In each chapter, in conversation between the most remarkable artists from Latin-America and Latinxs in the US, and our MOLAA Chief Curator Gabriela Urtiaga, we place the focus on a series or specific artwork which requires a close inspection and deliberate process of contemplation, and exploration; delving into the ideas surrounding the creation of the works, their sources of research and inspiration, in an effort to immerse ourselves in the world of the artists.
This session will be pre-recorded.
Voluspa Jarpas’s artistic practice comes from a meticulous analysis of declassified archives and documents that enclose hidden narratives. Over the years, she has worked with secret documents regarding the Cold War, and in her more recent research on the construction of hegemony, she incorporates historical sources such as misogynist pamphlets from the XIXth Century, publications on hysteria, or studies about the exhibition of non-white people in human zoos. Working with the materiality of the archive —either textual or visual— Jarpa draws attention to the ways of construction of the hegemonic regime, often concealing brutal subjugation. Gender, race, class, and even whole geopolitical zones, shape through this cultural, symbolical and political links and tensions. Her work reflects on the nature of archive, memory and the social and psychological notion of trauma.
Voluspa Jarpa had important solo exhibitions, including ISOLITUDINE, Fondazione Merz, Torino (2022); Sindemia, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (2021); Miradas Alteradas, at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile (2020); Cuerpo político: archivos públicos y secretos at the Gabriela Mistral Gallery of the Universidad de Chile (2017); En nuestra pequeña región de por acá at the MALBA, Buenos Aires (2017); or L’effet Charcot at La Maison de l’Amerique Latine in Paris (2010).
Her works are part of important collections, including the MALBA, Buenos Aires; the Engel collection, Santiago de Chile; LARA Foundation, Singapore; Kadist Foundation, San Francisco / Paris; Rabobank collection, Eindhoven, Netherlands; Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago de Chile; and Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas.