EL ATLAS DEL IMPERIO
Pavilion of Latin America-IILA (Italo-Latin American Institute)
at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
June 1st – November 24th 2013
Isolotto dell'Arsenale, Venice
Opening: Friday May 31st 2013 at 4.30 pm
IILA (Italo-Latin American Institute), International Organism, is proud to present its own Pavilion dedicated to Latin America at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, dedicated to the interrelationships between Europe and Latin America and to the dynamics of the relationships in cultural exchanges between artists of both Continents.
This year, from June 1st to November 24th in Venice, the IILA and its institutional partner Goethe-Institut proposes an exhibition inside the big venue of Isolotto dell’Arsenale, which becomes an Atlas where Latin American and European art debate and confront each other, by way of the deep impact of increasing mutual enrichment of their own cultural identities.
For that reason, the Pavilion of Latin America-IILA, which has a distinguished Curator, Alfons Hug, a co-curator, Paz Guevara, and Sylvia Irrazábal – Chief of Cultural Department of IILA - as Commissioner, is entitled “El Atlas del Imperio” (“The Atlas of the Empire”) and explores new geopolitical aspects of contemporary art in the experience of cross-fertilization between Latin American and European artists.
The main theme takes inspiration from the literary simile of the great Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges who describes, in his tale “On Exactitude in Science”, the attempt of the Cartographers to draw “(…) a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it (…)”, from the writing and thoughts of great Carlos Fuentes and from "Invisible Cities" by Italo Calvino. The exhibition “El Atlas del Imperio” at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia pretends to be an occasion for artists to re-draw their own symbolic cartography, which is less concerned with topographical precision than with making selective observations of seemingly irrelevant details in interpersonal relationships, or of the baneful conditions in the present.
This dynamic exchange intensified further in contemporary art. Some of the best Latin American artists now live in Europe, where they are sometimes even regarded as representatives of their new home. Conversely, several renowned European artists chose to live and work in Latin America.
The Pavilion of Latin America - IILA explores this new geopolitical aspect of contemporary art. The artists invited to reflect on this theme are: Guillermo Srodek-Hart (Argentina), Sonia Falcone (Bolivia), Juliana Stein (Brazil), León & Cociña (Chile), François Bucher (Colombia), Lucía Madriz (Costa Rica), Humberto Díaz (Cuba), Miguel Alvear and Patricio Andrade (Ecuador), Simón Vega (El Salvador), Marcos Agudelo (Nicaragua), Jhafis Quintero (Panama), Fredi Casco (Paraguay), David Zink Yi (Peru), Collective Quintapata (Dominican Republic), Martín Sastre (Uruguay), Susana Arwas (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela).
In addition, because IILA's institutional aims include promoting cultural relations between Latin America, Italy and Europe, the exhibition project includes Luca Vitone (Italy), Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann (Germany/Brazil), Christian Jankowski, German artist linked to Latin America.
TECHNICAL FORM
El Atlas del Imperio (The Atlas of the Empire)
Pavilion of Latin America-IILA (Italo-Latin American Institute)
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Commissioner: Sylvia Irrazábal
Curator: Alfons Hug
Co-curator: Paz Guevara
Exhibition design: Paola Pisanelli Nero
June 1st – November 24th 2013
Isolotto, Arsenale - 30122 Venice
Friday May 31st 2013
4.30 pm: Opening
From 5.00 to 5.30 pm: Performance. Jhafis Quintero (Panama): Prótesis, 2013
Courtesy: Analix Forever, Geneva and Paris
5.30 pm: Action. Martín Sastre (Uruguay): U from Uruguay, 2013
Courtesy: the artist
For additional information
Cultural Department IILA
Ph: +39 0668492.225/246; e-mail:
s.culturale@iila.org
Press Office IILA
Francesco Accolla: mobile: +39 349 2364924; ph (office): +39 0668492.223; e-mail:
gf.accolla@iila.org
Esperanza Anzola: mobile: +39 340 7213593; ph (office): +39 06 68492.210; e-mail:
stampa@iila.orgbr>
Press Kit downloadable from
www.iila.org and
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xmz4mt5300hbm3k/t0ErhH_w7I
