TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa

Artist | Performer | Storyteller of Disrupted Histories

Born in 1978 in Guatemala City, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa is a multidisciplinary artist whose work draws deeply from personal memory and the collective trauma of Guatemala’s civil war (1960–1996). Forced into exile at the age of six, he relocated to Canada amid a brutal conflict that claimed the lives and voices of an estimated 200,000 people—many of them Indigenous—through systematic violence and enforced disappearances. His family, like many others, was directly affected.

Performance lies at the core of Ramírez-Figueroa’s artistic language. Through embodied acts and poetic visual narratives, he transforms everyday materials and gestures into meditations on history, loss, and resilience. His works do not offer easy answers; instead, they open up space for reflection, asking viewers to grapple with the spectral presence of untold stories. In his videos and installations, figures are acted upon—much like historical subjects—inviting us to witness rather than decode.

Ramírez-Figueroa’s practice serves as a haunting and healing intervention into the silences of the past, exploring what it means to remember, to represent, and to remain.

Related works in the collection

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa Huertos de los ch’olti, 2020

Naufus Ramirez Figueroa Deus ex machina, 2021

Abundant Futures in Troubled Times Works from the TBA21 Collection

Abundant Futures Works from the TBA21 Collection

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa Cuna y arrullo, 2025