“Perdidos, en medio, juntos” (Lost, in between, together)

The 22nd Paiz Art Biennial, in an attempt to respond to the inertia of a presentist time, seeks to construct a perspective from the reality of Guatemala with a regional focus. The Biennial puts the past into perspective in relation to the future, with themes revolving around violence, interculturality, and the contemporary and ancestral history of Guatemala as entry points.

Titled “Lost. In Between. Together.” – alluding to one of the great thinkers of presentism, Reinhart Koselleck – the 22nd Paiz Art Biennial proposes to delve into the past and collectively think and imagine possible futures (title extracted from the publication BAK, edited by Jonas Staal, Yoonis Osman, and María Hlavajova). The curatorial project poses the following questions: How do we address the pasts of the Global South today? Where do we identify colonizing violences? How do we respond to them? What past are we constructing for the future?

The venue, which I inhabit in The New Factory titled “Universes of Matter,” is a representation of all things around us, made of matter, including our bodies, in constant transformation, unaffected by the environment, the passage of time, and other materials.

The artworks in this exhibition are composed of various materials and are interconnected with each other and with the bodies of the visitors, in different forms or “states,” to tell stories and reveal details about these universes.

Artists: Manuel Chavajay, Antonio Pichilla, Uriel Orlow, Ana Barbosa, Francisca Aninat, Hellen Ascoli.