English translation 28th Edition of the Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes ARTWORK CATALOGUE Art as a way to move forward Maria Amalia Léon President of the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation Head of Centro León The year 2020 will be remembered as one of the most difficult and challenging years in human history. The pandemic affected all areas — economy, society, culture, and artistic creation. It also affected the way we developed the 28th edition of our Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes. This edition was carried under extraordinary circumstances, with the help of our hardworking team, who showed their commitment to Dominican art and cultural management. It wasn’t easy to encourage the artists and assist them with their projects when all the circumstances seemed to be against them. We had to adapt our methods to fit these uncertain times, relying mainly on remote work and reducing in-person meetings. Today, we can firmly say that Dominican art did not stop. By bestowing our trust in our curators and the artists selected for this edition, and with the support of many collaborators, we were able to bring this exhibition to a virtual audience — being the first of its kind in the country and maybe even the region. Our temporary exhibition gallery was filled with shapes, colors, and textures. The artworks showcased offered a perspective on contemporary visual arts in the Dominican Republic: installations, performance, public interventions, artistic processes, and sound archives. Across the exhibition we can find a bit of everything, from traditional techniques such as wood engraving, to the use of digital platforms that give way to the discovery of alternative styles. We can also find artworks that question our reality, subtly intertwined with dyed fibers made of our native plants. These artworks also reflect tensions in our world: the creation of Dominican identities, gender perspectives, and an intimate and complex dive into our bodies and sexual orientations. More than ever, we have showcased pieces that, as part of their artistic approach, tackle social issues and engage with the audience. This time, it wasn’t only a matter of presenting these issues to the viewer, 198
but instead, inviting them to find aesthetic answers or solutions by starting a dialogue with the artwork. This makes us – once again - reflect on the role of art in public places, and I believe these artworks will evoke whenever we speak of Dominican public art in the future. We can already witness this through the wide media presence of these artworks in urban spaces, the way they triggered our senses and the awareness that surged on subjects that would have otherwise gone unnoticed among the worldly noise, as Góngora would say. We want to thank the jury, Gabriela Rangel, Gerardo Mosquera, Raquel Paiewonsky and Sara Hermann, for their commitment, that went far beyond what was strictly asked of them professionally, offering moral and artistic support in the name of art and culture. Our curatorial team, Alfonsina Martínez, Inmagela Abreu, Laura Bisonó Smith, Víctor Martínez, Winston Rodríguez and Yina Jiménez Suriel, thank you for your dedication in these challenging times, for responding quickly and for the constant follow-up. We also want to thank our loyal sponsor, Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, for ensuring this edition of the contest, so important for the Dominican arts. Now that it is over, we can look back at all the valuable things we’ve learned: we’ve been able to prove that resilience isn’t some abstract concept, it lives in every heart that refuses to give up when faced with adversity. Even in the darkest night, you can always shine a light. Now we see the path ahead of us, we apply these lessons, and we reorganize the future of our cultural mission. SELECTION RULING April 13th, 2020 Buenos Aires, Argentina; Madrid, Spain; Santiago and Santo Domingo; Dominican Republic. Between March 24th and April 13th, 2020, the jury of the 28th edition of the Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes, made up of Gabriela Rangel, Gerardo Mosquera, Raquel Paiewonsky and Sara Hermann, reviewed the projects of the artists that applied to this edition. As established in Chapter V, Article 7 in the regulations of the Contest, once the evaluation and deliberation process was over, the jury selected 20 artists or collectives. The jury considered that the work and techniques of these artists allowed them to address several contemporary issues through their style and within their Dominican context. They encouraged reflection on subjects such as the shape and malleability of memory, and our mnemonic attachment to the places we inhabit or pass through. On this note, some of the artists explored the links between the body and psychosocial places and the ways it inhabits the landscape.
