Bolivian artists will be at the 2024 Venice Biennale

Bolivian artists will be present at the 2024 Venice Biennale exhibition

Cochabamba, February 5, 2024 (ATB Digital).- The most famous art exhibition in the world opened its doors to a Cochabamba artist: River Claure.

The organization of the 2024 Venice Biennale recently announced the list of more than 300 artists and groups participating in this important global showcase, among which are numerous representatives from the Middle East and Latin America.

In the list published on the official website of the Biennial, the names of three other Bolivian artists who went down in history leaving a great legacy also stand out: the painter Harmodio Tamayo, son of Franz Tamayo; the sculptor Marina Núñez del Prado; and the painter and muralist Miguel Alandia Pantoja.

“I am super, super, super excited to announce my participation in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (…)”, mentioned River Claure, through his official Instagram account.

Claure studied Graphic Design and Visual Communication at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS). In addition, he completed a master's degree in Contemporary Photography in Madrid, Spain, among other courses.

Last year he won two international scholarships.

Claure stands out for questioning dominant notions of cultural identity. “My family comes from a community in the Andes called Calacota, I grew up in the city experiencing the tensions between my indigenous roots and the urban reality in Bolivia in the 2000s. Currently, I am working a lot with the landscape and the symbolic way in which we relate to it.”

Warawar Wawa is the Andean artist's first major project, which has led him to exhibit at different photography festivals around the world.

MORE DETAILS

The 2024 version of the Biennale will be held from April 20 to November 24, 2024, in the Giardini and the Arsenale.

This year titled “Foreigners everywhere”, the expression has several meanings. First of all, “wherever you go and wherever you are, you will always find foreigners: they/we are everywhere. Secondly, that no matter where you are, you are always truly, and deep down, a foreigner,” the organization explained.

Claure from Cochabamba highlighted that the exhibition will be curated by Adriano Pedrosa, an important figure in the art world.

Pedrosa is the first Latin American to curate the International Art Exhibition. Currently, he is artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, where he has curated numerous exhibitions, including Stories of Dance (2020) and Stories of Brazil (2022). In 2023 he received the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, which was presented to him by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York.

Regarding the choice of artists, the curator said that he sought to give priority to those who had never participated in the exhibition. The extensive list of selected artists draws a lot of attention, having far surpassed the 213 artists included in the 2022 edition, by Cecilia Alemaní. Among them, it is worth highlighting the significant presence of 30 Brazilian artists, some of whom are indigenous, naturalized and icons of the national modernist movement, among others.

Other Latinos who stand out are: Claudia Alarcón and Silät (La Puntana Community, Salta, Argentina); Iván Argote (Bogotá, Colombia); Embroiderers from Isla Negra (founded in Isla Negra, Chile) and Camilo Mori (Valparaíso, Chile).

“I feel very privileged and grateful, I am still processing it,” said Claure, who is in this segment of Latin American artists.

CHARACTERISTICS

The exhibition will be divided into two main sections, one contemporary and one historical. The first includes LGBTQIAP+, marginalized, self-taught and indigenous artists. And there will be a special section in Corderie dedicated to the “Archive of Disobedience,” a project by Marco Scotini, who since 2005 has been researching videos focused on the intersection between artistic practices and activism.

Source: Opinion