Arts
The First International Contemporary Art Biennial of Cartagena de Indias (BIACI, in its Spanish acronym), which opened on February 7, is not just the latest event of its kind to pop up on the already overloaded schedules of art world travelers—it’s also Colombia’s first biennial, and a serious bid to put the country’s art scene on the map. We spoke with biennial director Natalia Bonilla about the international craze for these every-other-year exhibitions, the difficulties of getting this project off the ground, and the art scene in a coastal city steeped in Colombia’s colonial history.
Can you tell me a bit about the biennial’s inception?
The founders of the BIACI Foundation board have been dreaming about this biennial for some time. Each of the board members has been committed to the arts and to the city of Cartagena in varying capacities for years—they have all in fact dedicated most of their lives to promoting the arts and culture. It feels like this was finally the right time for an International Biennial and all of the pieces fell into place. We [Colombians] have been seeing an enormous amount of growth in our artists, museums, and collectors, and it was time to respond in kind. And there is a unique combination in Cartagena of European, African, and Indigenous influences—a context that provides a unique perspective through which to filter the artwork that is included in this biennial. I think the place itself not only serves as background for the biennial but is also allowed to become a protagonist on many levels.
What are the challenges in starting a biennial for the first time?
It is an enormous project. There are 120 artists from 45 countries who are participating (many of whom are traveling to Cartagena this week for the inauguration), and about 40 works have been commissioned by the biennial and produced on site, many in collaboration with the local community, specifically for the context of Cartagena. We have been lucky enough to count on the participation of most of the major museums and cultural centers in the city in addition to other less conventional exhibition spaces like churches, plazas, streets, and private houses for site-specific installations and performances.
Working internationally with a curatorial team and artists from all over the world in many different languages required us to create new systems of communicating and interpreting. The most technically challenging aspect may have been preparing the spaces to receive works that require precise climate control. But on a broader level, as the newest biennial, the necessary work is to drum up support, increase visibility, do outreach, and introduce ourselves to our international peers, many of whom had never loaned artwork to Colombia.
New biennials seem to be popping up quite regularly now. What sets this one apart from the others?
That is true—it does seem to be a fad of sorts—but I think we have set ourselves apart across the board. Berta Sichel, our Artistic Director, has curated such an extensive exhibition that connects to the history of the city and locates the biennial specifically in the context of Cartagena in such a way that the city itself is almost integrated into the show, or as she has said that the show is “seamlessly integrated into the city.” The history of the place is embraced and elaborated upon by the artists included in the biennial. Our commitment to social engagement and educational initiatives as one of the core principals of the biennial also sets us apart.
All the exhibitions, conferences, performances, guided tours, and workshops are free and open to the public on the one hand, and, on the other, we structured the biennial commissions so that artists could really do serious field work here in Colombia and establish connections to communities here. For instance, Jenny Marketou worked for weeks with singers and musicians in Cartagena and its surroundings in her exploration of Cumbia [a popular/ folkloric dance and music genre from Colombia]. Anna Boghiguian is another artist who made a point of working with the local community and giving workshops to children in the neighborhood where she was preparing her piece for the biennial. Her installation in the chapel of the Santísima Trinidad, one of the oldest and most important churches in the city, is astounding, and includes work by children from the neighborhood surrounding the church who in this very organic and intimate way have become acquainted with contemporary art and the possibilities for site-specific installation.
The biennial’s theme is “Presence.” Why was that chosen? Are you commissioning artists to create work in dialogue with that theme?
Berta, whose vision and perspective have informed the theme and curation of the entire biennial, has said the “powerful presence of the past” in the streets of Cartagena as one walks through the historic district of the old town could not be ignored, and was in fact one of the major catalysts of the exhibition and one of the driving forces behind the conception of the biennial in the first place.
Two of the commissioned works at the Palacio de la Inquisición, one of the main sites for trying and torturing accused heretics during the Spanish Inquisition, draw upon the history and the theme of presence. One is Spanish-born New York-resident Elena Rivero’s … Y tan alta vida espero … (after Santa Teresa de Jesús), a work consisting of the artist’s signature medium—thread and words—that she puts on the iron grills on the Palacio’s façade. Designed to evoke the convents of southern Spain as well as the grillwork of homes behind which secreted women traditionally conversed to passersby on the street, the work addresses issues of time, intimacy, and gender. .
Is there a central exhibition space for the biennial or is it spread throughout the city?
The biennial is structured as four core exhibitions. One core concept deals with loss, trauma, and the intangible, and is largely centered on the Museo Histórico Palacio de la Inquisición. The second deals with crafts, drawing upon ancient artisinal traditions of Cartagena; its center is the Museo Naval del Caribe. The third core focuses on colonialism and is found principally in the Casa 1573. The final core deals with arts, culture, and ecology and is based mainly in the Colegio de la Presentación. There are of course links and connections between all four of these and as discussed these exhibitions carry over into plaza, streets, and other alternative venues that are spread out throughout the city.
There was an open call where Colombian artists could apply online to participate. What was the selection process like? How many artists will be participating?
A special section of the biennial, curated by Miguel Gonzalez, Gabriela Rangel and Stephanie Rosenthal, is devoted to Colombian artists—“Colombia Hoy.” The name of the exhibition is The Imperfect Idler or When Things Disappear, and it includes 23 established or mid-career artists and nine artists selected from the Biennial’s open call. The response to the open call was astounding. We received over 400 applications to participate. [The curators] selected the work that they found to best fit the theme and direction of the biennial, and elaborated upon the selection by visiting artists in studios around the country. Miguel Gonzalez, curator from the Museum of Modern Art in Cali, was familiar with many Colombian artists already. But for Gabriela and Stephanie there was more a process of discovery—and this collaboration between a local curator and international curators was quite interesting and exciting because their ways of seeing and evaluating were different but there was also a great deal that they found in common.
The selected artists’ works will be in a special section of the biennial. Why was it important to set aside this component of the show?
We are giving our best national artists an international platform that introduces them to galleries and curators from around the world, and we are offering the Colombian art world the chance to experience and engage with artwork from over 42 countries that they may have never had the chance to see first hand. And we felt it was important that the Colombian artists be placed in a context where the national movements in art could be evaluated and seen together. Many of our visitors to the biennial may have never been to Colombia before and we wanted to ensure that they all came away with a greater understanding of the current trends in Colombian art, as well as the ways that Colombian artists are responding to broader international movements. The point is not to set them aside but rather to make sure Colombian artists are given adequate space and really a larger presence in the biennial. In fact, the most interesting is to see that this specifically Colombian work is extremely varied and diverse, the art coming out of the country is expansive and actually entirely global in its outlook.
-- Ashton Cooper
