Chile Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2019: Voluspa Jarpa's Altered Views

Voluspa Jarpa (Rancagua, 1971) presents Altered Views at the Chilean Pavilion during the 58th Venice Biennale, running from May 11 to November 24, 2019. Curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio, the exhibition examines European monarchy-population relations and hegemonic evolution, questioning how colonies adapted to new hegemonies while erasing traditions and knowledge due to colonial legacy. Altered Views analyzes colonial history between the 17th and 20th centuries, focusing on social and ethnographic expressions. Jarpa's project, based on years of research on declassified CIA documents, aims to invert the typical colonial perspective of hegemonic countries, inviting audiences to question hegemonic viewpoints in historical narratives. The pavilion is divided into three inverted cultural model spaces: The Hegemony Museum, The Subaltern Portraits Gallery, and The Emancipating Opera. This continues Jarpa's politically charged work using intelligence agency archives to reinterpret historical events. The 2019 Biennale notably features many women artists, including Renate Bertlmann (Austria), Eva Rothschild (Ireland), Cathy Wilkes (UK), Laure Prouvost (France), Charlotte Prodger (Scotland), Shirley Tze (Hong Kong), Chiara Fumai and Liliana Moro (Italy), Anna K.E. (Georgia), Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan), Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir/Shoplifter (Iceland), Larissa Sansour (Denmark), Danica Dakić (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Nujoom Alghanem (UAE), İnci Eviner (Turkey), and Naiza Khan (Pakistan).