Sandra Gamarra Heshiki to Represent Spain at 60th Venice Biennale

Sandra Gamarra Heshiki will represent Spain at the 60th Venice Biennale, running from 20 April to 24 November in the Giardini. In an interview with ArtReview, she discusses her exhibition plans, which aim to scrutinize colonial narratives embedded in museums and reverse the hegemonic Western gallery concept. Her pavilion will foreground migrant narratives—of humans, plants, and resources—often forcibly moved, and reconstruct stories based on works from national art galleries. Gamarra Heshiki emphasizes the importance of the Biennale as a space for critical dialogue beyond hierarchies. She addresses an audience familiar with Western art, acknowledging its non-universality. On national art, she views nations as variable constructions and rejects universal art, instead highlighting the necessity to create. She recommends reading José María Arguedas's 'The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below' and visiting El Prado Museum and Museo de América in Madrid. Her influences include Tilsa Tsuchiya, Sturtevant, Agnes Martin, and Isidoro Valcárcel Medina. She looks forward to seeing pavilions by Canada (Kapwani Kiwanga), Chile (Valeria Montti Colque), Brazil (Glicéria Tupinambá and Tupinambá people), and France (Julien Creuzet).