Artists and curators from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Spain, United States, France, Honduras, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Romania, Sweden, Venezuela and Argentina, in exhibitions and installations that through art summon other senses to reflect on the present.
From Friday, September 10, at the MUNTREF Immigrants Hotel Headquarters, Km0 BIENALSUR, in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, exhibitions and site-specific installations around the curatorial axes Transits and migrations, Modes of inhabiting, Ecological Awareness and Politics of Art will be open for visitation.
Within the curatorial axis Transits and migrations, “KIMSOOJA BUENOS AIRES. Chapter 1: Kimsooja. The Encounter with the Other”, curated by the Artistic Director of BIENALSUR, Diana Wechsler (ARG), presents site-specific works, video installations and video performance by the artist Kimsooja (KOR), who takes on the daily actions of women in society Korean, their objects, uses and customs, with a special emphasis on the practice of sewing. It includes bottaris (a package made up of a colorful blanket that wraps a brief selection of objects that are significant to its owner), a variety of fabrics and various means of transport.
Some of the works exhibited are To Breathe, Archive of Mind, Bottari: 2021, Thread Routes and A Needle Woman, among others.
Kimsooja's work seeks to establish links, new meanings and empathize with and in different cultures and societies in which she lives and works. Her career in Buenos Aires is presented in a comprehensive manner, in the form of chapters located in different venues. On September 16, she will present Chapter 2: Kimsooja. Nomad, at the National Museum of Fine Arts, and on September 21 will be the turn for Chapter 3: Kimsooja. An interior experience, at the Korean Cultural Center.
In continuation with the exhibitions at the MUNTREF Immigrants Hotel Headquarters that follow the same axis, Between us and the others: TOGETHER APART, curated by Diana Wechsler, Benedetta Casini (ITA) and Alex Brahim (COL), brings together the works of the MO Collective (COL), Francis Alÿs (BEL/MEX), Daniel Arévalo (COL), Marcos Ávila Forero (FRA), Yosman Botero Gómez (COL), Marcelo Brodsky (ARG), Ivan Candeo (VEN), Antonio Caro (COL), Gabriel Castillo (COL), Sergio “Bayo” Durán (COL), Juan Carvajal Franklin (COL), Raimond Chávez (COL) and Gilda Mantilla (PER), Juan Pablo Echeverri (COL), Alexandra Gelis (VEN) and Jorge Lozano (COL ), Oier Gil (ESP), Núria Güell (ESP), Matteo Guidi & Giuliana Racco (CAN), Angie Jácome (COL), Khaled Jarrar (PSE), Glenda León (CUB), Carmen Ludene (VEN), Esperanza Mayobre ( VEN), Verena Melgarejo Weinandt (DEU-BOL), Daniela Ortiz (PER), Nukanchik People (ECU), Dan Perjovschi (ROU), PSJM (ESP), Adrián Preciado (VEN), Samir Quintero (COL), Lester Rodríguez ( HND), Betsabeé Romero (MEX), Mar ía Ruido (ESP), Avelino Sala (ESP), Slavs and Tatars (POL / IRN), Barthelemy Toguo (CMR) and Wilmer Useche (COL). TOGETHER APART is a project with which BIENALSUR has been working since 2017 and that has its origin in the city of Cúcuta, on the border of Colombia and Venezuela, where dialogue and cultural and knowledge exchanges between both countries are highlighted.
At MUNTREF gardens, “Kiosk”, by the artist Peter Johansson (SWE/DNK) and curated by Benedetta Casini (ITA), will be presented.
“It is a site-specific installation inspired by surveillance architecture. Johansson points out the similarity of popular structures with other current uses and performativities, such as those found in food trucks and food kiosks, and triggers reflections on the symbolic value of boxes, the concept of the prefabricated, and the standardization of experiences. The artist modifies the original appearance of the sentry boxes and its the associated functions, to generate new experiences and expectations” (from the curatorial text).
The issue of surveillance also cuts across “Panopticon_Frontier 601”, by Nora Ancarola (ARG), curated by Valentín Roma (ESP).
The work alludes to the research of philosopher Michel Foucault on disciplinary devices from the 16th to the 19th centuries, focusing his attention on three institutions that articulate social indoctrination during modernity: the school, the clinic and the prison. It also refers to the so-called “German house”, an ongoing euphemism for the Gestapo bunker installed at the beginning of the Second World War at a strategic point in Portbou. In addition, it explores the processes of border militarization and the violence instituted by state power against the migrant population, as well as the penalizing archetypes generated from the media, political and legal spheres.
Inaugurating the curatorial axis Ecological Awareness, the exhibition The Office of Water, curated by Sofía Bastidas Vivar (ECU), Sofía Casarín (MEX) and Andrea de la Torre Suárez (MEX), includes the productions of Adrián Balseca (ECU), Tania Candiani (MEX), Carolina Caycedo (COL), the Centro Rural de Arte (ARG), Ramiro Chaves (ARG), Diego Andrés de la Cruz Gaitán (PRI), Jonathas de Andrade (BRA), Peter Fend (USA), Lía García, Canuto Roldán and Arlishan (MEX), Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola (MEX), David Medina and entre ríos (COL/GBR), Amphibious Laboratory of the Rio de la Plata (ARG), Luisa Lerman (ARG) and Tania Ximena (MEX).
Located in the Museum’s multipurpose room, the exhibition brings together efforts of thought and artistic representation around the relationship we have with water, recognizing it as an indissoluble organism between communities and territories.
Under the same axis and the same theme, “Amphibious Laboratory of the Rio de la Plata”, curated by Benedetta Casini, includes works by Gabriel Fortunato Chalabe (ARG), Constanza Chiozza (ARG), Martín Flugelman (ARG), Luisa Lerman (ARG), Pedro Luis Magnasco (ARG), Mateo Olabarrieta (ARG) and Sofía Vinson (ARG).
“It is an amphibious space installation that collects, exposes and problematizes the relationship of the city with its bodies of water. Piped streams and a denied waterfront show the imposition of cement on the reservoir water. Through the production of artifacts and events, it proposes the construction of an Amphibious Archive that mobilizes and activates thoughts on how to live and transform our anthropized amphibian territory” (from the curatorial text).
Finally, the exhibition Silence Still Speaks to Us, curated by Diana Wechsler, collects the ink and charcoal creations of the artist Muhannad Shono (SAU).
*The exhibitions are open for visit from Friday, September 10 at 2:00 p.m. and from Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., prior reservation through the Museum View MUNTREF mobile application or via email at visitamuntref@untref.edu.ar. Free admission.
