Coverage

Ecuador's Bienal de Cuenca marks 40th anniversary with a playful theme but a serious tone

As political tensions subsided, the biennial opened with a ceremony that underscored the event's commitment to Indigenous knowledge and spiritual reflection. The Chacruna offering, an Andean ritual honouring Pachamama (Mother Earth), was led by the Ecuadorian artist and curandera (medicine woman) Carmen Vicente. Her installation, curated by Amy Rosenblum Martín, won this year's acquisition prize.

Vicente's Infinite Steps is a deeply personal installation that confronts the devastation wrought by Covid-19 in Ecuador, one of the earliest epicentres of the pandemic in Latin America. The solemn work is comprised of walking sticks mounted on stone bases, each anchored by a single shoe. The handles are wrapped with multicoloured, doll-like figurines affixed to metal spoons, forming a silent procession of human figures.

“I started with a few pairs of shoes that were given to me by four family members who died during the pandemic. And from there, more started to join in.”

Carmen Vicente, to The Art Newspaper

Read the article→

Flip It and Reverse It: We Are One with All There Is — Reindigenizing the world through spirituality and memory

Another of the most successful proposals at Casa de las Posadas is the one curated by Amy Rosenblum-Martin (USA), based on the original vision of Yesenia Selier (Cuba, 1972–2021), under the title Flip It and Reverse It: We Are One with All There Is — Reindigenizing the world through spirituality and memory. Although the artists brought together in this curatorial project occupy separate rooms, the thematic unity produces a resonance that runs through the entire collection.

This exhibition is situated at the intersection of aesthetics, politics, and spirituality; more than a display, it functions as a decolonial invocation seeking to heal the wounds of modernism through the voices and knowledge of Afro-Indigenous women. Rosenblum-Martin, together with the late Cuban researcher, conceives of the exhibition space as medicine, understands curating as a ritual act, and transforms the exhibition into collective healing.

The curatorial text proposes a radical shift: avoiding any exoticizing approach in order to situate “indigenous art”—if that category is still relevant—as a living form of thought capable of dismantling colonial hierarchies of knowledge. From this perspective, the invited artists—Astrid Gonzalez (Colombia), Sethembile Msezane (South Africa), and Carmen Vicente (Ecuador) appear both as creators and guardians of spiritual lineages, mediators of energies that connect territories and temporalities. The exhibition does not limit itself to displaying works, but rather summons mystical, performative, and ritual practices that disobey the institutional format in order to reconfigure the links between art, body, and nature.

Excerpt translated from Spanish original

Read the original→

Amy Rosenblum-Martin's curatorial work, “Flip It and Reverse It: We Are One with All There Is”—at Casa de las Posadas—is almost the highlight of the biennial. The installation is impeccable, perfectly balanced with the space that houses the works. The artists are incredibly strong; Carmen Vicente, one of the award winners, possesses a powerful, almost overwhelming energy.

The energy of the earth and its current neglect are our present and future; everything that disturbs it, including the killing of living beings, holds an emotional memory for it. The earth has memories, and it is these memories that the artists explore. Well done to the group: they manage to move the viewer and make them reflect on the uncertainty of the here and now.

Excerpt translated from Spanish original Facebook post

XVII International Biennial of Cuenca, the Return of Beauty and Meaning

Thus, if someone asks you about the Biennial, the image that comes to mind might be the American police patrol disarmed step by tedious step and, at the end, the woman placed at the center of the piece; the clothing of the young people murdered in Guayaquil arranged in these black interior spaces; the gigantic ram with three legs and two heads placed in the middle of the gallery room; the series of chakanas sliding over one another revealing various Andean symbols [Carmen Vicente]; the black hands over which dark sand slides [Sethembile Msezane]; the white figure of a kind of prophet that questions us from its apparent immobility [Astrid González]; and many other examples could follow.

Statement distributed by the Bienal de Cuenca to curators · Excerpt translated from Spanish original

Video interview with Amy Rosenblum-Martín

Watch the interview→

Meet the winners of the XVII Cuenca Biennial

Read the article→

Opening of the 17th Cuenca Biennial: The Game — A Biennial of Biennials

Read the article→

Installation of artworks takes place at the venues of the Cuenca Biennial

Read the article→

Cuenca Biennial: 23 Ecuadorian artists selected for the 17th Edition

Read the article→