Peru's pavilion for the Biennale is dedicated to thinking about the environment

The 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale Arte di Venezia runs from April 20 to November 24, 2024, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, entitled Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Every where. In the Peru Pavilion at the Arsenale Hall of Arms, the project chosen to embody the country’s essence is Cosmic Traces, by renowned artist Roberto Huarcaya (1959, Lima, Peru). The exhibition is curated by Alejandro León Cannock (1980, Lima, Peru) and benefits from the curatorial insights of Joan Fontcuberta, Andrea Jösch and Amanda Antunes. The exhibition project presents an installation that combines a set of remarkable works. A monumental photogram conceived by artist Roberto Huarcaya in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, within Bahuaja Sonene National Park, nestled in the Peruvian jungle of the Tambopata National Reserve. Huarcaya unfurled a 30-meter roll of photosensitive paper under a very tall palm tree during a thunderstorm, allowing lightning to impress the film with its tracks during the night. The frame was revealed and fixed in situ in a darkroom set up in the jungle, using water from nearby rivers. Completing the visual work are a sculpture of a canoe by artist Antonio Pareja and a piano sound composition conceived by Mariano Zuzunaga.

Cosmic Traces that challenges our approach to the (rap)presentation of the environment. It is an immersive and fleeting ritual retreat designed to awaken consciousness, ignite imagination and promote reflection. In this way, it encourages viewers to reconsider their surroundings with a sensitive, non-instrumental perspective.

Notes on the artist

Roberto Huarcaya, born in 1959, became founder and director of Centro de la Imagen between 1999 and 2019. He has held numerous solo exhibitions. His work is part of the collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Fine Arts Museum in Houston, the Museum of Latin American Art in California (MOLAA), the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle (CoCA), the Lehigh University Art Collection, the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), among others. He is co-editor of CDI, the magazine of Centro de la Imagen, and Sueño de la Razón, a magazine on South American photography. He co-chaired LimaPhoto, a photography gallery fair in Lima, and the Biennale de Fotografía de Lima in March 2012 and April 2014.

Image: the Peru Pavilion at the 2024 Biennial. Photo: Andrea Avezzù

Peru's pavilion for the Biennale is dedicated to thinking about the environment

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