Branching Out: Around the Paiz Biennial

"For the twenty-fourth edition, which opened in November and took place across sites in Guatemala City and Antigua, the Paiz Foundation, which organizes the biennial, for the first time plunked down the cash to fly in a group of international journalists, curators, collectors, and other art-world denizens, hoping to bring attention to the exhibition, and to the region writ large."

"Curated by Eugenio Viola, an Italian who heads up the program at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO), this edition, titled "The World Tree," is the largest to date, with works by forty-six artists spread across eleven venues, and includes thirty new commissions. Previous iterations have been helmed by Latin Americans, and the decision to bring in a big-league European curator, without the aid of a local cocurator (as has been the case with some past editions),"

The Paiz Biennial is the sixth-oldest biennial worldwide and the second-oldest in Latin America. The 24th edition opened in November across venues in Guatemala City and Antigua, with the Paiz Foundation flying in international journalists, curators, and collectors to raise the event's profile. Curated by Eugenio Viola of MAMBO and titled "The World Tree," the exhibition is the largest to date, presenting forty-six artists across eleven venues and thirty new commissions. The foundation's selection of an international curator without a local cocurator signals a deliberate bid to integrate the biennial into the global art circuit. Guatemala's volcanic landscapes, high Indigenous population, and historic colonial venues shaped site-specific works such as Simón Vega's Estela del Gobernante F (2025).

Read at Artforum