Venice Biennale, Valeria Montti Colque will represent Chile

Cosmonación is an invitation to reflect on the concepts of nationality, exile, migration and diaspora. This is the project by artist Valeria Montti Colque curated by Andrea Pacheco González for La 60. International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale entitled Foreigners Everywhere - Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa: the intent is to connect the public with contemporary debates around the questions of Who I am and Where I am, in the process of territorialization of life within an overabundance of different cultural identities. The term Cosmonación is borrowed from anthropologist Michel S. Laguerre, who states that communities on the move do not sever relationships with their places of origin, but remain attached to their ancestral lands through different actions, materials and spiritual practices. In this way, they experience an expanded understanding of the self within a multisite nation, a cosmonation that unifies geographically distant territories.

Montti Colque is the first Chilean artist born outside of Chile to represent the country in the pavilion at theArsenale in Venice, and she proposes to enter a cosmonational space where the visitor will find a set of related sites. These different places and identities are connected through Mamita Montaña (Mother Mountain), the centerpiece of the pavilion. It is a cumulative installation, more than five meters high, consists of carpets printed with various media including collages, watercolors, drawings on paper, printed textiles, small ceramic pieces, and photographs. The installation is crowned by a ceramic head. Mamita Montaña evokes a symbolic sanctuary for refugees and members of the diaspora, offering refuge even to those living in the nation outside their own. Surrounding the majestic installation, the Chilean pavilion Cosmonación displays new works by Montti Colque: a procession of five ceramic figures depicting deities or mythological beings. Additional textiles and a video projection will immerse visitors in a landscape where cultures mingle, survive and thrive even when far from their ancestral lands.

“Valeria Montti Colque’s artistic proposal simultaneously combines a ritual and political space, allowing us to connect to the immensity of a forest or mountain through the power of a foreign community, right in the middle of a city,” says Andrea Pacheco González.

Notes on the artist.

Valeria Montti Colque was born in 1978 in Stockholm, Sweden, two years after her parents fled the Chilean military dictatorship, settling as part of Sweden’s institutional commitment to the overthrown government of Salvador Allende. Through his works, he invites us to explore a territory in which the visual, symbolic and material elements of the different nations in which he lives are interconnected. In addition to Chile and Sweden, his work also invokes other communities, such as the Aymara, through family ties to Andean cosmovision, or the African origins of his ancestors. His actions, drawings, murals, sculptures and installations are populated by undefined beings, body-collages and meticulous subjectivities that bring animated objects to life, traversing colorful landscapes in constant transit to some destination. Collaboration is fundamental to Valeria’s artistic practice, as other artists, family members and friends are an essential part of creating her artistic universe.

Venice Biennale, Valeria Montti Colque will represent Chile

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