Queer artists are prominently featured throughout the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice (until 24th November 2024): they are the focus of a section dedicated to queer abstraction in the Giardini's Central Pavilion and are also showcased in a significant section inside the Corderie at the Arsenale. Among them there is also transdisciplinary artist La Chola Poblete.
Hailing from Argentina, La Chola Poblete made waves in Berlin last year with an exhibition at the Palais Populaire, the cultural space of Deutsche Bank, that awarded her the Artist of the Year 2023 prize.
La Chola Poblete was the first artist from Argentina and Latin America to receive this prestigious award from Deutsche Bank, and, last week, she made history again as the first queer artist to get a special mention at the Venice Art Biennale.
Born in 1989 in Guaymallén, Mendoza, Argentina, as Mauricio Poblete, the artist grew up as a non-binary indigenous teenager and began exploring art and pop culture, as well as experimenting with her queer identity. Initially, La Chola was Mauricio's alter ego, suspended between biography and fiction, but, over time, she fully embraced this identity.
In some Latin American countries, particularly in Peru, Bolivia, and parts of Mexico and Central America, "chola" refers to a woman of indigenous or mestizo (mixed indigenous and European) descent, often associated with a particular urban subculture. However, in other contexts, it may have negative or derogatory implications, particularly when used to stereotype or stigmatize individuals based on their appearance or socioeconomic status.
In the context of La Chola Poblete's artwork and identity, the term carries complex layers of cultural and personal significance, reflecting her exploration of indigenous and mestizo heritage, as well as her engagement with themes of identity, gender, social justice and marginalization.
Besides, Poblete's works also examine the repercussions of colonialism and white supremacy in Argentina, spanning various mediums such as watercolors, paintings, sculptures, installations, and performances.
While exploring her indigenous and queer heritage, challenging stereotypes and the exoticization of indigenous culture, La Chola Poblete also sheds light on the historical struggles of women, transvestites, and transsexuals within religious and patriarchal ideologies.
At the Corderie, there is a selection of La Chola Poblete's watercolors on display, along with a photograph from her 2014 performance "Il Martirio di Chola," addressing the social marginalization of the Bolivian community in Argentina and the use of evangelization as a form of emotional and physical torture.
Her watercolor series on display - Purple María, Pachamama, Virgen de la Misericordia, La Virgen Mulata, María y el Cóndor and Immaculado corazón de Travo - are all part of the "Vírgenes Chola" series (Chola Virgins) in which the artist creates a sophisticated queer imagery, a tapestry of references incorporating a wide range of iconic symbols like the Virgin Mary, embodying syncretism between Western and indigenous cultures, interwoven with references to Andean culture and to La Chola Poblete's own mythologies.
According to Poblete, the Virgin is an iconic symbol, standing for the mother, the woman, the whore and the Pachamama (the Mother Earth to the Andean Communities), an image of fear and respect for the artist.
Around her, Poblete builds an entire imagery, made of pop motifs, abstract symbols, organic forms and hybrid beings, creatures with penises and high-heeled shoes, logos of bands and brands that hint at mass culture, or slightly altered logos ("Fame", from the '80s American musical film and television series gets transformed into "inFame"...), mixed with symbols of the Andes and references to the Incas.
It can take time to decode the symbolisms behind each of these works, but knowing her oeuvre may help you detecting in the watercolors references to her artworks or to objects and symbols that have turned into trademarks of her identity, such as from bread masks to potatoes.
According to the artist, her "Chola Virgins" are like songs: in these artworks each element conveys multiple meanings, referencing the everyday life and experiences, these symbols (or mythograms as she calls them), generate a narrative that is also interspersed with slogans, as such as "Basta de travesticidios" (Stop transicides), "En un mundo de gusanos capitalistas hay que tener coraje para ser una mariposa" (In a world of capitalist worms, one must have courage to be a butterfly) and "¿Dónde está Tehuel?" (Where is Tehuel?), shouted by Quino's iconic Mafalda, a reference to Tehuel de la Torre, a young trans man from Argentina who disappeared in March 2021.
"Qué hace un artista como yo en un lugar como este?" La Chola Poblete wonders in one of the artworks on display in the Arsenale. However, she appears to have discovered the answer to that question within her paintings, which serve as both political critique and as sophisticated exploration of queer imagery challenging cultural norms and traditional gender classifications.
This critical engagement earned La Chola Poblete a special mention from the jury at the Venice Biennal with the following motivation: "La Chola Poblete engages in critical play with histories of colonial representation from a trans Indigenous perspective. Her multivalent art - including watercolor, fabric, and photography - resists the exoticization of Indigenous women while she insists on the power of sexuality. She approaches Western religious iconography and indigenous spiritual practices with a trans and queer flair, inverting power relations with pieces that refer to ancestral knowledge from South America."
Image credits for this post
1 - 9. La Chola Poblete, "Vírgenes Chola". Installation views, The 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Photographer: Anna Battista.
10. La Chola Poblete, The 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Award Ceremony, 20th April 2024, Photo: Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.
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