Claudia Joskowicz on Myth, Memory, and Narcotrafficking in Bolivia

Bolivian visual artist Claudia Joskowicz discusses her recent exhibition "Artificios" at the Centro Cultural de España in La Paz, part of the Programa IMPULSO for mid-career artists. The show features three video works—"Los Rastreadores" (2014), "Entierros" (2025), and "Espejismos" (2025)—that explore the friction between myth, official history, and collective memory in urban space, specifically in Santa Cruz. Joskowicz, who trained in architecture and studied under video artist Peter Campus, uses her work to question established truths and open a space where reality and fiction coexist. She explains that her practice is a pedagogy of territory, a way to understand Bolivia from a dual perspective living between Bolivia and the United States. The interview delves into her interest in the narcotrafficking of the 1980s in Santa Cruz, personified by Roberto Suárez, and how that era shaped the city. She also addresses the figure of the "Viudita" (little widow) in "Espejismos," linking it to collective female grief and resistance, and the colonial myth of "tapados" (buried treasures) in "Entierros," which she sees as an allegory for political structures built on illicit money and half-truths. Joskowicz's work is in collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Kadist Foundation, and Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. She has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and in 2026 from Fundación Ama Amoedo and Fondation Camargo.