The Print Biennale Exhibition in Chennai brings together artists from Latin America and Northern Africa, to showcase printmaking as a global language of resistance

The ongoing Print Biennale Exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, unfolds as a journey far beyond India’s borders, tracing artistic lineages shaped by revolution and resistance across Latin America and northern Africa. Presented as a collateral event of the Third Print Biennale of India, the exhibition features a selection from the Boti Llanes family collection, initiated by Dr Llilian Llanes, recipient of Cuba’s National Award for Cultural Research, and curated in India by her daughter, Liliam Mariana Boti Llanes. Bringing together the works of 48 printmaking artists from regions including Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, the exhibition is rooted in the socio-political upheavals of the 1980s and 1990s. It shows printmaking as both a political and creative tool, with works that weave stories across countries and continents.

The exhibition showcases the different possibilities and variations within the printing techniques, such as lithographs, serigraphs, etchings, and engravings, rather than focussing on a single subject. “It aims to connect the audience with the artworks and artists by showing how people all over the world are thinking about the same things, such as politics, portraiture, and abstract art,” says Liliam. 

For instance, the late Panamanian artist Guillermo Trujillo’s paper engraving Nuchos Cazadores, portrays a series of nuchos (members of the Panamanian tribes) who are in the middle of hunting. His works include political and social satires, as well as the relationship between man and Nature. As displayed in the exhibition, Trujillo’s artworks often combine human figurines with references to Panamanian anthropology, petroglyphs, and geometric forms. 

Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi’s lithograph print work titled A Nation in Exile: Engraved Hymn (Set 3), 2017, showcases Arabic calligraphic scripts, composed of symbols and ciphers drawn from his own culture. Another artwork, titled Sunrise From the Cave by Cuban artist José Franco Codinach, intertwines and interweaves images and textures, exploring the borderlands between Nature and spirit, life and technology, the real and the surreal, the primitive and the modern. “The works presented at the Printmaking Biennial are representative of my artistic practice, as they share a central concept: the relationship between humankind and Nature, as well as the beauty of the latter, which often goes unnoticed,” says Jose.

“I hope that the public gains a comprehensive understanding of art produced in regions far removed from the most renowned art centres, as well as of the diverse ways of interpreting the world and the techniques of printmaking,” he further adds.

Cuban artist José Braulio Bedia Valdés’ artworks at the exhibition are linked with tradition from Cuba, especially from Afro tradition, and also from other traditions from Latin America and native cultures from Native America. One of his artworks showcases a ‘cougar man,’ which is a feline man with a cougar’s head and a man’s body. Then there is another figure with a bull’s head. “Through the pieces I tried to talk about the permanence of a certain spiritual force in every material part of our life,” says José. 

Rooted in histories of resistance, deeply personal in expression, the works reveal printmaking as a powerful language of memory, spirituality and dissent.

The Third Print Biennale of India is on at the first floor of Lalit Kala Akademi Chennai till January 18, from 11am to 7pm