24 Bienal de Arte Paiz / Bienal de Guatemala : «El árbol del mundo» : Adji Dieye

«The World's Tree» reaffirms the power of contemporary art to connect diverse histories and realms of experience, promoting unity and understanding across cultures, times, and spaces in an increasingly divided world.

The curator, Eugenio Viola, stated: "Today, the metaphor of 'The World Tree' stands as a universal symbol of our interconnection across cultures, times, and spaces. Drawing inspiration from ancestral cosmogonies, this symbol transcends traditional boundaries by illustrating how the spiritual, material, individual, and collective realms intertwine within our shared human experience. The trunk, branches, and leaves of the tree reflect our diverse histories, contemporary challenges, and aspirations. Its roots evoke the rhizomatic structure of the network. This connection between the earthly and the ethereal creates a dynamic flow of information and ideas, reflecting the cyclical nature of existence. Similar to the world tree, contemporary art has the unique capacity to connect distinct aspects of human experience. It can build bridges between past and present, the spiritual and the material, myth and reality, and individual and collective dimensions. Today's world is affected by wars and an alarming rise in intolerance at all levels: ethnic, social, cultural, political, religious, and gender-based. 'The World Tree' symbolizes the transformative potential of contemporary art to foster understanding, celebrate diversity, and inspire change. It creates bridges that unite rather than walls that divide, and represents a call to action to promote unity and inclusion."

The 24th Paiz Art Biennial will present a wide range of new commissions, featuring international artists from diverse backgrounds and generations from all five continents, highlighting voices from indigenous and ancestral communities, encompassing gender diversity. The biennial will engage in critical dialogues with the history and physical characteristics of the spaces that will host it, broadly addressing events and concerns that shape our lives; it will explore the environments where people live and move, merging public and private spaces. The world tree affirms that art must foster empathy within the complex network of languages, religions, cultures, and histories that configure our global society, promoting understanding and connection in an increasingly interconnected yet fragmented world. This Biennial drives art to stimulate inclusion, building bridges between distant worlds and reconciling diverse perspectives across cultures and eras.