Gilda Mantilla & Raimond Chaves

Gilda Mantilla (Los Ángeles, 1967) and Raimond Chaves (Bogotá, 1963) live in Lima and work together since 2001. Mantilla and Chaves understand their work, mainly as creators of images, in dialectical confrontation with the contexts in which they are inscribed, focusing above all on the framework of what we understand as the Latin American, and therefore on the processes that shape it and the dynamics and conflicts that put it in question. Thus, they have questioned the processes of representation and identification that, through images, allow the construction of a specific territory: Dibujando América -Drawing America- (2005-2009), Un afán incómodo -An Uncomfortable Eagerness- (2010-2012), and Segunda naturaleza -Second Nature- (2015-2016). They have critically reviewed the social, political and cultural context of Lima, based on its peculiar meteorological circumstance: Observaciones sobre la ciudad de polvo -Observations on the City of Dust- (2009-2010) or crossing the deconstruction of his musical memory with the urban landscape: Polvosonoros -Dustysounds- (2012). They have ironically reread the discourses, "voices" and imaginaries of the Lima art scene: Antes y después del futuro -Before and After the Future- (2013-2015), or they have been questioned about the relationships between artistic institutions and citizens: Gabinete de la curiosidad -Cabinet of Curiosity- (2006-2015). In 2015 Mantilla and Chaves represented Peru at the 56th Venice Biennale, where for the first time the country had its own pavilion, with the installation Ruinas fuera de lugar -Misplaced Ruins. In addition, they have been members of the collectives: Espacio La Culpable (2005-2008), Circulo Cuadrado de Lima (2010) and Comité 1º de Mayo (2013-2015), all in Lima. Both share their work with teaching either in educational institutions: PUCP (Chaves, 2019-2021), ENSABAP (Chaves, 2018), Escuela de Arte Corriente Alterna, Lima (2012-2017) or in independent workshops such as in: Capacete, Rio de Janeiro; Fundación Yaxs, Ciudad de Guatemala; La Tallera, Sala de Arte Público Siquieros, Cuernavaca; all in 2016. At present and under the name of Trabajo de Base they develop workshops, seminars and other types of interventions in the key of pedagogical activation.