Itziar Okariz and Sergio Prego to Represent Spain at 2019 Venice Biennale

Itziar Okariz and Sergio Prego have been selected to represent Spain at the 58th Venice Biennale, running from May 11 to November 24, 2019. Curated by Peio Aguirre, the Spanish Pavilion will feature new works that encapsulate the last decade of their artistic research, focusing on the limits of body representation. Okariz (born 1965 in San Sebastián) uses text, video, and sound to explore the interplay between subject, language, and physical presence, often decontextualizing signifiers and reversing observer-observed roles. Prego (born 1969 in Hondarribia) challenges sculpture and performativity through video, drawing, and pneumatic architecture. The artists' work, described as reiterating alternative functions of the body in a technologized society, employs simple materials to create austere yet powerful pieces. Their first joint exhibition aims to open and expand space through an act of occupation that is paradoxically an eviction or emptying. The article also lists other national pavilion participants: Anna K.E. and Shu Lea Cheang for Georgia and Taiwan; Carsten Nicolai with E. Jantsankhorol for Mongolia; Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir/Shoplifter for Iceland; Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca for Brazil; Nujoom Alghanem for the UAE; Danica Dakić for Bosnia-Herzegovina; Roman Stańczak for Poland; İnci Eviner for Turkey; and Naiza Khan for Pakistan.