Ecuador's Venice Biennale Pavilion Features Tawna Collective and Oscar Santillán
The Ecuador Pavilion at the Venice Biennale showcases 'Tawna & Oscar,' curated by Manuela Moscoso. The exhibition features the anticolonial collective Tawna, formed in 2017 by Sápara, Kichwa, and mestizx artists, and artist Oscar Santillán. Tawna uses video, photography, and living archives to explore memory and communal life from a Pan-Amazonian perspective. Santillán's 'Antimundo' combines science and ancestral knowledge to investigate realities beyond Western distinctions. The exhibition highlights diverse ways of inhabiting the present, focusing on what dominant systems ignore. Moscoso, based in New York, is the inaugural Executive and Artistic Director of CARA and will curate the 2ª Bienal das Amazônias in 2025. Photography is by Joffre Cruz.
Key facts
- The Ecuador Pavilion at the Venice Biennale presents 'Tawna & Oscar.'
- The exhibition features the anticolonial collective Tawna and artist Oscar Santillán.
- Tawna was founded in 2017 and includes members Sani Montahuano, Enoc Merino, Boloh Miranda, Mukutsawa Montahuano, Lucía Ferré, Ipiak Ushigua, and Tatiana Lopez.
- Tawna's work explores video, photography, and living archives from a Pan-Amazonian perspective.
- Oscar Santillán's practice, called 'Antimundo,' combines science, speculative thought, and ancestral knowledge.
- The exhibition does not propose a single narrative or unified image of Ecuador.
- Curator Manuela Moscoso is the inaugural Executive and Artistic Director of CARA and will curate the 2ª Bienal das Amazônias in 2025.
- Photography for the exhibition is by Joffre Cruz.
Entities
Artists
- Tawna
- Oscar Santillán
- Sani Montahuano
- Enoc Merino
- Boloh Miranda
- Mukutsawa Montahuano
- Lucía Ferré
- Ipiak Ushigua
- Tatiana Lopez
- Manuela Moscoso
- Joffre Cruz
Institutions
- Venice Biennale
- CARA (Center for Art, Research and Alliances)
- 2ª Bienal das Amazônias
- Biennial Foundation
Locations
- Venice
- Italy
- Ecuador
- Amazon
- Andes
- New York
- United States