NEXT Curator
The NEXT section of Pinta Lima 2025 explores the integration of unconventional crafts into contemporary art, influenced by the knowledge of Indigenous groups. Additionally, it presents meditative practices that question the relationship between thinking and making, proposing a polyphony of artistic approaches that go beyond representation to conceive and build the world.
Emiliano Valdés is a Guatemalan curator and strategic advisor based in Guatemala City. Until December, he served as the Chief Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Medellín, Colombia, where over the past decade he developed a program that amplified the voices resonating within the museum and positioned it internationally. He is currently advising the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism on exhibitions, culture, and international fairs, with an emphasis on artisanal and community-based processes. Until 2015, he was the Associate Curator of the 10th Gwangju Biennale (South Korea) and co-director of Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala City). Previously, he was the curator and head of visual arts at the Cultural Center of Spain in Guatemala, where he also founded the space (Ex)Céntrico. Valdés has also worked with institutions such as dOCUMENTA(13) (Kassel), with a fellowship from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), and Contemporary Magazines (London). He has curated, among others, the following international art events: the XVII Paiz Art Biennial in Guatemala, the VIII Nicaraguan Visual Arts Biennial-2011, the Costa Rican Visual Arts Biennial 2013, and the First Tamaulipas Border Biennial, Mexico-2015. He has written for international magazines, catalogs, and books. Valdés is an architect from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (Italy), holds a postgraduate degree in the history of art and Hispanic literature from the Ministry of Culture of Spain and the Duques de Soria Foundation (Spain), and a Master's degree in Urban and Environmental Processes from EAFIT University (Colombia).