Together

View of the exhibition Universes of matter. La Nueva Fábrica. Antigua Guatemala. Foreground: Ana Tersa Barboza and Rafael Freyre. Background: Antonio Pichillá. Background: Manuel Chavajay. Photo Credit: Hugo Quinto. Courtesy of Alexia Tala.

22nd Bienal de Arte Paiz
Lost. In Between. Together
May 6, 2021 – June 6, 2021
https://22bienal.fundacionpaiz.org.gt

Entitled Lost. In Between. Together, the 22nd Paiz Art Biennial invites a reflection on the perennial crisis situation affecting the Global South. With Guatemala as a starting point to investigate the cultural and geographic diversity of Latin America and beyond in the Global South, Lost. In between. Together explores the complexity of interpreting the past and looking to the future when obstacles rooted in history compromise the interpretation of the past and the ability to project potential destinies.

The Main Exhibition
The curatorial theme Lost. In Between. Together focuses on the capacity of the Global South to tell its own story, with an attentive look at its roots and its present, and brings together artistic expressions marked by activism or awareness of human rights and the power of certain geographies, or linked to ancestral traditions and knowledge where art often enters the territory of the sacred. These artistic expressions will be found under three thematic axes of the central exhibition: Pasts. Eternals. Futures, focusing on historical presentism as an error of analysis. It is a reflection that addresses artistic processes that focus on events, histories, micro-histories and identities related to the contemporary history of the Global South. This thematic axis is a journey between issues related to political processes, as well as narratives sensitive to the accelerated changes of the 20th century and how these affect discriminated minorities. Universes of Matter explores artistic practices that speak of knowledge that has survived through the power of matter. It includes works by artists who focus on the ancestral nature of matter as a way of seeing and interpreting the world, be it objects or elements of the landscape. The approach to matter hides intangible meanings that only scientific knowledge or spiritual significance can explain. Perverse Geography / Cursed Geographies addresses the visions of artists who speak of the social and cultural consequences of the transformations and inequalities due to the processes of colonisation. This axis explores ethnic violence from the perspective of contemporary history, anthropology and geopolitics, focusing on the ambitions of power and the practice of forms of discrimination based on natural and human resources.

The Special Projects
The solo exhibitions of the Guatemalan artist Aníbal López (Guatemala City 1964 – 2014) and the Chilean artist Paz Errázuriz (Santiago de Chile, 1944), two key figures on the contemporary art scene in Latin America, are at the heart of the curatorial project’s reflections. These special projects present an artistic production that has been developed in contexts related to the culture of race, to indigenous cultures and to contexts linked to situations of strong marginality. The exhibition of Aníbal López is the largest retrospective organised on the Guatemalan artist, who died in 2014. The artist’s career has opened up a wide-ranging reflection on the ethical and moral repercussions of the dynamics of power in Central America and a strong critique of the art world. Among more than 80 works from private and public collections, the “Oral Archive” project of Aníbal López’s work stands out. This is an ongoing project by the curators of the biennial, which is being launched within the framework of the 22nd Paiz Art Biennial and will continue until 2022. The archive seeks to safeguard testimonies of the artist’s relatives, colleagues and collaborators from different parts of the world. Paz Errázuriz‘s solo exhibition includes new works created in Guatemala expressly for the Biennial – the artist’s first works created outside Chile – accompanied by emblematic series from the last 40 years of the photographer’s production. “La Manzana de Adán” (1982 – 1990), “Nómades del Mar” (1991 – 1995) and “El Infarto del Alma” (1992 – 1994), will be accompanied by the new series “Sepur Zarco” (2019) and “Trans Guatemala” (2019) that relate the artist’s research to the local context. “Trans Guatemala” is a series of works in collaboration with the Guatemalan transgender community.

Participating artists
Francisca Aninat (Chile), Hellen Ascoli (Guatemala), Ana Teresa Barboza (Peru), Marilyn Boror (Guatemala), Edgar Calel (Guatemala), Sebastián Calfuqueo (Chile), Benvenuto Chavajay (Guatemala), Manuel Chavajay (Guatemala), Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Emo de Medeiros ( Benin-France), Detánico & Lain (Brazil), Elimo Eliseo (Guatemala), Paz Errázuriz (Chile), Forensic Architecture & Forensic Oceanography (United Kingdom), Rafael Freyre (Peru), Wingston González (Guatemala), Antonio José Guzmán (Panama/Holland), Yasmin Hage (Guatemala), Ayrson Heráclito (Brazil), Diego Isaías Hernández (Guatemala), Jessica Kairé (Guatemala), Vanderlei Lopes (Brazil), Aníbal López (Guatemala), Oswaldo Maciá (Colombia), Nelson Makengo (Congo), Andrea Monroy (Guatemala), Uriel Orlow (Switzerland), Alejandro Paz (Guatemala), Oscar Eduardo Perén (Guatemala), Antonio Pichillá (Guatemala), Ángel Poyón (Guatemala), Fernando Poyón (Guatemala), Naufus Ramírez Figueroa (Guatemala), Naomi Rincón Gallardo (Mexico/USA), Óscar Santillán (Ecuador/Holland), Maya Saravia (Guatemala), Angélica Serech (Guatemala), Jonas Staal (Holland), Pablo Vargas Lugo (Mexico), Heba Y. Amin (Egypt).

Further information is available in the press dossier in English

Online Symposium ‘Geografía Perversa / Geografías Malditas’
May 8th, 9am – 4pm (local time in Guatemala, UTC-6) 
5pm – 12am (Time in Berlin, GMT+1)
4pm – 11pm (Time in London, BST)
11am – 6pm (Time in New York, EDT)

Online through the Zoom platform in English and Spanish.
Registration: bit.ly/simposio-22-arte-paiz

This symposium builds on the exhibition by offering a platform for discussion of Guatemala’s cultural context, looking into its ancestrality alongside its history of violence and cultural resistance to reflect on the present and the uncertain future of the Global South. Perverse Geography / Cursed Geographies presents indigenous culture as a central theme and will bring together international speakers from different areas of expertise. Historical violence, inequalities and current conflicts facing Guatemalan society, as well as forms of ancestral survival, are some of the themes that will be addressed, the presentations will also examine the artistic proposals that respond to them and draw parallels between cases affecting both Latin America and the Global South.