Installation View

Venice Biennale: Chile and Peru

Peruvian artist Christian Bendayan explores how indigenous and trans people have been othered in Peru, while the solo exhibition of Chilean artist Voluspa Jarpa is a fictional museum that challenges Euro-centric narratives.

Voluspa Jarpa, The Subaltern Portrait Gallery, Venice Biennale.

by Will Furtado
Mon 20 May, 2019

The 58th Venice Biennale focuses on artists who challenge existing habits of thought and open up our readings of objects and images. Curated by Ralf Rugoff, the biennale features 79 artists in the international exhibition and 89 national pavilions. Here are our first impressions of the Peru and Chile pavilions at Arsenale, both open until until November 24, 2019.

Featuring paintings, installation, collage, and archival pieces, the solo exhibition of Peruvian artist Christian Bendayan, Trans Tropicalia (Fragments), explores how indigenous and trans people have been othered in Peru.

Altered Views, the solo exhibition of Chilean artist Voluspa Jarpa, is a fictional museum that challenges Euro-centric narratives while reflecting on racism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and the link between economics and colonialism. Curated by Augustín Pérez Rubio, the show is divided into the Hegemony Museum, the Subaltern Portrait Gallery and the Emancipation Opera.

Christian Bendayan, Iron House, Venice Biennale, 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Christian Bendayan, Anthropophagous Indians, Venice Biennal 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Christian Bendayan, Animal Power, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Christian Bendayan, 'Indian Line' (Souvenir from Iquitos), Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Christian Bendayan, Butterflies of the Amazon, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Voluspa Jarpa, Altered Views, The Hegemony Museum, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Voluspa Jarpa, Altered Views, The Hegemony Museum, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Voluspa Jarpa, Altered Views, The Hegemony Museum, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Voluspa Jarpa, Altered Views, The Hegemony Museum, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Voluspa Jarpa, Altered Views, The Hegemony Museum, Venice Biennale 2019. Photo: Will Furtado.

Text and photos by Will Furtado, deputy editor of Contemporary And based in Berlin.​

Most read
In Conversation With Salym Fayad
“We Know Very Little About Contemporary African Culture”
The 3rd African Traveling Film Festival in Colombia – MUICA – reveals how the African continent is narrated through cinema.
White Label
How Warhol Erased the Identity of His Black Trans Sitters
Art historian Gürsoy Doğtaş analyses the power imbalances between Warhol and his BIPoC queer and trans sitters of lower Manhattan.
In Conversation with Koral Carballo
Afro-Descendants In Mexico: “We Were Always Here”
Mexican photographer Koral Carballo speaks about Afro-descendants in Mexico and about discovering her own identity.
related content
Installation View
Walter Firmo: In the Verb of Silence, the Synthesis of the Scream
Retrospective brings together more than 260 works by the Rio artist, with images that portray Black culture in Brazil.
documenta 15
Installation View: Más Arte Más Acción
Más Arte Más Acción connects the Colombian rainforest and its peoples with the German forest in a series of projects in Kassel.
12th Berlin Biennale
Susana Pilar: Reclaiming Space through Performance
A chat with Cuban artist Susana Pilar Delahante about her career and the work she presented at the 12th Berlin Biennale.
documenta15
Installation View: Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt (INSTAR)
INSTAR collective presents Operational Factography (2022), a counter-narrative of Cuban cultural history installed in Kassel.
documenta15
Installation View: Atis Rezistans – Ghetto Biennale
Haiti-based Atis Rezistans presents a multimedia installation, artist residencies, performances, screenings, and discussions in Kassel.
Installation View
The 59th Venice Biennale: Giardini and Arsenale
Here are some installation views of the 59th Venice Biennale taking place from 23 April to 27 November 2022 curated by Cecilia Alemani.
Installation View
The Peruvian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale
Artist Herbert Rodriguez represents Peru with "Peace is a corrosive promise" featuring some of his political works from the tumultuous 1980s decade.
Installation View
The Mexico Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale
Featuring artists Mariana Castillo Deball, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Fernando Palma Rodríguez, and Santiago Borja
Installation View
Jonathas de Andrade: Brazilian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale
For the Brazilian Pavilion, the artist created an immersive installation about the body in relation to popular idiomatic expressions
Most read
In Conversation With Salym Fayad
“We Know Very Little About Contemporary African Culture”
The 3rd African Traveling Film Festival in Colombia – MUICA – reveals how the African continent is narrated through cinema.
White Label
How Warhol Erased the Identity of His Black Trans Sitters
Art historian Gürsoy Doğtaş analyses the power imbalances between Warhol and his BIPoC queer and trans sitters of lower Manhattan.
In Conversation with Koral Carballo
Afro-Descendants In Mexico: “We Were Always Here”
Mexican photographer Koral Carballo speaks about Afro-descendants in Mexico and about discovering her own identity.
Installation View
Mercosul Biennial
The 11th edition of the Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial focuses on the Atlantic Triangle.
“Manglaria: raíces y sujeciones”
Reimagining the Colombian Pacific
The exhibition brings together diverse perspectives on the territory and the Afro and indigenous representations in Colombia.
Exhibition
Take Me to the River
A multimedia exhibition by the Goethe-Institut and the Prince Claus Fund Art and culture responds to the climate crisis.
Mãe Preta
Women and Resistance
Exhibition recounts narrative of black women who breastfed children of whites and reflects on Brazilian society.
In Conversation with Tiago Sant'Ana
"The Naturalization of Whiteness as a Life Parameter"
Artist and researcher uses materials such as sugar to discuss the naturalization and erasure of a colonial past.
Colombia
Oscar Murillo: Abstraction, Contradiction and Commercial Disposition
A portrait of the artist who provides shelter to the new generations of Afro-descendent artists in Colombia and Latin America through his critical artistic work.