Bienalsur: all about the most remarkable artistic event of Argentina for the world

IUshuaia, special envoy. A slight curtain of soft smoke rises on the margins of the Beagle Channel. Behind, the last rope of the Andes before getting lost in the Pacific seems to protect the back of Ushuaia, where, during a mountain ritual, machi Lucía Tocones performs a purification in Quichua at the inauguration of Bienalsur, the most outstanding artistic event in Argentina for the world.

In the aeroclub of the southernmost city of the planet, where legends mingle with reality and the sun, as capricious as the wind, it delineates the expectations of what it is possible to do in the day the day, the second edition of International Biennale of Contemporary Art of South America He had a moving opening, with the luthier expertise of the Orchestra Untref Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies, creating a climate that made the other forget, the logical cold that followed the first snowfall arrived a few hours previously in a city that counts and 120 thousand inhabitants.

And so began the mega-event, which will take 400 artists in 110 exhibitions spread over more than 100 locations in 43 cities and 20 countries.

"The choice of the launching site was deliberate, we wanted to go to the south of the south," he said. Aníbal Jozami Computer Graphics Culture, director of Bienalsur and rector of the National University of Tres de Febrero.

"Bienalsur was born to change the central currents of culture, to influence them by thinking of the South," Jozami said at the opening ceremony. By his side, Gonzalo Zamora, Secretary of Culture of Tierra del Fuego, added: "This is the only province in Argentina not to exercise sovereignty over 100% of its territory, which is why one of the samples inaugurated today is linked to the great effort made by the Fuegians to think about what islands for us and the lack of power over them. "

The first of the 6 samples contained in Ushuaia was Flags of the end of the world, deriving from Draw me a flag, a project by Christian Boltanski who, in addition to a badge of the French artist, included motifs from the Chilean Voluspa Jarpa – who represents his country at the Venice Biennale – and Argentinian Magdalena Jitrik.

One of the characteristics of Bienalsur is that it does not have a single format and does not work like clbadic biennials, in which only one city serves as a center and has an exclusive theme imposed by a commissioner.

However, as a proposal deployed by cities around the world, there is a kilometer 0, a nerve center located in the Muntref Hotel of Inmigrantes, in the port of Buenos Aires, which symbolizes spirit of open arms to the citizens of the whole world . Then each site is renamed with one kilometer that lays the foundation for this unique geography. This edition reaches again the city of Tokyo, Japan, named KM 18.370.

In view of the absence of a predominant axis of conservation, the works presented at the Biennale can be structured around six themes: Gender issues, Transits and migrations, Art and public space, Ways to see, Memories and forgetfulness, Art and science / Art and nature.

"There are certain concepts that are battlehorses in the art world, such as novelty and the fact that things expire." Neither concept is valid for itself in Bienalsur. This is a modern market demand, we are even interested in the fact that there are projects in continuity, it's a biennial that takes place for two years and not every two years ", did he declare. Diana Wechsler, artistic and academic director at Infobae culture.

At the opening, Wechsler added: "Bienalsur is unruly and therefore creates other cartographies, clears boundaries, reflects with artists between local and global, and as we are very messy, in the best sense of disorder , we like to relocate, and the exhibition on art and the territory will be extended to the museum of the end of the world, on which are found maps made by artists from around the world who have thought about ways to control the territory ". And right there is presented Art and territory, with the video installations of Anna Bella Geiger (Brazil), Harun Farocki (Germany), Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada) and Jean-Christophe Norman and Zineb Sedira (France), with a fourth flag, in this case of Mariana Telleria, Argentine Representative in Venencia.

For its part – Ex Banco Nación, The look that builds the world, a kind of collage that tells an anachronistic story of nature, a digest that goes from the most feverish visions of the naturalist Pliny the old to the enthusiastic transgenic animals of today.

At the Art Museum of Fueguino, in Rio Grande, it is exposed Landscapes between landscapes, with works by Angelika Markul, Esteban Álvarez, Lia Chaia, Gabriela Golder, Matilde Marin, Dora Longo Bahía, Gustavo Groh, Carla Zaccagnini, Graciela Taquini and Rosangela Rennó.

The call to the artists went through a open call and for this second edition, the number of creators presenting their work has doubled: from 2,500 responses to 5,100 from 82 different countries.

The mega event, which began today, will run until November 2019 and in its portfolio of artists are presented. Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy), Bill Viola, Martha Rosler and David Lynch (United States), Reza Aramesh (Iran), Christian Boltanski, Agnès Varda, Sophie Street, Annette Messager (La France), Cildo Meireles, Beatriz Milhazes, Waltércio Caldas, Rosangela Rennó (Brazil), Joel Andrianomearisoa (Madagascar), Teresa Margolles, Betsabe Romero (Mexico), Edith Dekyndt, Marcel Odenbach (Germany), Makoto Azuma, Katsuhiko Hibino (Japan), Voluspa Jarpa (Chile), Paul Rosero Contreras, José Alejandro Restrepo (Colombia), Etcetera Group (Argentina / Chile), Pablo Reinoso, Edgardo Rudnitzky, Eduardo Basualdo, Jorge Macchi, Marie Orensanz, Leandro Erlich, Guillermo Kuitca, Elda Cerrato and Eduardo Stupía (Argentina), among many others.

In addition to the official launch in Ushuaia, Bienalsur has a vast schedule of openings in different parts of Argentina and the world. May 25 in the province of Tucumán, June 5 and 6 in Rosario, June 8 in Lens and Crans-Montana (Switzerland), the 12 in the province of Córdoba. Presentations will then be presented in countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Benin, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco and Japan, among others.