Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa
The sound piece, Cantos de aves extintas previamente desconocidas por la ciencia pero recuperadas a traves de sesiones espiritistas No. 2 (Songs of Extinct Birds Previously Unknown by Science but Recovered by Spiritism, #32, 2015) is a recording made after conducting a series of séances where Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa led a group in their efforts to communicate with the spirits of extinct birds, sensing and imagining their forms, and ultimately allowing the artist to give voice to their previously unknown songs.
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala, 1978) lives and works in Guatemala City. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University, Vancouver, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was a research fellow at Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht in 2013. Using performance, sound, drawing and sculpture, Ramírez-Figueroa’s work conjures live and sculptural representations that explore themes of loss, displacement and cultural resistance. The Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996) is a recurring subject in his work, which although often softened by an absurd and humorous approach, fails to conceal the force of history that precedes it.
Ramírez-Figueroa has participated in various solo and group exhibitions including Asymmetries, The Power Plant, Toronto (2020); At Small Arms, Toronto Biennal Of Art (2019; The Sixth State, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City (2018); The Guardian of the Forest, Proyectos Ultravioleta; Guatemala City (2018); The House of Kawinal, New Museum, New York (2018); The Luminous Grid, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf (2018); Shit Baby and the Crumpled Giraffe, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2017); The Green Ray, daadgalerie, Berlin (2017); Linnæus in Tenebris, CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux (2017); VIVA ARTE VIVA, 57th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2017); Two Flamingos Copulating on a Tin Roof, Haus Esters, Krefeld Kunstmuseum, Krefeld (2017); Incerteza Viva, 32 Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo (2016); God’s Reptilian Finger, Gasworks, London (2015); Rendez-Vous, 13th Lyon Biennale, Lyon (2015); Burning Down the House, 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2014); A Chronicle of Interventions, Tate Modern, London, (2014); Illy Present Future, Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2013); Beber y Leer El Arcoiris, Casa América, Madrid (2012); Home Works IV, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2008); and 53rd Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen, (2007).
He is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Mies Van Der Rohe prize, the Franklin Furnace award, the Akademie Schloss Solitude fellowship (selected by Dan Graham), and the DAAD Berlin Artists-in-Residence fellowship.