The Venice Biennale, one of the most important art exhibitions in the world, already has a Spanish representative. It will be Peruvian-born artist Sandra Gamarra (Lima, 51 years old), who will present her Pinacoteca Migrante project at the 60th biannual edition of the exhibition, to be held between April 20 and November 24, 2024. It will be curated by brazilian Adriano Pedrosa. In 2021, Gamarra suffered censorship from the Community of Madrid, which asked her to remove the words “racism” and “restitution” from an exhibition that questioned Hispanicity and was being held at the Alcalá 31 public hall.

Gamarra, who lives in Madrid since 2002 and works for the Juan de Aizpuru Gallery, is the author of numerous exhibitions in Spain, Brazil, Peru and the United States. With her project in Venice, she becomes the first artist not born in Spain to represent the country. Her work deals with cultural appropriations and crossings, as well as the relationships and mechanisms of the art world, cultural appropriations, ” destruction as part of miscegenation, of the deterioration of time, but also of self-imposed deterioration”, as she herself declared.

The Spanish-Peruvian artist’s show will occupy six rooms and will revolve around the consequences of Spanish colonization. The proposal was selected by a jury made up of Nuria Enguita, Carlos Urroz, Bea Espejo, Cabello/Carceler, Blanca de la Torre, Elvira Dyangani Ose and Peio H Riaño.

Source: https://elpais.com/cultura/2023-04-21/la-artista-peruana-sandra-gamarra-representara-a-espana-en-la-bienal-de-venecia-de-2024.html
Photo by Inma Flores