A Peruvian artist will represent Spain

A Peruvian artist will represent Spain for the first time in the history of the Venice Biennale

Originally from Lima, Sandra Gamarra has become the first person not born in Spain to participate on behalf of the country in the 60 editions of the event
Sandra Gamarra, Spanish-Peruvian artist, will represent Spain at the prestigious Venice Biennale, thus becoming the first person not born in Spain to do so in 60 editions of the event. Her project, titled 'Pinacoteca Migrante', addresses colonial narratives and historical modes of representation. Under the curatorship of Agustín Pérez Rubio, with an outstanding career in Latin American art, Gamarra proposes a rereading of the Spanish pictorial heritage using existing works in collections of Spanish art galleries.
The decolonization of museums has emerged as a crucial issue in the international artistic sphere, and Gamarra, born in Lima in 1972, joins this movement with her particular approach. Through the creation of her own museum based on pre-existing works in Spanish collections, the artist seeks to raise awareness about the European colonial gaze, using techniques such as copying, modification and the creation of collages.
Gamarra's project is framed in the context of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which is titled 'Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere'. Under the curatorship of Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa, the Biennale, one of the most important artistic events in the world and in which the Israeli pavilion has decided not to open its doors until a ceasefire is agreed in Gaza, will feature the participation of 88 national pavilions in an event that will take place from April 20 to November 24.

In this context, the Spanish pavilion stands as a space to revisit the country's pictorial heritage, from the time of the Empire to the Enlightenment, and to make silenced cultures visible. Gamarra, who already participated in the Venice Biennale in 2009 in the pavilion of the Italian-Latin American Institute, will explore the classic genres of the arts through six rooms or sections, offering interventions and reinterpretations that analyze the biased representations between colonizers and colonized, and establishing historical connections with contemporary reality, in which reference will be made to the territories that were part of Spain, but that carry with them a “monolithic notion that was based on the destruction of other forms of social organization,” according to Acción Cultural. Spanish.