The SACO Biennial Returns with Force to Northern Chile

Dark Ecosystems: Revealing the Latest Artists Who Will Share Their Art in the Desert
The SACO Biennial returns with force to northern Chile, transforming landscapes and historic spaces in Antofagasta into venues for art and thought. SACO1.2 brought together nine artists from countries such as Chile, Brazil, Canada, Norway, Lithuania, Poland, Paraguay, Argentina, and Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels), with works that address the body, memory, and territory.

Meet the latest artists joining the more than 50 exhibitors in Dark Ecosystems and immerse yourself in this unmissable event featuring contemporary art. An invitation to view the world from the desert:

Francisco Medel (Chile) is an artist and architect from Antofagasta. His work connects the sea, memory, and northern territory through a symbolic and affective aesthetic. At SACO1.2, he will present The Fisherman of Dreams, a residential model boat woven with recycled ropes, stones, and family memories, as an intimate rite of memory and disappearance.

Daniel Jablonski (Brazil) will mount The Flowering Desert, a typographic installation that poetically confronts mining propaganda with botanical descriptions of the flowering desert common in the area.
Tanya Busse (Canada-Norway) and Emilija Škarnulytė (Lithuania) make up New Mineral Collective, an international art platform that explores the industry and the human relationship with the landscape. Their work has toured venues such as the Serpentine Galleries and SeMA. They will be present at the biennial with Hollow Earth, a short film that reflects on the High North as a territory of tension between desire, violence, and geological memory.

On the other hand, Sonia Rammer (Poland), who held an artist residency at SACO's Instituto Superior Latinoamericano de Arte (ISLA) in 2024, will explore interspecies connections and displacement with Eso, a series of audiovisual pieces recorded in the Atacama Desert.

Another of the artists participating in SACO residencies is Belén Rodríguez (Paraguay), a multidisciplinary artist who focuses on research that articulates theory and practice, intersecting the social, gender, body, memory, technology, and the environment. For this edition of the biennial, she presents her work Hogar migrante (Migrant Home), which broadly considers the female body as a mutable home and refuge during the experience of migration.

Respirar – Resistir (Breathe – Resist), by Javier del Olmo (Argentina), will invite reflection through large stickers on the facade of one of the warehouses in the Molinera building in Antofagasta. Javier's projects are characterized by their dialogue with memory, the body, and political graphics.
Alexandre Christiaens (Belgium, Wallonia-Brussels) is the Belgian artist who develops photographic and video work that emerges from his direct experience in the world. His practice explores the connections between landscape, humanity, and nature from a sensitive and critical perspective. He has exhibited in Europe and Latin America, and his works are included in prominent public collections. At SACO1.2, he presents Robinsong.

Rodrigo Aros Gho (Chile) is a musician, visual artist, and art history graduate. His work intertwines sound, performance, and digital from an experimental perspective. During the biennial, he will perform a sound intervention called Resonances, activating instruments from diverse sources using technological tools in real time. She will also participate in a musical performance at the opening of El espacio que queda (The Space That Remains) by artist Coco González and students from the Liceo Experimental Artístico (LEA).

“We want the public to come closer, learn about the artists' works, and engage with the proposals they bring to us. This is an open invitation to experience art firsthand, outside of museums and traditional formats. SACO is a living space for encounter and reflection,” said Dagmara Wyskiel, director of SACO.

The exhibitions and activities will be available at various locations in the city and the Antofagasta region, with guided tours, meetings with artists, and free mediation sessions for schools, social groups, and the general public. To learn more about each artist and their works, you can visit the Dark Ecosystems section, where you will find the complete exhibition program.
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