Narda Alvarado

Born in La Paz, Bolívia 1975
Lives and works in La Paz, Bolivia

Researcher, non-conformist artist, architect and philosophy student. Narda Alvarado uses art as a po-ethical-aesthetical-technical tool to think reality, to relate to the world and to understand art itself. Thus, she researches artistic, cultural or existential conflicts that emerge from the questionings posed by the artistic self. The form and contents of her investigations emerge from the natural oscillation she experiments amongst fascination or curiosity (modes of exploration) and academic boredom or non-conformism (mechanisms of renovation and change). Consequently, since her practice comes about to crisis or contradiction constantly, it consists of rendering methods of arrangement of chaos. For this, she uses different artistic or audiovisual mediums, media and production strategies. She also resorts to the knowledge and perspectives of art, philosophy, architecture, poetry and social sciences.

The purpose of Narda Alvarado’s artistic practice is to become a philosophy of art (on its own right) that takes on account the needs of society, in order to produce thought and to build realities consistent with the XXIst century demands. This philosophy departs from her experience in life as a contemporary artist, a technologized and interconnected human being, female feminist and as a member of a society that is not yet fully modern, such as the Bolivian one. In this sense, her subjects cover a diverse range of contemporary life: culture, technology, identity, love, sports, globalization, productivity…

Narda began her artistic activities as a self taught artist in 1997, while studying Architecture and Construction in La Paz. She obtained her degree in 2011. In 2012, she finished her Master of Science in Art, Culture and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S. She took several Comparative Media Studies classes at MIT and worked as a co-instructor and research assistant for Video games and Educational projects for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Between 2008-2010 she created and directed a team of theoreticians for a multidisciplinary research project. The outcome was the publication of the book: “Video art in Bolivia: A Theoretical Approach and a Videography”.  She studies philosophy at the San Andres State University in La Paz since 2009. In 2008, she taught practical/theoretical workshops on YouTube’s vernacular video in U.S. universities. In 2004, she received a Research Residency grant for the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Netherlands, equivalent to a Masters degree in Visual Arts. Narda participated in the following biennials: Venice (Entre Siempre y Jamás, 2011 y Territorios, 2007), Fin del Mundo (Ushuaia, 2009), Sao Paulo (How to live together?, 2006), Busan (A Tale of Two Cities, 2006) y Mercosur (Transformaciones en el Espacio Público, 2005), among others. She exhibited in numerous solo and collective shows in Bolivia, Latin America and Europe. She has done artists’ residencies and expeditions in Belgrade y Athens (Sound Development City Expedition, 2015), Potosí (Territorios Abiertos, 2014), Santiago de Chile (Agenda Santiago, 2012), Buenos Aires (El Basilisco, 2008), Sao Paulo (Agulhas Negras, 2008), Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Kiosko, 2007), Jerusalem (Jerusalem Center for the Visual Arts, 2006) and Oxford (Braziers International Artists´ Workshop, 2001 y 2004).