Cultural extravaganza
THe 60th anniversary celebrations of the national Visual Arts Gallery (nVAG) in Kuala Lumpur can only get better. This october, the nVAG will play host to the annual Argentina Art Festival (Arfa).
now in its second year, Arfa 2018, curated by Gustavo Masutti Llach, an Argentinian art curator, writer and teacher, will feature the works of 15 Argentinian artists of various disciplines, including painting, sculptures, digital art and textile art. each artist will exhibit two to three artworks each.
The first Arfa festival took place last year at the Latino Art Museum in Pomona, Los Angeles. It is big news for Arfa to pick Kuala Lumpur for its second edition.
“We want to expand and communicate the intangible richness of the Argentine cultural values to the world through hosting this festival in different major international cultural cities,” says Marcela Temes, Arfa’s general director, during the launch of the festival at nVAG last week.
Also present at the launch was Manuel Balaguer Salas, the Argentinian ambassador to Malaysia.
Some of the artists whose works will be featured in the exhibition are Ana Smichtd, Betina Attas, diana randazzo, Gerardo Quintana and Gustavo navaone. These artists and their works were picked through a careful selection process by Temes and the festival’s committee.
The two main criteria of the selection process were the originality of the artworks and most importantly, the ability of the artworks to represent Argentina’s robust culture.
Temes also adds the festival is “aimed at promoting cultural ties between Malaysia and Argentina as well as the provision of opportunities and platform exchange of information, ideas and interaction between artists and gallerists of the two countries.”
A few of the Argentinian artists involved will be flown in from Buenos Aires.
As to why KL was picked to play host this year’s Arfa, Temes says she had always wanted to bring Argentine art and culture to Malaysia.
“Malaysia and Argentina have strong diplomatic ties. So we thought Malaysia would be a very good opportunity for these Argentinian artists to get exposure,” she says.
“We actually consider Malaysia as the gateway to the rest of the South-east Asian countries. In many areas, we work with this mindset. Likewise, we thought Malaysia would be the most suitable country in the region to introduce our art and culture,” says Salas.
The Argentina Art Festival will take place at the National Visual Arts Gallery in Kuala Lumpur from Oct 24-28. For more information, visit www.festivaldearte.com.