Valeria Montti Colque / Cosmonación – Modersberget (Mother Mountain)

For the Chilean pavilion, co-produced by Bonniers Konsthall, Valeria Montti Colque created a newly produced monumental installation – a territory – in which visual, symbolic and material elements from all the nations she inhabits are interconnected. At the centre of the installation stands Mamita Montaña (Mother Mountain), a primordial force that connects the Andes with the Swedish mountains and invites the viewer to reflect on the concepts of nation, exile, migration and diaspora. Cosmonación – Modersberget, the continuation of the Venice exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall – highlights the intimate and living relationships from which the story is built; the close and generational bond between mother and child, the creation of a family of one’s own, the ongoing search for an extended community and a spiritual connection to distant ancestors.

Over time, in her rich artistic practice, Valeria Montti Colque has created her own universe, using recurring characters and symbols. Seamlessly she borrows from popular culture, art history, folklore and religion in reflections of her experiences as a human being. With the help of characters, who by now have travelled alongside her for decades, she creates works that are deeply personal yet highly relatable. They tackle existential themes such as rushing joy and aching sorrow, loss, and a longing for freedom from a defining outside world. Rooted in several cultures simultaneously, the core of the practice consists of an ongoing manifestation of the idea that identity and belonging is fluid – something that is woven together in the now, at the crossroads between past, the present and the future.

The curator for the Chilean Pavilion 2024 was Andrea Pacheco González. The exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall is co-curated by Pacheco González and Joanna Nordin, Artistic Director of Bonniers Konsthall. In the fall of 2025, the exhibition will travel on to the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile.

Valeria Montti Colque

Valeria Montti Colque is a Chilean-Swedish artist who works in a variety of expressions and media. Her installations often take the form of characters, gods, and mythological figures, incorporating symbolic names from the Andean cosmovision and a mix of different languages. This amalgamation serves as a powerful statement about the artist’s multiple and mobile roots, drawing from her experiences as part of the Chilean and Latin American diaspora in Europe. Collaboration is fundamental to Montti Colque’s practice as other artists, family, and friends are part of the creation of her artistic world. She graduated from the Royal Art Institute in Stockholm and has exhibited extensively in Sweden, Chile, Norway, Spain, Bolivia, and Germany. In 2022, the Stockholm region commissioned her to create two artworks for public transport stations in the city, further expanding her practice for public spaces. One of her installations, Apu Mama Höjden, was acquired by Moderna Museet, Stockholm, becoming part of their collection.

Montti Colque took part in the 3º edition of El Cairo Biennale, Something Else, Off, organized by cultural activist Moataz Nasr and curator Simon Njami. In 2020 She had a solo exhibition at the Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum in Santiago, Chile. In 2016, she collaborated with art historian and writer Macarena Dusant to produce an artist monograph titled La Jardinera (Dokument Press) which addresses themes such as diaspora, love, grief, trauma, and gender power structures. In 2024, she represented Chile at the 60th International Art Biennale in Venice and she also participated at the OpenArt Biennial in Örebro.

In memory of Patricia Filomena Colque Navarro.

Thank you
For their participation in the production, Valeria Montti Colque, Andrea Pacheco González and Bonniers Konsthall would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to:
Rossana Mercado-Rojas – studio manager och artist’s assistant
Sarai Alvarez Riveros – production of textile creations
Jorge Montti – technical support and crafts
Nora Ordenes Söderberg – assistant to the artistic team
Carlos Martinez – performance
Hangmen AB: Stephen McKenzie, Jakob Krajcik, Nils Nyström, Django Giambanco – technicians
Alexis Zeiss – director and editing
Daniel Takacs, Valdemar Asp – cinematography
Ateljé Bastugatan 38, Anette Edmark – ceramic production
and Myrorna.

Cosmonación

Chilean Pavilion, 60th International Art Biennale, Venice
20 apr–24 nov 2024
Artist: Valeria Montti Colque
Curator: Andrea Pacheco González
Project Manager: Carola Chacón Zuloaga
Commissioner: Florencia Loewenthal, Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage—Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Chile
Co-production: Bonniers Konsthall
Curatorial producer: Maria Elena Guerra Aredal (Bonniers Konsthall)

Read more here.

Installation views, Valeria Montti Colque / Cosmanción – Modersberget (Mother Mountain), 2025. Photo: Bonniers Konsthall (Jean-Baptiste Béranger)