artnexus #119

The 59th Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani, was titled “The Milk of Dreams” as a tribute to the eponymous book written and illustrated by artist Leonora Carrington for her children. Originally called Leche de sueño, this book constructs a web of stories whose thematic axes are the fantastic, the monstrous, and the diversity that generates differences. Alemani also hinged on other key themes, such as the possibility of experimenting with an unbridled imagination, relations with the female figure and nature, and new forms of spirituality.

One of this edition’s most outstanding artists was Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (Viña del Mar, Chile, 1967), who studied at the University of Viña del Mar’s School of Design, and later at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany, with Jannis Kounellis and Rosemarie Trockel among her professors.

Her installation for the biennial, Las cordilleras encontradas (2017-2021), delves into the central aspects of her work. The predominance of the female figure is used to investigate sexuality, the unconscious, and memory. The world of dreams, taboos, and repression is seen from a personal perspective. Woman is identified with the creation of life, with energy. The feminine appears as a starting point linking Mother Earth to fertility, but also to nature’s other side, which restricts individual freedom. Topics such as religion, mythology, social realities, popular culture, and fables derived from indigenous or marginalized cultures, lead the viewer to a world of fantastic creatures with mystical and psychological concerns that seek a rebellion both artistic and social so as to transform the implausible into reality.

Her particular drawing technique reveals the possibilities of diverse materials such as graphite, watercolor, and translucent beeswax film cast on paper, which in turn have allowed her to explore the presence of traces and to use three-dimensionality to build unconventional supports.

IVONNE PINI