Sandra Gamarra Heshiki: Pinacoteca Migrante / Migrant Art Gallery

Curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio.

The proposal by the Peruvian and Spanish artist, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, in collaboration with the curator, Agustin Pérez Rubio, entitled Migrant Art Gallery, has been selected to feature in the Spanish Pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale. The panel of judges was made up of: Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA); Nuria Enguita, director of the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM); Bea Espejo, art critic and curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022; Cabello/Carceller, duo of artists featured in the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015; Carlos Urroz, manager and expert in contemporary art; Peio H. Riaño, art historian and journalist; and Blanca de la Torre, curator and contemporary art critic; as well as the vote of the Directorate of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the AECID, organiser of the Spanish participation in the Biennale.

At a first meeting in early 2023, the panel invited five artists to submit a project for the Spanish Pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale. After the deadline, 5 proposals were received and presented by the artists at a meeting held on 19 April, where, following a vote, the panel unanimously decided that the winning project was Migrant Art Gallery by the artist Sandra Gamarra Heshiki and the curator Agustin Pérez Rubio.

This decision by the panel acknowledges the diversity of the Spanish scene, as it will be the first time that the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will be represented by a foreign-born artist. A Peruvian mixed-race woman of Peruvian-Japanese descent, who for the first time will represent the country where she lives and works, playing an active role in the artistic world since the beginning of the 21st century.

As in previous years, in response to the demands of the art sector, the project was selected by an independent panel of judges of recognised prestige in the field of Spanish contemporary art. The decision was announced one year before the opening of the Biennale in order to allow enough time for the project’s production, as the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice will take place from 20 April to 24 November 2024. It will be produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AECID Cooperation and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).

Sandra Gamarra Heshiki (Lima, 1972) uses painting figuratively to question art and its mechanisms of representation, exhibition and commercialisation. Based on appropriation, her work functions as a mirror that displaces exhibition formats, alters the circuit of images, subverts the ownership of culture, as well as the narrative between the art object and the spectator. Within this field of research, the legacy of her country of origin generates a syncretic gaze where pre-Columbian, colonial and Western cultures collide. Gamarra Heshiki has participated at the 11th Berlin Biennale; the 29th São Paulo Biennale; Mundus Novus, IILA Pavilion; 53rd Venice Biennale; and the 11th Cuenca Biennale. She has works in collections such as the MNCARS - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; MACBA, Barcelona; Tate Modern, London; Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; MoMA, New York; MALI, Lima; MAR, Rio de Janeiro, among others. She lives and works between Lima and Madrid.

Agustín Pérez Rubio (Valencia, 1972) is an historian, professor and curator with extensive experience in curatorial work in museums and institutions in Latin America and Europe. He was curator —together with María Berríos, Lisette Lagnado and Renata Cervetto— of the 11th Berlin Biennale (2018-20). Prior to that, he was curator of the Chilean Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Artistic Director of MALBA (Buenos Aires, 2014-18); Chief Curator and Director of MUSAC (León, 2003-13).  He was a member of the Board of the Istanbul Biennial (2017-22) and is actively continuing his work on the Board of CIMAM (2016-present). In recent years he has set out to rethink decoloniality, both in the field of museums and in the field of sex-disident practices based on feminist and queer theory.  He has been distinguished as a visiting professor at the Institut für Kunst im Kontext (Universität der Künste Berlin, 2019-20) and at other international universities.

For further information, please contact: Elvira Cámara López, elvira.camara@aecid.es