ADRIANA ALMADA AND FÉLIX TORANZOS: AWARDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE
Last Thursday, September 26, a ceremony was held at the French Embassy in Paraguay, where Ambassador Pierre-Christian Soccoja awarded art critic Adriana Almada and visual artist Félix Toranzos with the Order of Arts and Letters. Both were part of the third edition of Pinta Sud | ASU.
The Order of Arts and Letters honors individuals who have contributed to the enrichment of arts and culture, both in France and internationally. It is an honorary distinction awarded by the French Ministry of Culture. In Paraguay, it was awarded to Ticio Escobar; in Argentina, to figures such as Julio Le Parc or Ernesto Sábato.
Adriana Almada is an Art critic, curator, writer, and editor. Of Argentine origin, she has been living in Paraguay since a young age. Since her arrival in the country in 1984, she has been extensively involved in the field of visual arts, literature, and journalism. Her area of work and reflection is contemporary art, both in artistic production and in exhibition curation and collecting.
She has curated numerous exhibitions in Paraguay and abroad. She was the curatorial coordinator of the Ibero-American section of the Valencia Biennial (Spain, 2007) and the Chile Triennial (2009). She curated the Paraguayan submission to the International Biennial of Cuenca (Ecuador, 2009) and co-curated and developed special projects for the International Biennial of Curitiba (Brazil, 2011-2013-2019), SIART Biennial (Bolivia, 2016), and SACO Biennial, Chile (2021). In Asunción, she has curated shows at the Cultural Center of the City, the Cultural Center of the Republic, the Cultural Center of Spain Juan de Salazar, and the Cultural Center of the Embassy of Brazil, as well as independent spaces and galleries. She is the curator of the Mendonca Collection of Contemporary Art (Paraguay) and Pinta Sud | ASU.
She served as vice president of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA International, Paris), president of its International Awards Committee, and a member of the Congress and Publications Committees, as well as AICA Paraguay.
Her texts have been featured in magazines, catalogs, anthologies, and collective volumes in Paraguay and abroad. She is the author of "El Paraguay y la Guerra Guasu en L’Illustration" (2022), "Colección Mendonca. Arte contemporáneo de Paraguay. Dos relatos" (2021), "Joaquín Sánchez. El narrador" (2017), "Hugo Aveta. Espacios sustraíbles" (2015), "Colección Privada. Escritos sobre artes visuales en Paraguay" (2005), and "Premio Jacinto Rivero. Diez experiencias" (co-authored, 2001), among other works. She has also published poetic volumes, "Jardines del abandono" (2019), "Patios prohibidos" (2008), and "Zona de silencio" (2005), as well as the essay "Lugares comunes: Octavio Paz o el Otro que somos" (2003).
Since 2003, she has been extensively involved in editorial work in the fields of visual arts, literature, and social sciences. She collaborates with various magazines and specialized platforms in contemporary art and directs the cultural section of the newspaper El Nacional in Asunción.
Félix Toranzos was born in Asunción, Paraguay. Visual artist, architect, graphic designer, scenographer. He studied Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts and Architecture at the National University of Asunción, respectively. His work is part of the collection of the Paraguayan Museum of Contemporary Art of the Center for Visual Arts / Museo del Barro, Isla de Francia.
He has participated in various Art Biennials, such as the 9th International Drawing Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Rijeka, Yugoslavia. 1st Latin American Biennial of Art on Paper, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 19th International Art Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil. 5th Biennial of Portrait, Tuzla, Yugoslavia. 1st Biennial of Young Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina. International Fairs in Lima, Peru. 1st Biennial of Mercosur Art, Porto Alegre, Brazil. II and IV Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador. He exhibited in 2013 at the 55th Venice Biennale - Paraguay Pavilion.
In 2017, he was awarded the distinction of "Master of Art" instituted by the Senate of the Republic and the Cultural Center of the Republic, El Cabildo.
He is Director of the Paraguayan Museum of Contemporary Art of the Center for Visual Arts / Museo del Barro. Director and Visual Arts Advisor of the Ida Talavera Foundation. Active member of the Association for Visual Arts in Paraguay "Gente de Arte", he was Director of National Museums of the National Secretariat of Culture and Acting Director of the Museum of the House of Independence.
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