SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA – An interesting exposition named SAVIA (Spanish for “sap”) opened to the public last November 9 sponsored by the Simon I. Patiño Foundation, and presented at Kiosko Gallery. Curator Raquel Schwarz, with the inspiration of Hagamos el bosque (Make A Forest)—a Dutch organization dedicated to sustainable management of tropical forests (http://www.makeaforest.org)—selected 20 renown contemporary artists from Bolivia to present SAVIA through various artistic mediums.

Beatriz Oggero’s “Relict” is made of 220 modules woven in copper, mercerized cotton, and viscose in hues of green, and draws its inspiration from the Andean forest. It measures 40″ X 75″ by 8″ depth, with the upper part in light tones and the bottom in dark ones the way it is in the woods when seen from the air.

“Relicto” is a word to define remains of life organisms from the tertiary geologic Era —both vegetable and animal, which are scarce in the world: there are deposits in Chile, the Canary Islands, and Australia.

…”My idea when choosing this title, was that if we continue destroying the forest the way we have until now, there will only be these wonderful relicts left which, were we talking about human works, would be known as “relics”. While making the piece I thought that manual weaving in this contemporary world of digital looms, is also a relic of sorts, and that’s why I liked the term: I thought it was both strong and poetic…”

—translation by —Silvia Piza-Tandlich

Beatriz Oggero: "Relict" - detail