The Parque de la Memoria (Memory Park) is BIENALSUR

28/06/2019

The second edition of BIENALSUR 2019, Argentina's contemporary art cultural event for the world, opens on June 29 at 11:00 am, two exhibitions at the Parque de la Memoria - Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism: "Pyres. Witch stories” (“Piras. Historias de brujas")  by the Argentinean collective Tótem Tabú and "Choque" by the Brazilian artist Dora Longo Bahía.

Composed by Argentinean artists Malena Pizano, Hernán Soriano and Laura Códega, the Totem Tabú group has been working since 2014 on research related to the origin of certain prohibitions, with the aim of shedding light on the knowledge and ideologies that were censored by history and seeing how these issues survive today.

In this exhibition, the group traces a route that problematizes the multiple senses awakened by the figure of the witch, organized around seven nuclei that function as pyres, deployed in the PAyS room of the cultural space that represents Km 9.2 of the biennial.

"It is about the construction of a space where different pyres are erected in the exhibition hall which represent situations that contribute to the development of a critical and autonomous thought that seeks to question the canonical and prevailing stories", explains the curator of the exhibition Florencia Battiti, from BIENALSUR.

Some of the nuclei that make up the exhibition are, for example, "Pyre of the books” (“Pira de los libros") (the burning of books has been an instrument of totalitarianism in order to teach and indoctrinate society), or "Pyre of feminine work” (“Pira del trabajo femenino") (historically, women have been victims of wage inequality or circumscribed to their pregnant role, in charge of upbringing and the family), according to extracts from the text by Malena Nihjensohn that accompanies the exhibition.

Meanwhile, the Audiovisual Room will see "Choque", a video installation by Brazilian artist Dora Longo Bahia, with enormous visual power that critically questions the methods that the powers of the State apply to suppress the forces of resistance.

"Choque"  takes its title from the anti-riot unit of the Brazilian police, also known as "Tropa de Choque," a division trained and equipped to repress crowds and protests in public space. 

"Far from establishing itself as a symbol of protection, the police forces transmit in 'Shock' a philosophy of fear and, although the work anchors its conceptual base in the historical-political reality of contemporary Brazil, the visual narrative deployed by Longo Bahia finds similar resonances in multiple cities around the planet," says the curator of the exhibition Florencia Batti, from BIENALSUR.

Dora Longo Bahia (São Paulo, 1961) is a visual artist and Doctor in Visual Poetics from the University of São Paulo. Her works are developed in diverse media that include painting, photography, video, sound installations and books. Her link with the punk rock of the '80s led her to participate in different bands such as Disk-Putas and Blah Blah Blah. Longo Bahía defines herself as a producer of images and her works tackle, without rhetorical gossip, the violence of the contemporary world.

Both exhibitions -which coincide with the exhibition "The old dream of little-home ownership” (“El viejo sueño de la casita propia") by the artist Elda Cerrato- can be visited until 13 October at the Parque de la Memoria, Avenida Costanera Norte Rafael Obligado 6745, from Monday to Friday from 10 to 17 and on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 11 to 18, with free admission.