Bio
Beatriz Bellorin is a Venezuelan-American photo and video based artist and documentary filmmaker who uses the archive to examine narratives related to memory, displacement and identity. Her artistic practice combines anthropological research and autobiography to delve into the way these documents overlap, interconnect, and confuse notions of memory evoked by emotional and collective aspects of social issues. She holds a BA in sociology from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela) and a MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London. She studied photography at the Nelson Garrido Organization (Caracas) and participated in the artistic training program Ecosistema de Afectos (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Selected group and solo shows include Holocaust Museum Houston, Post, Houston, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Aperture Foundation, Museum Fine Arts Houston in the traveling group exhibition of Latin American Photobooks and Espacio MAD, Caracas. Beatriz work has been featured in publications such as Visions of Motherhood, La fotografía impresa en Venezuela, Sur- Revista de foto libros latinoamericanos and Clap 10x10: Contemporary Latin American Photobooks 2000-2016. She is co-founder of Automático Films, Foco Sustentable, Centro Lyra, organizations aimed at promoting sustainable development and storytelling for at-risk populations. in Latin America. She lives and work in Houston.
Statement
I use personal and collective archives to question social narratives about memory, identity, migration, and displacement, aiming to shed light on the psychological and social effects that emerge in contexts of social unrest. Through repetitive sequences of a gesture, event, or phenomenon, I document, order, and categorize both the similar and the discontinuous. Drawing from my own memories, I investigate the memory of materials and objects. Using photography, video, and collage I craft metaphors that revolve around social issues that invite us to revisit and rethink our affective and emotional universe. I assemble and deconstruct fragments from the collective imaginary to create my own audiovisual grammar that aspires to recognize the universal within the individual.