The curated “Songs of the Changing Seasons” is an exhibition that brings together 12 artists around “the forms of love, care, reparation and pain that confront ecological challenges and damage” within the framework of the Klima Biennale Wien, which will take place runs until July 14 in the Austrian capital.
The exhibition analyzes where, when and how problems are expressed and ways to articulate, interpret and confront them, it states on its website.
In this context, the artist Natalia Montoya Lecaros (Iquique, 1994) exhibits her work for the first time outside of Chile. For this she performed a brief residency live from Vienna in a collaboration with the local bakery Ströck.
For two weeks he built a series of pieces kneaded and decorated with sugar, the shapes recreate T’anta wawas, which are bread figures with human appearance under spiritual and festive motifs, being a reflection of this tradition of highland areas for the “day of souls” where the souls of loved ones who are no longer on the earthly plane are visited.
“After finishing the work, the bread and flowers that decorate it will degrade. The idea is that all of that returns to the earth. When the exhibition is finished it will be crushed, burned and buried just as is done with the offerings. The structure that supports it will also be dismantled, thus creating a point of life and death for it,” explains the artist.
Natalia has a degree, pedagogue and master’s degree in Visual Arts, a native of Iquique and a pilgrim to the La Tirana festival. Her work develops from material concerns towards questions that point to the knots of her emotional territories crossed by her Aymara origin.
His work is characterized by the search and highlighting of the geographical contradiction of northern Chile, its multicultural history and the construction of its identity and image, through the high contrast with the rest of the territory. His creations include sculpture, painting, installation and performance.