Beatriz González has been awarded the International Award for Public Art 2024 in China for her work “Auras Anónimas”
Beatriz González was honored with the Regional Grant Award at the sixth International Award for Public Art 2024 in the Latin America category, a recognition granted by the International Institute of Public Art at Shanghai University. This award, organized in collaboration with the National Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Art and Culture in China, highlights the most significant public art projects worldwide—those that transform spaces, create social impact, and strengthen community ties. On this occasion, Auras Anónimas was selected as the best proposal from Latin America, standing out as an exceptional example of art’s ability to reframe historical memory and foster reconciliation.
In previous editions, this accolade has recognized projects such as "Perception" by El Seed in 2019, which redefined the image of a marginalized community in Cairo through a monumental anamorphic mural visible only from a specific vantage point, and "Teeter-Totter Wall" by Rael San Fratello in 2021, which turned the U.S.-Mexico border wall into an interactive space for play and connection. With this distinction, Auras Anónimas joins a tradition of works that showcase the transformative power of public art on a global scale.
Conceived in 2009, Auras Anónimas is an artistic intervention that transformed the columbariums of Bogotá’s Central Cemetery into a space for collective memory and healing. The project involved installing 8,957 symbolic silkscreen silhouettes on the tombs of these historic structures, based on photojournalistic images documenting Colombia’s violence. Faced with the threat of the columbariums’ demolition, Beatriz González repurposed this space with profound meaning: to honor the anonymous victims of the Colombian armed conflict and provide a site for communities to reflect, remember, and heal.
“Every person who passed through here has their aura, which is why I decided to name the work Auras Anónimas,” the artist explained. This intervention not only preserved the columbariums—declared a National Heritage site in 2019—but also transformed them into a symbol of resistance against oblivion and neglect.
The international jury praised Auras Anónimas for its profound cultural, social, and artistic impact, highlighting its ability to transform a forgotten place into a living monument to memory and collective mourning. This recognition reaffirms Beatriz González as a pioneer in public art and an indispensable voice in the construction of memory within contexts of violence
Beatriz Gonzaléz
Her unique perspective on Colombia’s popular culture and politics, gave way to the configuration of an artistic voice that has resonated through the realm of art and beyond. Some of her most recent exhibitions include: Beatriz González, A Retrospective, Perez Art Museum, Miami, 2019; Beatriz González, Retrospective 1965-2017, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, Velásquez Palace, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux, 2017-2018; Memorias del subdesarrollo: El giro descolonial en el arte de América Latina, 1960–1985; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico, 2018; Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, EEUU, 2017; Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, 2017; Beatriz González: A Retrospective, Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Texas, USA, 2019; Beatriz González. Guerra y Paz: una poética del gesto. Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo - MUAC. Mexico City, Mexico, 2023. War and Peace: A Poetics of Gesture. De Pont Museum. Tilburg, Netherlands. 2024.
