Claudia Bernal

My artistic practice includes installation, video, performance, etching/engraving and painting. For the realization of my work, I often take into account social or political situations which interest me particularly. This offers me the opportunity to think about the important role I believe artists must play in the processes of social and political transformation. The place of the art, more than the institutions, has to be the society itself, and art more than objects has to be action. My artistic production responds mainly to the necessity of establishing a relation between the fragmentation of urban space and its impact on society and culture.

In 1999, I began to give more attention to the relation between artworks, as well as between the public and the space of exhibition. Simultaneously, I started to explore new medias, such as video. I looked into establishing links between the various artistic disciplines I practive, mainly between sculpture, video and performance (including theatre and dance). This on-going research led to the collective multidisciplinary creation Fuite? (Montreal, 2005-06), the video-installation-performance Chamanika urbana (Montreal / Mexico, 2006), the installation-performance Silent Paths (Montreal, 2004), the video-installation-performance Monument to Ciudad Juarez: Only Women Who Die a Violent Death Go Directly to a Paradise (Mexico / Quebec, 2002), and the video-installations Cartographies intérieures (Quebec, 2001) and Fragment de ville (Montreal, 1999).

The installations-performances I am working on presently tackle issues like feminine identity, wanderings, marginality, isolation, internal fragility and strength. The materials I use are many, combining natural elements like stones, water, feathers, with new technology such as video and sound.

Graduated in Philology and Languages from the National University of Colombia, Claudia BERNAL immigrated to Quebec in 1991 and completed her Master scholarship in French Linguistics at Laval University. Her on-going research on the different modalities of language lead her to concentrate on the multiple forms of esthetic expressions. She graduated in 1999 with a B.A. in Visual Arts/ Creation at the University of Quebec in Montreal, and started a M.A. in History of Latin American Art in Mexico City. She has presented both collective and solo exhibitions in Canada, Quebec, Colombia, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Germany and Peru. Colombia-born and Canadian, Claudia BERNAL lives and works in Montreal.