In each chapter, in conversation between the most remarkable artists from Latin-America and Latinxs in the US, and our MOLAA Chief Curator Gabriela Urtiaga, we place the focus on a series or specific artwork which requires a close inspection and deliberate process of contemplation, and exploration; delving into the ideas surrounding the creation of the works, their sources of research and inspiration, in an effort to immerse ourselves in the world of the artists.
This session will be pre-recorded.
(Chile, 1971) Since 1994, Voluspa Jarpa has maintained an extensive artistic production, participating in collective and individual exhibitions in Chile and abroad. Her work has explored vast research and artworks which explore the nature of the archive, the memory, and the cultural and symbolic notion of social trauma. This research has focused on the Cold War in Latin America through the commissioning and revision of intelligence documents on Latin America declassified by the USA in recent decades. The implication of secrecy as the modus operandi of politics, its effects in the psyche, as well as the exploration of ways to free us from those structures, are the main concerns of her recent works and research.
In 1994, presents the Mural Painting / El sitio de Rancagua [The Rancagua Siege]. Also participates in the following biennales: 1996 Habana-Cuba Biennale, “El individuo y su Memoria” with the artwork Santiago- La Habana- Wastelands Series; 2003 Shanghai – China Biennale with N11 Project; 2011 8th Mercosur Biennale, “Geopoéticas”, with the Non-History, and the 12th Istambul Biennale, “Untitled”, with the work the No history’s Library. In 2014 participates in the 31st São Paulo Biennale, “Como… coisas que nâo existem”, with the works Histórias de Aprendizajem [Learning Histories] which itinerates at the Serralves Museun at Porto-Portugal in 2015. In 2018, participates in the 12th Shanghai Biennale, “Proregress”, curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina, with the piece Monumental.
Among the most outstanding international solo exhibitions are: 1996 Out of Frame, Gate Foundation, Amsterdam-Holland. In 2000, presented the exhibition First Person Plural at Canvas International Art Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands. In both, she develops her research around the city, the wastelands as a metaphor for the erased history in the cities and the collective identity. In 2006, she received the “Young Art Award”, from the Museum of Visual Arts of Santiago. Later, in 2008, she received the “Prize of the Circle of Art Critics of Santiago” for the work Plaga [Plague], which conceptualizes the language of hysteria and ends with the presentation of the work L ́Effect Charcot, at the Maison de l ́Amerique Latine, in 2010. In 2011 she developed the work La biblioteca de la No-Historia [No History’s Library], where she works with the declassified files on Chile from the US Intelligence agencies and then on Latin America. This work has been presented between 2011 and 2016, with different formulations, at the KunstMuseum in Bern-Switzerland, in Istanbul-Turkey, in Toulouse-France, at MigrosMuseum in Zürich, Switzerland and in Porto Alegre-Brazil.
In 2016, she presented the individual site-specific exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (MALBA), En Nuestra Pequeña Región de por Acá [In Our Little Region Around Here], which is presented again at the Matucana 100 Cultural Center in Santiago de Chile in 2017; the same year she presents the exhibition Waking State in Paris. Subsequently, in 2019, she exhibits Altered Views, curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio, in the Chilean pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale.
Among the recognitions received, we may highlight the Illy Prize, received at the International Art Fair of Madrid, Arco in 2012, for the work Minimal Secret and in 2014 she was a runner up of the Prix Meurice de Paris. In 2016, Voluspa Jarpa was recognized by Universidad Católica de Chile with the Award for “Excellence in Artistic Creation” and in 2020 she was distinguished with the “Julius Baer Award to Latin American Artists” for the work Sindemia, curated by Eugenio Viola and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá (MAMBO) in 2021. In 2023 she received the Acquisition Award of the XVI Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador, and in 2024 she received the Acquisition Award of the Cifo Foundation of Miami/USA. She was recently nominated for the 5th edition 2024 of the Mertz Foundation Award in Torino, Italy and in 2025 she received the Ama Amoedo Foundation Grant for the artistic development of Latin America, which will take place in Uruguay the current year.
Her artworks are in important collections, including MALBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; LARA Foundation, Singapore; Kadist Foundation, San Francisco, United States; Rabobank Collection, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Museum of Visual Arts and Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile; and Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, USA.