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Home   About DigiArts   Media arts   Music using technology   Regional networking   Training   UNESCO Digital Arts Award   Young Digital Creators		Short presentation of media arts creation in Bolovia  The tendency in Bolivia is quite related to performative arts, cinema, digital photography and video.  Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Centuries of colonialism have resulted in a ‘westernized’ elite that dominates economically. As in the case of Ecuador, Bolivia has three main cities: La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba in which artists are producing media art pieces. The tendency in Bolivia is quite related to performative arts, cinema, digital photography and video. Unfortunately none of the three country’s art schools (two in La Paz and one in Santa Cruz) work with new media, being basically devoted to the fine arts. For this reason artists leave the country to study abroad. This is the case of Narda Alvarado , now at the Rijksakademie and Marcelo Santorelli (previously at the KHM in Cologne). Other artists such as Valia Carvalho (Santa Cruz), Joaquín Sánchez (La Paz) and Maria Luisa Ramirez work with video, performance and digital photography. In Santa Cruz one must also mention Raquel Schwartz who directs a gallery of contemporary art. Worth mentioning is also Rodrigo Bellot , who studied filmmaking at Ithaca College and has directed four short films and one feature film (“Sexual Dependency”) that won international recognition. Cochamba seems a very active city too: recently, La Fabrica, a new cinema school was founded; Gonzalo Ordonez works in digital photography and is currently developing a local network of artists called Asociación N.A.D.A. that will for the first time integrate mixed media practices towards contemporary art projects. Probably the only exhibition that has been open to new media happens also in Cochabamba: the Bienal del Concurso Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo (CONART) now coming to its second edition (2004) with around 30 works from photography, public intervention, installation, performances, videos; curiously enough there are no fine arts in this exhibition, developed by curator Angelika Heckl and the Oficialía Mayor de Cultura de Cochabamba. As in the case of Panama with the Canal Zone, Bolivia seems to have a social thematic related to their identity in relation to the historical loss of access to the sea (Pacific Ocean), which was lost during the War of the Pacific in the nineteenth century and is still a major issue discussed. In relation to work with engineers, there are however people in La Paz, such as Alex Tejada that collaborate in projects related to art and cybernetics. Bolivia still has to deal with questionings of the past, their tradition in popular art, which has ‘ethnic’ and ‘primitive’ connotations, in order to try to find ways for its participation in the contemporary art scene. Author(s) José-Carlos Mariátegui and Jorge Villacorta Publication Date 01 Jun 2004	Culture All Unesco Advanced Search Resources
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