Pia Camil
BOG 25: Bienal Internacional de Arte y Ciudad
September 20, 2025
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November 9, 2025
2025
Bienal de Bogotá

Bara, Bara, Bara is a large-scale textile installation composed of T-shirts purchased at street markets in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. These garments, originally manufactured in Latin America for distribution in the United States, return south through informal channels, reappearing as secondhand merchandise in popular markets. Camil deconstructs these T-shirts and sews them together to form expansive textile assemblages that evoke both the visual aesthetic and the performative nature of the markets where they were found. The installation is inspired by Lygia Pape’s iconic performance Divisor (1968), in which a group of people walked together through a large sheet of fabric, their heads emerging as a form of collective action in public space. By referencing this historic work, Camil prompts reflections on individual identity in relation to the collective, while also addressing themes such as transnational trade, migration, consumption, and forms of emotional exchange in contemporary urban contexts.

In the studio with Pia Camil
Video
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Photo: Monsalve. Courtesy of Bienal de Bogotá 2026.