The National Council of Culture and Arts Chile have announced that artist Bernardo Oyarzún has been chosen to represent Chile at the 57th Venice Art Biennale. The exhibition will be curated by Ticio Escobar.
Oyarzún’s exhibition, Werken, will feature an installation of over 1,500 Mapuche masks, traditionally used in ceremonies by the Mapuche community, a group of indigenous inhabitants of southcentral Chile and southwestern Argentina.The walls of the room will feature red LED scroll signs that will display 6,907 Mapuche surnames. Oyarzún’s work often combines anthropological, social and historical elements in order to present a critique of Chilean culture and society.
Oyarzún was born in 1963 in Los Muermos in the south of Chile and currently lives and works in Santiago. Ticio Escobar is a curator, academic and art critic. He was born in Asunción, Paraguay, where he is currently the director of the Centre for Visual Arts at Museo del Barro.
8 November 2016
