VÁSQUEZ DE LA HORRA IN GERMANY: SPACE, BODY AND THE SACRED
The exhibition sketches an intimate map where rituals, organic materials, and personal narratives intertwine to question the social norms that shape our identities.
Haus der Kunstpresents Soy Energía (I am Energy), the first European survey of the Chilean artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (born 1967, Viña del Mar, Chile) and presents the transnational and Indigenous perspectives of her multidisciplinary artistic practice. Her oeuvre, which consists primarily of drawings and paintings as well as films and performances, encompasses complex events, stories, rituals and beliefs rooted in both her upbringing in Chile and her many years living in Europe, opening up new perspectives.
The multi-perspective nature of the work invites an encounter with the artist’s spiritual worlds, which reconcile humans and nature, and the exhibition honours her commitment to self-determination, women’s and human rights. It is dedicated to Vásquez de la Horra’s experimental practice, with a particular focus on her spatial and energetic thinking.
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Sandra Vásquez de la Horra. "Soy Energía", 2021. Photo: Gunter Lepkowski
Her experiences of persecution, oppression and migration play an essential role in this. The artist has developed her own exhibition practice, which is derived from working with organic materials and extends scenographic approaches into the space, conveying poignant existential experiences.
Vásquez de la Horra’s early works were created during the Pinochet regime in Chile in the 1980s and 1990s. “There was a lot of censorship in Chile, particularly with regard to the body. I had to overcome this—to shed my shame, learn to work with the naked body and show it in public. Because at that time in Chile, being naked was unthinkable. The body was hidden and not talked about. Nudity was forbidden and punished. Working with the body liberated me”, explained the artist.
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Sandra Vásquez de la Horra. “Las Apariciones”, 2019. Photo: Eric Tschernow
Drawings of fabulous hybrid creatures combining human, animal and plant features allude to the incompatibility of history and morality. The artist presents these works, which are soaked in beeswax—a technique she has been using since 1997—in experimental hangings to create multilayered constellations.
During her early years in Europe, Vásquez de la Horra created video performances and films that are being exhibited for the first time. In these works, she addresses significant themes and events such as loneliness, separation and racism. “In Germany, however, I constantly felt vulnerable. With each passing day, I closed myself off more and more. That’s exactly why I had to do these performances. It was my way of healing myself”, she expressed.
This retrospective exhibition, curated by Jana Baumann with Marlene Mützel, brings together the historical dimension of her work and its contemporary development, honouring Sandra Vásquez de la Horra’s transdisciplinary oeuvre spanning four decades.
Soy Energía will be on display until May 17, 2026, at Haus der Kunst, Prinzregentenstrasse 1, Munich (Germany).
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