GUADALUPE AYALA AR|UY
Based in Montevideo, Guadalupe, a visual artist and political scientist, focuses on reflecting upon Man, their environment, and social constructs throughout time. Her oeuvre stands out for the use of site-specific installations and sculpture, aiming for an aesthetic effectiveness that oscillates between the exquisite and the strange, the beautiful and the unsettling. She has trained in various workshops, art clinics, and institutions since 1993. Her individual and collective exhibitions span Uruguay and the world since 2001. She has received awards, distinctions, and residencies such as the 60th Acquisition Grand Prize MEC, National Visual Arts Prize (2022); the Fund for Stimulating Artistic Creation and Training (2017); the Residency Grant from the Secretariat of Culture of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany (2007); the Honorable Mention at the BahÃa Blanca Biennial (2005), among others.
CONQUEST III
Conquest III is a site-specific installation that explores the concept of conquest from a human perspective. It symbolizes the event that initiates when humans stand up and start to colonize their surroundings, dominating nature, humanity itself, and their constructions; thus altering their own state of order in the space that accommodates their existence. Among other things, the history of humanity is the history of its migrations and the exploitation of the lands in its advancement. However, even though conquests have implied this, the lands are not a vessel to be filled. They existed before we arrived and are different after. This piece delves into the contingency of such triumphs, the certainty and success achieved through them. It touches upon the silently advancing, halted time. Just as humans conquer humans, so too does nature conquer them.