Fredi Casco
Born in 1967 in Paraguay, Casco lives and works in Asunción, Paraguay. He is a visual artist, curator, and audiovisual maker. Casco is a co-founder of El Ojo Salvaje, Month of Photography in Paraguay, and a member of the editorial committee of Sueño de la Razón magazine. Currently, he serves as Artistic Director of the Texo Foundation for Contemporary Art and President of the AICA Paraguay chapter.
"Casco addresses themes related to media, popular culture, politics, and psychoanalysis. His stance is revisionist towards narratives of tradition and power found in various local visualities and popular or religious iconographies. Through subtle transgressions and a heavy dose of irony, he examines the apparent transparency and neutrality of different media like television and photography. His work continuously explores the boundaries between so-called high culture and popular culture, as well as tensions between official history and its "minor" documents. Casco reveals cultural imaginaries and consumption within contexts shaped by postcolonial conditions, such as those in Paraguay".
His visual work has been featured in the III, V, and X Mercosur Biennials (Porto Alegre, 2001, 2005, 2015); the 55th Venice Biennale (Italy, 2013); "Latin America 1960-2013 Photographies" at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (Paris, 2013); "Now You See It. Photography and Concealment" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2014); and his first solo exhibition in Europe, "La Fascination des Sirènes," at Maison de l'Amérique latine (Paris, 2014). He has also exhibited at BIENALSUR (Buenos Aires, 2017); "Postales, noticias de un mundo de ensueño" at Musée départemental Arles Antique. Les Rencontres de la Photographie (Arles, 2019); "Nous les arbres" at Fondation Cartier pour L'art contemporain (Paris, 2019); and the solo exhibition "Lo que Brilla" at Centro de la Imagen (Mexico, 2019) and CAV/Museo del Barro (Asunción, 2021). He has participated in various exhibitions including The Missing Circle (MAMM, Medellín, Colombia, 2020 / Museo Amparo, Puebla Mx, 2020 / Kadist Foundation, San Francisco CA, 2021); "Susurros. Prácticas ciudadanas durante la Pandemia" at BienalSur 2022; and "Les Vivants" (Le Tripostal, Lille, France), "Siamo Foresta" (Triennale, Milan, Italy), both organized by Fondation Cartier in 2022 and 2023 respectively. His latest solo exhibition, "El Medium y el Escriba," was held at Fuga VM gallery, Asunción in 2022. He is also the author and co-author of documentary films including "Revuelta(s)," "Mémoires Vives," "Como pez en el monte," and "Dibujo para no olvidar," produced for Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (Paris, France).
His works are part of collections at Kadist Foundation (San Francisco, CA), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA), Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (Paris, France), Museo de arte del Banco de la República (Bogotá, Colombia), Centro de Artes Visuales Museo del Barro (Asunción, Paraguay), among others.