Chile Details Plans for Venice Biennale Pavilion

Chile has announced plans for its Venice Biennale Pavilion, which will be titled “Poéticas de la Disidencia” (or “Poetics of Dissent”). The concept was selected out of a public competition sponsored by the National Council for Culture and the Arts of Chile (CNCA).

The exhibition assembles work by two Chilean artists, photographer Paz Errázuriz and performance and video artist Lotty Rosenfeld. It is being curated by the cultural theorist Nelly Richard. The three women represent a generation of Chilean activists that developed during the politically tumultuous 1970s, a decade which saw General Augusto Pinochet overthrow Salvador Allende’s democratic government in a bloody coup d’etat and impose his own nearly 20-year-long military dictatorship. “Poéticas de la Disidencia,” however, focuses on present-day Chile, exploring its transition from a dictatorship back into a democratic government.

Okwui Enwezor, the curator of this year’s biennale, has said that his show, titled “All the World’s Futures,” has been inspired by Chile’s recent political history, according to the pavilion’s news release.

Chile’s minister of culture, Claudia Barattini, said in a statement: “We want our artists and creative practitioners to be known and valued beyond our borders, especially in a showcase of the importance of the Venice Biennale. We are particularly proud because the selected project presents women whose work is essential to understanding our contemporary art scene and the socio-political context of Chile.”