The literal translation of the original title of this excellent article by article by Víctor Ramos Rosado (El Nuevo Día) is “The Puerto Rican Faces Bringing “Minor Scale” to the Venice Biennale” [Los rostros puertorriqueños que llevarán la “escala menor” a la Bienal de Venecia]. Speaking about the three Puerto Rican artists who will attend the Venice Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia), one of the world’s most prestigious art and architecture festivals— Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Daniel Lind-Ramos, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo (in the order shown in the photo)— Ramos Rosado writes that these artists “emphasize the importance of placing Puerto Rico in conversations that go beyond the U.S. framework.” Read excerpts below and the full article, in Spanish, at El Nuevo Día.
The invitation arrived as milestones in the world of contemporary art often do—unexpectedly, almost silently, but laden with profound resonance. For Puerto Rican artists Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Natalia Lasalle-Morillo, and Daniel Lind-Ramos, being part of the Venice Biennale, in addition to being an important international recognition, is an experience marked by memory, grief, and the possibility of dialogue in a fractured world.
The process that led them to this global platform doesn’t follow a single formula. In Lind-Ramos’s case, the encounter was almost by chance. The lead curator attended one of his exhibitions in New York, at MoMA PS1, where she saw his work firsthand. “You never feel like a veteran,” the artist reflects, emphasizing the constant search that defines his practice. That visit would prove decisive, as months later he would receive the invitation.
For Gallisá Muriente and Lasalle-Morillo, the connection came through networks of affinity and collaboration. Their relationship with the writer and editor Siddhartha Mitter, close to the curatorial team, served as a bridge to an invitation that arrived after the sudden death of the lead curator, Koyo Kouoh, whose legacy permeates the entire Biennial. “Her spirit is everywhere,” says Lasalle-Morillo, describing an exhibition that has been conceived collectively by a team of collaborators close to the late curator.
This year’s Biennial, marked by a tone of homage, proposes a sensibility that has profoundly impacted the artists. Gallisá Muriente describes the process as an “affective” one, based on relationships, conversations, and solidarity among creators from different parts of the world. “It is impressive to arrive at such an important platform and find such a human internal dynamic,” she affirms.
The conceptual axis of this edition revolves around the idea of the “minor scale,” a notion that, beyond its musical reference, has been interpreted by the artists as an invitation to work from the intimate, the everyday, and the seemingly small. For Lind-Ramos, this does not imply a renunciation of the political or the transcendental. “One can say important things without stridency,” he maintains, evoking the “tonal atmospheres” of art as ways of communicating from different levels of intensity. Along these lines, the work of the three artists converges on a common interest based on memory as a space of resistance. Gallisá Muriente has developed a practice focused on archives, climate, and the fragility of records within the Puerto Rican context. Her work explores how phenomena such as hurricanes or institutional precarity affect the very possibility of remembering. “Everything is in constant transformation,” she explains, “but that doesn’t mean everything is lost.” [. . .]
Both agree that the “minor scale” also points to an ethical dimension of care. In a global context marked by conflict, displacement, and violence, art emerges as a space for imagining other forms of coexistence. “A place where the life of all beings can be protected,” Lasalle-Morillo quotes from the curatorial text, underscoring art’s capacity to create beauty even amidst tragedy. [. . .]
For the three artists, the challenge lies in ensuring that this visibility translates into new forms of exchange, especially outside the U. S. circuit, aspiring to generate conversations that allow for rethinking relationships between Puerto Rico and the rest of the world.
Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For original article (in Spanish), see https://www.elnuevodia.com/entretenimiento/cultura/notas/los-rostros-puertorriquenos-que-llevaran-la-escala-menor-a-la-bienal-de-venecia/
[Photo above by Pablo Martínez Rodríguez: (Left to right) Sofía Gallisá Muriente – Daniel Lind-Ramos – Natalia Lassalle-Morillo Artists.]
The literal translation of the original title of this excellent article by article by Víctor Ramos Rosado (El Nuevo Día) is “The Puerto Rican Faces Bringing “Minor Scale” to the Venice Biennale” [Los rostros puertorriqueños que llevarán la “escala menor” a la Bienal de Venecia]. Speaking about the three Puerto Rican artists who will attend
