Contemporary Art Biennale in Cartagena

May 9

Rachael Rakes at the 1st Cartagena Biennial

April 10, 2014 - Cartagena, Colombia

“THIS CITY IS A MONUMENT,” remarked Berta Sichel, artistic director for the first Cartagena Biennial, at a recent talk launching a weekend of performances, parties, and discussions organized as a kind of “second opening” for the show. She wasn’t speaking in tropes. Walking around the still walled-in Old City of Cartagena is like being inside a huge diorama. The place wears its colonial history like no other (unwilling) seat of the Caribbean slave trade, all whitewashed walls, carriages, and tchotchkes. The touristy environment provided a fertile and sometimes surreal backdrop to Sichel and her team’s curatorial ideas, and led to several surprise juxtapositions. For instance: an elegant sound piece by Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh positioned in a well in the same courtyard as, and just adjacent to, objects and models of torture at the Museum of the Inquisition. Or the lugubrious room of an old church housing an installation by Anna Boghiguan, itself filled with dried-out beehives and bird carcasses. It smells like sugar and death. -Rachael Rakes

More info : www.artforum.com