TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Nohemí Pérez

The multidisciplinary practice of Nohemí Pérez revolves around the relationship between men and nature, the conflicts, tensions, and genesis that arise from this constant friction. Based on the notions of architecture, cinema, and sociology, the artist proposes rereading the Catatumbo territory, a geographical region on the border between Colombia and Venezuela with a very particular natural and sociocultural ecosystem. From the conquest until today, Catatumbo is the scene of multiple conflicts that have been transformed to compose a complex plot of anachronistic situations characteristic of Latin American contemporaneity. Illegal armed groups of right and left, native tribes, evangelical missionaries, and large multinationals of mining and drug trafficking coexist in this jungle region. Pérez frequently uses charcoal in her work as a reference to mining; coal itself is also a recurring element. With this, she aims to make visible the exploitation of natural resources and the violence that this triggers. From the territory of her memory and her affections, Nohemí Pérez reconstructs the history of her origin and thus, collects the voices of those who live and have lived the Catatumbo from the close emotional ties of their experience. A particular interest in Nohemí’s work is to draw new symbolic and geographical maps that correspond to the various realities of the Catatumbo to allow it to appear on the scene of reconstruction and peace.

Related works in the collection

Nohemí Pérez
Cóndores sin vida, Incendio en la casa de la zarigüeya, 2022

Nohemí Pérez
El llanto del bosque (Quemas) II, 2023 Nohemí Pérez

Related program

The Ecologies of Peace II Exhibition