"The rest of the world" meets at the 5th Montevideo Art Biennial

Montevideo (AFP) - "The rest of the world" is the title of the 5th Montevideo Art Biennial, which from October 25 will offer a "peripheral" vision of the state of the planet, its organizers announced on Monday.

The Legislative Palace of the Uruguayan capital will host until November 30 the work of exponents of contemporary art from several Asian countries, as well as from Norway or Ukraine, Brazil and Uruguay.

The call of the Montevideo Biennial Foundation has the general curatorship of the German Alfons Hug, who proposes a new look at the first circumnavigation of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan 500 years ago, the co-curator, Rulfo Álvarez, told AFP.

The starting point is a video by Malaysian artist Ahmad Fuad Osman, who tells the story of Magellan from the point of view of the slave Henry of Malacca, who acted as an interpreter for the Portuguese navigator.

"Osman's video serves as the poetic anchor and leitmotif of the Biennial, examining the state of the world from a decidedly peripheral and non-hegemonic perspective," according to the Biennial presentation.

Many of the artists participating in the Biennale "come from conflictive regions, such as the Caucasus and the Middle East, or from Ukraine, where the greatest conflict between the periphery and the old imperial center is currently taking place," the text adds.

Álvarez explained that Hug seeks to see what is said from new poles of artistic production far from the "indisputable" reference centers of contemporary art, such as New York, London, Paris and Berlin.

In the imposing Hall of the Lost Steps of the Uruguayan Palace of Laws, visitors will find mostly installations and videos.

There will be everything from "an exchange of problems" between an artist and visitors, to a pyramid of wedding dresses, or a guided tour by an artist dressed as a drag queen, Álvarez listed.

The list of participating artists includes Thomas Rentmeister (Germany), Verena Issel (Norway), Nikita Kadan and Dmytro Kozatsky (Ukraine), Alexandre Michon (France/Ukraine), Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan), Ahmad Fuad Osman (Malaysia), Tita Salina (Indonesia), Sabina Shikhlinskaya (Azerbaijan), Sadegh Souri (Iran) and Levan Varazi & Sipa Labakhua (Georgia).

In addition, there will be Novíssimo Edgar, Pierre Fonseca, Ana Mazzei, Luiz Roque, Tiago Sant'Ana, Antonio Tarsis, all from Brazil, as well as the Uruguayans Ana Aristimuño, Guadalupe Ayala, Mayra Da Silva, Santiago Dieste, Alejandra González Soca, Santiago Grandal , Fabricio Guaragna, Juliana Rosales, Gustavo Jauge and Yudi Yudoyoko.