Beatriz González honored with the 2024 International Award for Public Art in China
Casas Riegner is pleased to announce that the artist Beatriz González has been awarded the International Award for Public Art 2024, presented 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, celebrates the most significant public art projects worldwide—those that transform spaces, create social impact, and strengthen community bonds. This year, Auras Anónimas (Anonymous Auras) was selected as the best proposal from Latin America among 78 projects submitted from various regions, solidifying its status as an exceptional example of art’s power to reinterpret historical memory and foster reconciliation.
Conceived in 2005, Auras Anónimas is an artistic intervention that transformed the columbaria at Bogotá’s Central Cemetery into a space for memory and collective healing. The project involved the installation of 8,957 silkscreened symbolic silhouettes on the tombstones of these historic structures, inspired by press photography documenting Colombia’s violence. Faced with the threat of demolition of the columbaria, Beatriz González succeeded in preserving the space by giving it a profound purpose: honoring the anonymous victims of Colombia’s armed conflict and providing a place for communities to reflect, remember, and heal.
"Each deceased person who passed through here has their aura, and that’s why I decided to name my work Auras Anónimas," explained the artist. This intervention not only preserved the columbaria—which were declared a National Heritage Site in 2019—but also transformed them into a symbol of resistance against forgetfulness and neglect.
The international jury praised Auras Anónimas for its deep cultural, social, and artistic impact, highlighting its ability to turn a forgotten site 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 in 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.
