Peruvian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale
Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves
Misplaced Ruins
May 9–November 22, 2015
Preview: May 6–8
The Pavilion of Peru
Sala d’Armi Nord, Arsenale di Venezia
Curator: Max Hernández-Calvo
Misplaced Ruins addresses the problems of cultural exchange inherent to international mobility, but also to the experience of social, cultural and linguistic “belonging,” as it’s built upon translational (and transnational) negotiations.
The installation alludes to the Peruvian context: pre-Columbian architecture, urban sprawl, events in Peru’s recent history, the coastal landscape, traditional music and sounds, and the weather conditions in Lima. Yet Mantilla and Chaves infuse these references with new meanings. The artists thrust these “signs of belonging” adrift, which become recoded in their attempt to be shared.
The installation invites us to mediate and translate between our different codes, referents and projections. In that regard, Misplaced Ruins reveals how fragile is our sense of what we have in common and the conflicting dimension of what we think is recognizably “proper” to us.
About the artists
Gilda Mantilla (b. 1967, Los Angeles) and Raimond Chaves (b. 1963, Bogota) are two of the most prominent artists of their generation. Based in Lima, the artists work collaboratively since 2001. Their work is based on political, social and cultural interrogations prompted by the Latin American context.
Among their projects, Drawing America (2005–09) relates travelling and drawing with the intention of challenging the symbolic construction of a territory; Observations on the City of Dust (2008–10) critically crosses the perception of Lima’s weather and its political and social status quo; An Uncomfortable Eagerness (2010–12) questions the role of the various formats and media of representations in the development of the imagery of the Amazon.
Latest exhibitions: Acciones Territoriales (Territorial Actions), Ex teresa Arte Actual, Mexico DF (2014); Unsettled Landscapes, SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (2014); Colonia apócrifa (Apocryphal Colony), MUSAC, Leon, Spain (2014); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Guggenheim, New York (2014); 9th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (2013); 43rd International Salon of Artists, Medellin (2013); A Trip from Here to There, MoMA, New York (2013); Colección: adquisicións e incorporacións recentes (Collection: Recent Acquisitions and Incorporations), CGAC, Santiago de Compostela (2013); Arte al paso (Passer-by Art), Museum of Art, Banco de la República de Colombia, Bogota (2013); Lo real maravilloso (The Marvelous Real), MUSAC, Leon, Spain, and MOT, Tokyo (2013–14); Gabinete colectivo (Collective Cabinet), Flora ars + natura, Bogota (2013); The Peripatetic School, The Drawing Room, London (2011); 27th Bienal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo (2006).
Their work is included in the following collections: Guggenheim and MoMA, New York; CIFO, Miami; Phelps-Fontanals, New York; 101 Collection, San Francisco; Diane and Bruce Halle, Arizona; Pérez Museum, Miami; MALI, Lima, Peru; MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Leon, Spain; CEGAC – Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela; as well as other public and private collections in Colombia, Spain, China, Puerto Rico and Peru.
Image: View of Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves, Observaciones sobre la ciudad de polvo, ProjecteSD, Barcelona, 2010. Image courtesy of ProjecteSD.