FERNANDO ARIAS | DOCUMENTA KASSEL 15
Más Arte Más Acción, Fly, from the project Srinagar/Kashimir, Srinagar, 2011, Photo: Fernando Arias
The project Más Arte Más Acción led by the artist Fernando Arias is part of the group of artists/art projects selected for the next edition of the one of the most important art exhibitions worldwide, Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany.
Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA, Chocó) is a nonprofit cultural foundation that generates critical thinking through art.
The foundation’s base on Colombia’s Pacific Coast is a source of inspiration for artists, scientists, activists, and writers, who are invited to explore wide-ranging social and environmental issues and consider the construction of other possible worlds.
MAMA builds networks with funders, universities, festivals, art institutions, and local communities to sustain the ideas and processes of critical thinking in the framework of territorial struggles. About their present situation MAMA says, “we are currently on a journey to evaluate our processes, narratives, and ways of organizing in the coming years. The journey is uncertain, and this uncertainty encourages us to resist results-oriented productivity.”
Más Arte Más Acción evolved following years of community engagement led by the artist Fernando Arias and arts coordinator Jonathan Colin. This process led to the construction of the Chocó Base, designed by Atelier Van Lieshout and supported by Arts Collaboratory. MAMA’s core team includes the two founders, Ana Garzón and Alejandra Rojas. It has worked with the Goethe Institutes in Bogotá and São Paulo and participated in the São Paulo Biennial (2014), the New York Independent Film and Video Festival (2021), and ArtCop21 (2015) in Paris, among others.
(Originally published by the German institution. Visit their website to learn more)