24th Paiz Art Biennial to present “The Tree of the World” in Guatemala

The Paiz Foundation announces the 24th Paiz Art Biennial, to be held from November 6, 2025, to February 15, 2026, across Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala City. Founded in 1978, the Paiz Art Biennial is the sixth oldest biennial in the world and the most established in Central America, serving as a vital platform for dialogue between local artistic practices and the international cultural community. Remarkably, no edition has ever been canceled.

Curated by Eugenio Viola, Italian art critic and curator, currently Artistic Director of the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá (MAMBO), this edition is titled “The Tree of the World”. The curatorial concept draws inspiration from Mesoamerican Indigenous cosmologies, exploring identity, environment, corporeality, and resistance—placing art at the center of critical reflection and connection.

Featuring 46 Guatemalan and international artists, the Biennial expands to over 20 exhibition venues and public spaces, marking its most ambitious edition to date. The exhibition will engage in dialogue between contemporary art, Mayan archaeology, and works from the Paiz Foundation Collection, gathered through the event’s past acquisition awards.

A significant highlight is the introduction of a two-day professional preview program, featuring performances, guided artist tours, and panel discussions, developed in collaboration with the 2025 World Anthropological Union Congress, also taking place in Guatemala.

Key messages

• The 24th Paiz Art Biennial, “The Tree of the World,” is conceived as a polyphonic project that interacts with the artistic ecosystems of Guatemala and Mesoamerica, reaffirming art’s power to connect distant worlds.
• Curated by Eugenio Viola, the project explores Mesoamerican Indigenous cosmologies and urgent issues of identity, environment, corporeality, and resistance.
• In an increasingly fragmented world, the Biennial positions art as a space for connection and resistance, adopting a decentralized and rhizomatic approach that transcends geopolitical borders.
• The Biennial interlaces voices from Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, and diverse Indigenous and ancestral communities, revealing how local struggles reflect broader global interdependencies.

With this edition, the Paiz Art Biennial reaffirms its commitment to critical thought, contemporary creation, and intercultural dialogue across the region and beyond.