The Tamesis
British arts organization Artes Mundi has awarded the 11th Artes Mundi Prize to Peruvian artist Antonio Paucar. He will receive £40,000 to spend on his performance, sculpture and video practice, which draws on Andean culture and his Peruvian heritage.
The ceremony took place on January 15 at the Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum in Cardiff. art newspaper, Baucar said he plans to use the funds to convert his home in Peru’s central highlands into a museum and art school.
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“In the past few years, I started restoring my grandparents’ abandoned adobe house. It was important to me to preserve my ancestor’s house and studio,” he said, adding, “It seemed equally appropriate to me to transform this space into a small independent art school, since the nearest and largest city, Huancayo, has no art school and no art museum.”
The work of the six international artists shortlisted for the award will be displayed in a group exhibition at the Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum in Cardiff on 1 March. Each artist will also receive solo exhibitions at the organisation’s four partner venues: Mostyn, Llandudno; Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Green Vivian Gallery, Swansea; and Cardiff Chapter Arts Centre.
Baucar was a beekeeper in Peru who later studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin. His exhibition at Artes Mundi in Cardiff includes this film el corazon de la montana (2018-2019), to solve the problem of ecological damage in the Huaytapallana Mountains.
“The nature and ecosystems there are being destroyed by mining,” Baukar told us one. Asked if he considered himself an activist, he added: “I’m more of an artist – although I’m often labeled an activist because I belong to an Aboriginal group.”
Baucar also used his own blood as ink to write a sentence in his native language, Wanka Limay (also known as Wanka in Quechua). Text displayed next to the video translates as: “The heart of the holy mountain bleeds.”
