A Latin American art gallery opened in Beijing

A Latin American art gallery opened in Beijing to "listen, rather than show"

Beijing, June 15 (EFE).-The Spanish-language bookstore Mil Gotas inaugurated this Saturday a Latin American art gallery and an artistic residence in the Chinese capital with the aim of "exploring the space for exchange" between Chinese culture and the world. in Spanish with a "listening attitude."
The gallery, called Espacio Mil Gotas, will be dedicated to showing the Chinese public a wide range of artistic expressions from Latin America, from painting and sculpture to installations and new technologies.

"There is a lot of curiosity in China about the works of Latin American artists, more than there is in the opposite direction," Argentine writer and editor Guillermo Bravo, owner of Mil Gotas and promoter of the project, told EFE, adding that Chinese visitors They associate "the colorful, the vibrant, the movement and the audacity" with Latin American art.
Bravo highlights Chinese interest in "indigenous art, colonial roots and then art that in some way reflects the life of Latin Americans today."

The Argentinian points out that, both in the case of his Mil Gotas bookstore, the first in Spanish in China and inaugurated in 2017, and in the case of the new gallery, he realized that the purpose of both projects "is to listen and see more What to show".
The new space, located in an old house with a patio typical of the Asian country, wants to "be a meeting point and dissemination of contemporary Latin American art in China."

These days, the gallery's first exhibition shows works by Latin American artists such as Verónica Gómez, Fernanda Laguna, Washington Cucurto or Cindy Cal.

Additionally, the Mil Gotas Artistic Residency aims to "provide an opportunity for Latin American artists to work and create in a motivating environment."

This environment is the artistic neighborhood of Songzhuang, located on the outskirts of Beijing and which has its origin in "a group of artists who went to the outskirts looking for a bucolic, free and cheap environment" in the 90s, explains Bravo, who He assures that the neighborhood "was a dream of freedom and joy."

"For a few years, to tell the truth, the dream has calmed down a bit, it is no longer a cheap neighborhood and it is no longer so far or so foreign to Beijing," laments the writer, who points out, however, that the place " It remains a vibrant place, full of artistic activity, not gentrified" and possessing "a rural spirit" and an "idea of community life", in addition to having been home to up to 30,000 artists.

For this reason, Bravo explains that the "first requirement" for future artists invited to the residency is that "they are interested in seeing the neighborhood, in interacting with the neighbors and respecting" and adds that, unlike in the center of Beijing, where life "is not so different" from that of another large capital, the Songzhuang neighborhood is "more unique as an experience" for a recently landed Latin American artist.

Although it is officially inaugurated today, the Mil Gotas Residency has already received artists and writers in recent months and has borne some fruit: "The project works, the exchange has been created. An Argentine writer is about to show the work in Buenos Aires of a Chinese artist he met here and in an exhibition that was recently organized in Songzhuang a girl appeared who did her residency here," says Bravo.

The promoter of the project expressed his hope that the gallery and the residence "leave a mark, however modest, on some paths, both on the paths of the artists who come and on those of the neighborhood artists and residents in general." ". EFE