For this reason, the curatorial conception of the Biennial works around themes such as: new normality, virtuality, pandemic, crisis, technology, future, etc. The pandemic strongly affected the Ecuadorian cultural field, which was already very fragile before. Thus, the idea is to create a meeting space for the artistic community to generate debates and exchanges about the place of art today. This, based on the fact that art has become one of the best tools to raise questions and establish actions that allow us to reflect, in this case, on the interference of digital technologies in this new world order. In this way, the curatorial concept of BUAM was born under the name of Present Alternatives.

The selected artists were: Andrea Alejandro, Andrea Mejía, Cesar Delgado, Brenda Vega, Christian Proaño, Colectivo RR, David Jarrín, Désirée Coral, Killian Dunne, Mauricio Cruz Reyes, Ernesto Salazar, Gabriel Arroyo, Iza Paez, Katherine Galván, Kevin Ortiz, Marcela Correa, Marcia Guaillas, Massiel Carrillo, Micaela García, Paulina Romero, Paola Paredes, Dissonance Laboratory, Aurora Register Collective, René Martínez and Rocío Soria.

The works of each one of these artists and collectives seek, precisely, to reflect on the relationships and possibilities that digital technologies have had in the transformation of current social and cultural dynamics and in the configuration of the so-called “new normality”. 

Among the artworks awarded by BUAM, the third place went to Christian Proaño Pérez with his work "4 clandestine schools", which is inspired by Dolores Cacuango (1881-1971), activist and indigenous leader in Ecuador, who, He highlighted the importance of controlling the dominant language as an emancipatory tool, and, accordingly, founded the first bilingual schools in the country. Proaño believes that the dominant language today is computer programming, which is necessary to learn to master in order to not be dominated. You can see the virtual artwork here. 

Second place went to "She and me” by Massiel Carrillo. The work presents a personal diary, which contains recorded videos of the artist since June 28, 2020, however, the idea is not to tell about specific events of her life, but to show the identity built by new technologies throughout a year. In this way, she investigates concepts such as time, virtuality and identity. Here you can see the artwork.

Finally, the first place went to the work “Teseobiométrica” by Ernesto Salazar, who was inspired by the Ship of Theseus, a thought experiment that raises the question if the ship remains the same despite the fact that all its parts have changed. With this as a starting point, Salazar creates an installation, where we can find a machine simulating the activity of rope jumping. Thus questioning, with what sense could the machines continue to function if the human being is replaced or eliminated from the process?

The exhibition will be open at its two locations (CAC and Q Galeria) until December 16, you can't miss it.