2019

2nd Place recipient

Andrea Ferrero

Andrea Ferrero (Lima, Perú 1991) is an artist whose work uses architecture as a tool to rupture collective memory and question the basis of political power, playing with notions of possibility and counter-memory. It examines the social constructs of memory, often through the creation of fictional scenarios, proposing alternate perceptions of archival material and historical narratives that imagine hypothetical realities and social transformations. Archives and histories are used as malleable raw material that is deconstructed, recycled and manipulated, dwelling within its aesthetics and reacting to its narratives. She is concerned not only with remembering but also -and perhaps most importantly- with forgetting. Interested in its impact on society, culture, spatial form and the way the city is understood, her work confronts manifestations of persistent colonial ideology in Latin America, often presented as a romanticised fiction but certainly neither new nor limited to a specific historical period: how are notions of place and nation reinforced through ideological, architectural and stylistic transfers? These ideas are often materialised through architectural castings, 1:1 replicas of building contours, and representations of imagined constructions of ‘what could have been’.

​She obtained a BFA in Sculpture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in 2015. She was awarded Honorable Mention in the Premio a la Crítica in 2015, was finalist in the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice in 2016, the Premio Nacional de Artes Visuales Trujillo in 2018 and the Premio ICPNA Arte Contemporáneo in 2019. Andrea was recently awarded the 2019 Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award. Her first solo show, “Mil maneras de olvidar”, was presented at Ginsberg Galeria, Lima in 2017 and her work has been shown collectively in spaces such as La Casita, Bogotá; the Venice Arsenal, Venice; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima; Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro; Y Gallery, Lima and ICPNA, Lima. She has completed artist residencies at Despina, Rio de Janeiro; MANA Contemporary, New Jersey; Uberbau_House, Sao Paulo and Escuela FLORA at FLORA ars+natura, Bogotá. Andrea’s upcoming projects include the two year programme at SOMA in Mexico City and Residency.ch (PROGR) 2020 in Bern, supported by the COINCIDENCIA Pro Helvetia grant.