In September 2024, I had the honor of presenting my artwork at the prestigious OPEC Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund), located at the Colloredo-Mannsfeld Palace in Vienna. This exhibition, titled “Three Views of the Middle of the World”, was a collaboration between Art Creators Group Europe and the Embassy of Ecuador in Austria, bringing together my work alongside that of prominent artists William Cáceres and David Celi.
Three Visions, One Single Origin
The exhibition proposed a pictorial narrative where each of us contributed an individual perspective inspired by the natural, ancestral, and contemporary richness of our region:
David Celi: Contributed a look marked by experimentation with avant-garde materials. In his work, the “Nuevos mestizos” series stands out, where he uses silver leaf and acrylics to position Andean identity and attire within a modern evolution. He also presented his “Urbanos” series, where he masterfully captures the movement and behavior of the contemporary city.
William Cáceres: Presented an instinctive and surrealist language that seeks to harmonize the abstract with the real. His work is notable for the use of figures and signs from pre-Columbian cultures, applied with mixed media on supports such as jute and cotton paper, inviting the viewer into an imaginative play of colors and forms.
Miguel Betancourt: My proposal focused on the intersection of the ancestral, the arborescent, and the Iberian. Through oils and watercolors, I sought a dialogue between the atavistic vestiges of cultures such as Valdivia or Chorrera and the influence of Western masters, exploring the contrast between the textures of jute and the transparency of paper.
A High-Level Cultural Encounter
The inauguration coincided with the 189th Meeting of OPEC Governments, which allowed our vision of Ecuador to be shared with the international diplomatic corps and the Viennese public. For us, this exhibition reaffirms the importance of using art as a bridge of fellowship to redeem the cultural memory of our nations.
We deeply appreciate the efforts of the Embassy of Ecuador in Vienna and the space provided by the OPEC Fund to make this global-scale artistic exchange possible.
