ExhibitionSeptember 13, 2024
La Chola Poblete: Guaymallén. MUDEC
The MUDEC presents, together with Deutsche Bank and in collaboration with 24 ORE Cultura, the exhibition Guaymallén by Argentine artist La Chola Poblete, who was awarded in 2023 the international “Artist of the Year” award that the Bank dedicates to contemporary art, now in its 12th year.
Britta Färber, Global Head of Art&Culture Deutsche Bank, curates the exhibition, which will be on view until October 20, 2024.
An artist, performer, and LGBTQ+ rights activist, in her work La Chola Poblete (1989) employs different media – sculpture, painting, performance, drawing, photography, video art – to explore themes such as the branching of the Inquisition, the heritage of colonization, and the permeating influence of global capitalism.
The exhibition is a tribute to the artist’s Indigenous origins and queer identity: the title comes from the name of La Chola Poblete’s hometown in northwestern Argentina, at the foot of the Andes, and the project combines the artist’s life experience and her vision into a very personal and honest narrative, filled with beauty, cruelty, and rebellion.
Guaymallén is a “church of drawing,” a spiritual space filled with religious, political, erotic, pop-cultural, and Indigenous motifs and symbols that overlap, dismantling established hierarchies and orders. An immersive environment that tells stories of salvation, virgins, martyrs, and ancient goddesses through a series of large-scale watercolors, photographic works, and installations.
Through this exhibition, La Chola Poblete addresses the historical roles of women and trans people, the kinds of femininity that are persecuted and ostracized by religious and patriarchal ideologies. In addition to that, there is also a broader reflection embracing the artist’s role in the art milieu concerning her identity (trans, Indigenous) and the role of Western institutions in defining the rules of what we call “art,” a process that is not only a historical product but actively depends on certain ideological and post-colonial conditions.
Britta Färber, Global Head of Art&Culture Deutsche Bank, curates the exhibition, which will be on view until October 20, 2024.
An artist, performer, and LGBTQ+ rights activist, in her work La Chola Poblete (1989) employs different media – sculpture, painting, performance, drawing, photography, video art – to explore themes such as the branching of the Inquisition, the heritage of colonization, and the permeating influence of global capitalism.
The exhibition is a tribute to the artist’s Indigenous origins and queer identity: the title comes from the name of La Chola Poblete’s hometown in northwestern Argentina, at the foot of the Andes, and the project combines the artist’s life experience and her vision into a very personal and honest narrative, filled with beauty, cruelty, and rebellion.
Guaymallén is a “church of drawing,” a spiritual space filled with religious, political, erotic, pop-cultural, and Indigenous motifs and symbols that overlap, dismantling established hierarchies and orders. An immersive environment that tells stories of salvation, virgins, martyrs, and ancient goddesses through a series of large-scale watercolors, photographic works, and installations.
Through this exhibition, La Chola Poblete addresses the historical roles of women and trans people, the kinds of femininity that are persecuted and ostracized by religious and patriarchal ideologies. In addition to that, there is also a broader reflection embracing the artist’s role in the art milieu concerning her identity (trans, Indigenous) and the role of Western institutions in defining the rules of what we call “art,” a process that is not only a historical product but actively depends on certain ideological and post-colonial conditions.
Gallery
