Guatemala 2019

Title: “Interesting state”
Curator: Stefania Pieralice
Commissioner: Elder de Jesús Súchite Vargas, Ministro della Cultura e delle Attività Sportive del Guatemala
Artists: Elsie Wunderlich, Marco Manzo.

The exhibition at the Pavilion of Guatemala investigates the pressing question of violence against women. While Elsie Wunderlich represents in her sculptures the marks and signs of abuses, Marco Manzo‘s installation consists of a monumental wall that incorporate masculine and feminine hands tattooed with  symbols of machismo taken from Guatemalan culture. Both the artists dedicate a particular focus to the country’s situation marked by a rooted macho culture which permeates both public and private life. The title of the exhibition plays on the pair “Interesting state – interesting state”, referring to pregnant women’s condition but also to the country’s “interesting” point of view on the question. Guatemalan women, in fact, have to face an objective difficulty in accessing an effective judicial system for crimes of mistreatment and violence and the lack of a collective awareness of the problem.