AlbumArte and Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA)
present
PARADISO
Marlon de Azambuja, Elena Mazzi, Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza
Juan Esteban Sandoval, Óscar Santillán
Curated by Rosa Jijón
Opening reception on Wednesday, March 7th 2018 at 6:30pm
Open to the public from March 8th to April 21st, 2018
PRESS RELEASE >>>
AlbumArte, a non-profit independent space for contemporary art, and IILA, International Italo-Latin American Institute, co-present PARADISO curated by Rosa Jijón, a collective exhibition organized in the spaces of AlbumArte in via Flaminia 122 in Rome. The exhibition shows the works of four Latin-American artists living in Europe and an Italian artist whose work shares similar themes: Marlon de Azambuja (Brazil), Elena Mazzi (Italy), Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza (Ecuador), Juan Esteban Sandoval (Colombia), Óscar Santillán (Ecuador).
Many international artists have been invited to AlbumArte in recent years; they came from various countries – not only from Europe, bringing together through their artworks different gazes from different realities that produce multiple, interesting visions.
Regarding the artists coming from Latin America, in 2015 AlbumArte hosted young Colombian artist María Jimena Herrera on the occasion of an international prize finalists exhibition, and she won the second prize.
In 2017, AlbumArte hosted a talk with Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, who brought her precious and painful testimony regarding the violence suffered by many women in some areas of Latin America.
However, this is the first time that we welcome four artists all coming from vital and changing part of the world: the South America. We wish to thank all the insitutional partners who have supported PARADISO: the Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA) and the Embassies of Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador in Italy.
Furthermore, the project has received the patronage of the Assessorato alla Cultura del Municipio II (Department for Culture of the 2nd Municipality) of Roma Capitale.
The curator of the exhibition Rosa Jijón is also an Ecuadorian artist, actually living in Rome and working as a Cultural Secretary of the Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA). Rosa was inspired, as she writes, by the various concepts that refer to ‘paradise’, with the aim to overturning the concept of an ideal place: from the Paradise of Dante’s Divine Comedy, to the sensual Paradise of José Lezama Lima, passing through John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Today Latin America became an experimental place for participatory democracy and social change. These are interpreted by the works of the five artists in PARADISO, who present an exhibition made of various languages, bound together by the theme of ethico-political intolerance for the arbitrary use of the environment and for the uneven exploitation of human resources. The exhibition presents video works, installations, works realized with mixed techniques and with natural materials. All these interventions introduce a reflection on where we are going and how we are making this journey, after the globalization of the economy and the changes in the social, economic and political fabric of nations and cities.
All four Latin-American artists have extensive international experience and collaborations with important museum such as the Jeu de Paume in Paris and the MUAC in Mexico City, and their works feature in prestigious collections such as the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and the Fundación Helga de Alvear. Newcomer Elena Mazzi – who is enriching her curriculum with respected prizes and artist residencies – has been artist-tutor at the Spinola Banna Foundation in Turin in 2016/2017.
BIOGRAPHIES
Marlon de Azambuja >>>
Elena Mazzi >>>
Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza >>>
Juan Esteban Sandoval >>>
Óscar Santillán >>>
