Magela Ferrero,
Sala de parto, 1999, Fotografía, 35mm.
Uruguayan Pavilion
54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Alejandro Cesarco & Magela Ferrero
A Common Ground
Location: Giardini, Venice
Dates: 4 June - 27 November 2011
Preview: 1 - 3 June 2011
Opening Reception: 5:30 pm, 2 June, 2011
Curator: Clio E. Bugel
Commissioner: Silvia Listur
www.labiennaleuruguay.gub.uy
The Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay is pleased to announce that the artists
Alejandro Cesarco and Magela Ferrero have been selected by curator Clio E. Bugel to
represent Uruguay in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale.
Hosting divergent and independent projects by two of the country's most exciting artists, the Uruguay Pavilion will foreground a set of shared concerns around affective relations to the
past and the fashioning of identity (however broadly defined) that results from it.
Alejandro Cesarco will be exhibiting two interrelated works, specifically conceived for
Venice. Methodology (2011), is a video that takes up secrecy as a narrative structure and a
mode of address: what is said and what cannot be said, and the way people act in relation to
what is alluded to, taken for granted, or ultimately silenced. The second work is a
photographic diptych, The Gift and the Retribution (2011), and consists of photographs of
the covers of two books with crossed dedications: "The Goodbyes" by Juan Carlos Onetti
and "Love Poems" Idea Vilariño. The dedication, as a device through which authors
somehow publicly justify their production, as well the connections and dialogues between art
works and books, is one of Cesarco's recurring motifs.
Magela Ferraro presents nine large-scale photographs, close-up details of garments she has
saved over the past decade that closely relate to significant events in her personal history.
These photographs, collectively titled A Name is a Trap (2011), have been inscribed, drawn
and written upon with phrases and quotes that only tangentially relate to the events alluded
to. Ferrero will also present a hand-made artist's book, Address Book (2011), that compiles, in
diary form, a somewhat exhaustive paper trail of her recent past: receipts, photographs,
notes, magazine cut-outs, etc.
Alejandro Cesarco was born in 1975 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He has exhibited in galleries
and museums in the United States, Latin America and Europe. His most recent solo
exhibitions include, "One Without The Other", Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City
(2011), "Present Memory", Tate Modern, Level 2 Gallery Series, London (2010), "Alejandro
Cesarco", ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas (2010), "Two Films", Murray Guy, New York (2009),
"Three Works", Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2009) and "Retrospective", in collaboration with
John Baldessari, Murray Guy, New York (2007). These exhibitions addressed, through
different formats and strategies, his recurrent interests in repetition, narrative, and the
practices of reading and translating. He has curated exhibitions in the U.S., Uruguay,
Argentina and a project for the 6th Mercosur Biennial (2007), Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is
director of the non-profit arts organization Art Resources Transfer, where he conceived and
edits Between Artists, an ongoing series of conversation-based books. He lives and works in
New York.
Magela Ferrero was born in 1966 in Montevideo, Uruguay. She has worked as a
photographer since 1989, under the mentorship of Diana Mines. In Uruguay, her work has
been exhibited at MNAV - National Museum of Visual Arts, Subte Municipal, Montevideo
City Hall Atrium, Museo Blanes, ColecciÛn Engelman- Ost, MARTE UPMARKET
Gallery, the Goethe Institute and the EAC-National Contemporary Art Center.
Internationallyshe has exhibited at 3rd Mercosur Biennial (Porto Alegre, Brasil, 2005) and
Galleria Spiazzi in Venice (Italy, 2007). She has worked as a printer, illustrator of books and
albums, and photographer for countless social events. She was also director of photography
for educational UNICEF short films and various music videos. She has lectured at the
National School of Fine Arts and UDELAR School of Architecture. She lives and works in
Montevideo.
For further information please contact:
Clio E. Bugel, Curator
claraluz@adinet.com.uy
Silvia Listur, Commissioner
slistur@gmail.com
Ministerio de Educación y Cultura
San José 1116
CP11100 Montevideo
Uruguay
