Bernardo Oyarzún’s work is defined by his Mapuche heritage, as he was born in the south of Chile in 1963, in the town of Los Muermos, in Llanquihue province. He currently lives and works in Santiago de Chile. He studied at the Faculty of Art at the University of Chile, majoring in Fine Art with his “Painting and Printwork” (1982 – 1986) and “Painting” (1988).
Oyarzún produces installations which bring together anthropological, historical, ethnic and social elements in order to critically present Chilean society and culture. He uses documents and photographs from his background, his origins, which are all closely tied into the native woodlands in southern Chile.
At MDE11 he will be making a TV series set in a working-class neighborhood, inspired by the format employed by Latin American soap operas. This will be an audiovisual production telling stories from the neighborhood, requiring the approval of and participation in the project of the local community. The aim is to create a “neighborhood photograph”, a distanced representation through the camera lens, constructing an imaginary stage.
Mal de Ojo (“Evil Eye”) is one of his most recent pieces, a TV series in which he plays the part of a singer named Sandro. As Oyarzún says: “It was really great because there was a lot of work with people who started to bring in things and who overcame their shyness and be filmed for the series. […] It was like a psychological self-affirmation process. I felt a very strong force coming back from people, as well as learning a lot from the experience”.
“…I’m looking for what belongs to me everywhere I go because I am an inhabitant of the planet.” Bernardo Oyarzún
Links of interest
Bio
‘Interview with Bernardo Oyarzún’
Exhibition of the TV series ‘Evil Eye’ (2008)
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