BiennialMay 8, 2023
Sandra Gamarra will represent Spain at the Venice Biennale
Sandra Gamarra (Lima, Peru, 1972) will present "Pinacoteca Migrante," curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio at the Spain Pavilion for the 60th Art Venice Biennale, which will take place from April 20 to November 24, 2024. Gamarra represented Peru at the 53rd Venice and exhibited at the Berlin and São Paulo biennials. About the selection, Pérez Rubio mentioned: "I feel very proud because today it was announced that Sandra Gamarra Heshiki and I won the competition for the Spanish Pavilion at Venice Biennale. This is a historical fact in relation to this art context because, for the first time since the 19th century, a woman artist who was not born in Spain will be the representative of the Spanish Pavilion. A woman artist who was born in Lima, Peru, who came with a grant to Madrid, and she grew up in this cultural ecosystem, but always recognizing her legacy from where she was born as well. It is an honor to work with her on the project for Venice Biennale 2024! Let's change history. We can do it!!!"
The "Pinacoteca Migrante" project will consist of six galleries and deal with the consequences of Spanish colonization. It will explore extractivist, patriarchy, racism, neo-capitalism, and invasion. It will analyze the hegemonic museum as a creator of exclusionary narratives; the project seeks to rewrite the canon and what is untold in Spanish public museums, highlighting the landscapes of the former colonies hidden in the basements of museums to talk about the invasion and appropriation of territories. Likewise, she will delve into pollution and extraction of natural resources that began industrially in America during the Colonial period. These are recurring themes in Gamarra's career and follow the concepts chosen for the next Biennial by its curator, Adriano Pedrosa, which will look at the Global South, especially Latin America.
As announced by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), their selection was made by a jury made up of Nuria Enguita, director of the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Bea Espejo, art critic and curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022, Cabello/Carceller, a team of artists present at the Spanish Pavilion at the 2015 Biennale, Carlos Urroz, critic and expert in contemporary art, Peio H. Riaño, art historian and journalist, Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA) and Blanca de la Torre, curator and contemporary art critic, as well as the vote of the Directorate of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID), organizer of the Spanish participation in the Biennale.
The "Pinacoteca Migrante" project will consist of six galleries and deal with the consequences of Spanish colonization. It will explore extractivist, patriarchy, racism, neo-capitalism, and invasion. It will analyze the hegemonic museum as a creator of exclusionary narratives; the project seeks to rewrite the canon and what is untold in Spanish public museums, highlighting the landscapes of the former colonies hidden in the basements of museums to talk about the invasion and appropriation of territories. Likewise, she will delve into pollution and extraction of natural resources that began industrially in America during the Colonial period. These are recurring themes in Gamarra's career and follow the concepts chosen for the next Biennial by its curator, Adriano Pedrosa, which will look at the Global South, especially Latin America.
As announced by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), their selection was made by a jury made up of Nuria Enguita, director of the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Bea Espejo, art critic and curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022, Cabello/Carceller, a team of artists present at the Spanish Pavilion at the 2015 Biennale, Carlos Urroz, critic and expert in contemporary art, Peio H. Riaño, art historian and journalist, Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA) and Blanca de la Torre, curator and contemporary art critic, as well as the vote of the Directorate of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID), organizer of the Spanish participation in the Biennale.
