Notes related to Paraguay

With a solo exhibition by Fernando Allen and a group show featuring five regional artists, Casa Ardissone brings to the forefront the tensions between territory, memory, and the ecological urgency of the Paraguayan Chaco.

From September 10 to 13, Asunción hosts the final edition of Pinta Art Week, with a program that brings together museum and gallery openings, a network of cultural institutions, and a FORO that fosters reflection among local and international voices.

Christian Ceuppens and Carolina Noguera present at Viedma Galería de Arte an exhibition that merges tradition and design, exploring the connection between Tobatí’s ancestral ceramic knowledge and a modern architectural vision.

By María Galarza

Galleries, installations, talks, collections, exhibitions, institutions, celebrations, and visits to artists’ studios. All this, and more, is brought together in the three editions—and an upcoming fourth—of Pinta Asunción, where every initiative aims to expand and connect a country’s artistic ecosystem. Under the curatorship of Irene Gelfman and Adriana Almada, the goal over the years has been to enhance the cultural industry and exercise the muscle of openness to the world.

Since 2022, Art Week has offered unique moments and special activities that have helped illuminate the Paraguayan artistic ecosystem.

Around 100 artisans and artists came together to create an exhibition that reflects the heritage and contemporary identity of Paraguay at the Cultural Center of the Republic of Paraguay.

From September 10 to 13, Pinta Asunción celebrates its fourth and final edition. Conceived as part of Pinta’s Art Weeks structure, the initiative was extended one more year at the request of the local art community, opening new opportunities for collaboration in Paraguay.

Pinta Asunción Art Week, formerly known as Pinta Sud | ASU, will take place this year from September 10 to 13, marking its fourth edition. With its extensive contemporary art and cultural programming spread across the city, the event invites attendees to discover an ever-growing artistic scene alongside Paraguay’s unique cultural, culinary, and tourism traditions.

Confines of Paraguay is the initiative of Fernando Allen and Fredi Casco that is part of the Main Section of Pinta BAphoto. It is a project that began with a photographic approach, but expanded into an editorial, audiovisual and documentary archive -along with other activities- related to the works of popular and indigenous artists from Paraguay.

Last Thursday, September 26, a ceremony was held at the French Embassy in Paraguay, where Ambassador Pierre-Christian Soccoja awarded art critic Adriana Almada and visual artist Félix Toranzos with the Order of Arts and Letters. Both were part of the third edition of Pinta Sud | ASU.

The third edition of Pinta Sud | ASU featured for the first time the Young Curators Program, under the leadership of Adriana Almada. In a conversation with Arte al Día, the two selected participants -Majo Fiorio and Luis Ocampos Pompa- shared their experience throughout the process.

The third edition of Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 came to an end after a day of ceramic workshop in Itá with the renowned ceramist Julia Isídrez.

Nélida Mendoza is an artist who was born in Paraguay, but lived in several parts of the world, including Argentina and Italy. She is presenting the exhibition Fuerte Olimpo and Other Stories at the gallery K / Arte y Naturaleza during the Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 art week.

Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 presented at the Casa Mayor gallery the exhibition Warm Heart, with works by the Paraguayan artist Feliciano Centurión. It is a collection of works from different periods of his career and is curated by Irene Gelfman.

Within the framework of Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 FORO conversatory, Ticio Escobar - moderated by Irene Gelfman - participated in the exclusive presentation of the book "Colección Mendonca. Paraguay and the art system", by Adriana Almada. The book was presented at CAF - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Paraguay is rarely mentioned when discussing the global art market, but this might change in the coming years due to its growing activity in the contemporary art sector. This activity is primarily driven by local galleries, which, aware of the cultural isolation the country has experienced for many years, are actively promoting local collecting and seeking to promote their artists through fairs and participation in events like the current Pinta Sud|ASU.

Fundación Texo presents the return of its most important and ambitious program, #Seleccion5. This initiative highlights the value of contemporary Paraguayan architecture, presenting an exhibition project of outstanding local studios and professionals.

Luciérnagas humanas al ras de la tierra (Human fireflies at ground level) is a video-installation that the artist Marcos Benítez presents at the Paraguayan-German Cultural Institute. It is curated by Adriana Almada and will be part of the art week of Asunción Pinta Sud | ASU 2024.

The third and last edition of Art Week Asuncion presented by Pinta Sud | ASU starts today August 5 with an ambitious cultural program, curated by Adriana Almada and accompanied by Irene Gelfman, featuring exhibitions, curatorial programs, lecture series and events.

Paraguayan artist Claudia Casarino will be part of the opening of the Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 art week, from August 5 to 11, 2024. In a conversation with Arte al Día, she explains her link with Paraguay, the body and clothing to tell stories that reinterpret the universe of women.

In the next edition of Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 -to be held from August 5 to 11, 2024 in Asuncion, Paraguay- the FORO lecture series will be one of the key spaces to delve into Latin American curatorial practice. Curated by Adriana Almada and Irene Gelfman, FORO will feature international guests such as Inés Katzenstein, Isabella Lenzi, Raphael Fonseca, among others.

The Museo del Barro will present, in the context of Pinta Sud | ASU 2024, the exhibition The Colors of Resistance by artist Marcelo Brodsky. It is under the curatorship of Ticio Escobar.

The next Pompidou Museum project in Foz do Iguaçu will be presented by Luciana Pereira, Secretary of Culture of the State of Paraná, Brazil, at the Pinta Sud | ASU conference, to be held at the Casa de la Integración (CAF) on August 8, 2024. This will be the first Pompidou Center in Latin America.

Pinta Sud | ASU presents the third and final edition of Asunción’s Art Week, taking place from August 5-11, 2024. The event will feature art exhibitions, events, and various activities free and open to the public, offering seven days of artistic celebration throughout the city.

The International Association of Art Critics in Paraguay (AICA-Py) awarded the AICA 2023 Prize to the exhibition Cuadernos de campo (Field Notebooks) by Fidel Fernández, curated by Adriana Almada and exhibited during Pinta Sud 2023 at the Arte Actual gallery in Asuncion.

A week away from its official opening, the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale has generated press urbi et orbi. While some articles celebrated the irruption of the Global South in the Arsenale and the Giardini, others -truly devastating- reported on the disturbance and discomfort that the proposal of Adriano Pedrosa -the first Latin American to cure La Biennale in more than a century of existence- has awakened in the Western art system.

Joaquín Sánchez is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been nurtured by the knowledge and skills of indigenous and popular communities in Bolivia and Paraguay, with whom he has been developing collaborative processes for more than two decades. His proposals, although they cover a wide spectrum of languages and discourses, recognize precise axes linked to the history and ancestral culture of the peoples that have long inhabited the territory that both countries disputed almost a century ago, as well as to his own history, in a sort of personal ethnography made of fragments of memory.

Pinta Sud ASU closed its second edition in Asunción, Paraguay, where a proposal of first-class activities was carried out to reflect the avant-garde and eclectic spirit of national and regional art.

Within the framework of Pinta Sud ASU 2023 in Asunción, Paraguay, Casa M becomes for a few days the perfect setting for the site-specific intervention by artist Joaquín Sánchez, entitled The architecture of the body. Poetics of space and other fictions.

The Mendonca Collection inaugurated the exhibition El país de las mujeres (The Country of Women) at the Juan Salazar Cultural Center of Spain, as part of the second edition of Pinta Sud ASU 2023, which runs from August 7 to 13.