Claudio Acuña, professor of Arts of ULagos, will perform at the Bienal de Lucca, which specializes in exhibitions around paper and its derivatives.

The teacher of pedagogy in Arts, Claudio Acuña Jiménez, was selected to participate in Bienal de Lucca, Italy, to present a monumental sculpture on paper. The artist was chosen along with other six sculptors on paper, who will have the month of July to elaborate his work in full, and then exhibit them at the beginning of the Biennial that is contemplated for the month of August and September, with the idea of walking the streets of the city along with other works in the same support.

Industrial Designer by profession, Acuña, has specialized in the work of Origami, developing his own ideas that have led him to create works that have been exhibited in various cities of Chile and abroad.  Acuña has been living in the south of the country for about twenty years, he has made different interventions and exhibitions in museums, churches and streets of different cities of Los Lagos Region. He currently teaches in the career of Pedagogy in Arts and Industrial  Engineering at the Universidad de Los Lagos.

The work that the artist will creat for the Bienal de Lucca is a big-format installation, which will invite reflection about social behavior; it forces us to take a position when we take decisions, and when these decisions multiply, they generate movements that define the ways of life of today.  In addition, the work must be created in an open space in the same exhibition one month before its inauguration. (see Official Artist’s website)

Claudio Acuña, plastic artist, commented on how to compete in the most important Biennial in the world in the paper format: “At the beginning of the year I gathered my documents and curriculum to apply remotely to the Biennial. At the same time, the organization proposes a theme for this Biennial. The theme is ‘Fear and desire’, for that a scale model had to be sent to Europe that alludes to these two premises. Small, like the size of a table. More than 100 proposals came from all over the world, which in the end we were only six selected. With this participation in the Lucca Biennale I came to close a personal creative process of 10 years in the production of works and installations in public spaces with my art,” said Acuña,

The Industrial Designer said that due to the pandemic the bienal was postponed but that in this European summer it is resumed with new vigour. “Look, unfortunately this biennial was due last year. The processess have been paused. This has forced me to stop projects, for example I was working on a Fondart that would be developed in the streets of the city, but it cannot be presented. So we have returned to sketching, to working on the desk, to drawing on paper. Personally, I continue with classes at ULagos, virtually advancing in the educational field, but personally I have no other way to say that in the artistic part has been paused,” concluded the artist.

Claudio Acuña, must travel in the first days of July to elaborate his work to the city of Lucca in Italy. He will have a month to produce his mega work, so that at the beginning of August it will be inaugurated and presented in public spaces to people and tourists visiting the Lucca Biennale in Italy.

On the other hand, the artist must make the closure in public space in the city of Puerto Montt with his Fondart project “Cardumen Errante”, which is an artistic project that seeks through the installation of sculptures on the public road, which is an artistic project that seeks to generate a reflection on the influence of the sea in the city as an element of identification necessarily linked to the economic development of the city.