Virginia Pérez-Ratton is one of the key figures in the reformulation of cultural discourses on the international scene. Her work as a critic, curator and cultural manager introduced exhibitions, arguments, works and experiences constructed from a Central American perspective.

Her projects sought to go beyond the old dichotomy of center and periphery and the mirages of equality associated with the debates around so-called “global art” in the 1990s.

This exhibition is intended to review the contribution made by Pérez-Ratton from a number of facets: her own artwork, her projects as a curator both working independently and with institutions, and her constant collaboration with women artists, writers, thinkers and curators. The exhibitions underlines how her work transformed the ways of reading and writing about the region, in dialogue with the global debates and realities.

The show brings together her sensibilities as a printmaker and sculptor with her work in cultural management, curating and as the head of two major contemporary art institutions in Central America: the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC) and teor/éTica, both in San José, Costa Rica. It draws particular attention to two exhibitions curated by Pérez-Ratton: MESóTICA II. Centroamérica: re-generación (MADC, Costa Rica, 1996) and Centroamérica y el Caribe: una historia en blanco y negro (24th Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil, 1998). It also presents key works by artists who were close to Virginia and who were a part of the projects she curated.

The exhibition also includes a selection of Pérez-Ratton’s works that are seldom seen, covering themes such as the landscape, the body, domestic space, intimacy and memory.