Cuauhtémoc Medina, a Mexico City–based curator and art historian who has organized exhibitions around the world, has been appointed curator of the Bienal de Arte Paiz.
The biennial takes place in Guatemala City and Antigua, about 25 miles west of the capital. It is organized by the Fundación Paiz para la Educación y la Cultura, a family foundation that initially awarded education scholarships and supported soup kitchens. The foundation launched the biennial in 1978; Medina’s show, opening in 2027, will be the exhibition’s 25th edition.
In a statement about his appointment, Medina called attention to the Bienal’s history of serving “Guatemalan audiences as a vehicle for contemporary thinking and sensibility.”
“It is,” he said, “a great honor, but also a challenge, to be in charge of curating the Paiz Biennial for this special occasion. I hope that, with the help of the Biennial staff and the artists, we will be able to produce something worth remembering.”
In 2002, Medina was hired as the first associate curator of Latin American art at Tate Modern in London, a position he held until 2008. More recently, from 2013 to 2024, he served as chief curator at MUAC, the museum affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where Medina has held a full-time position at the university’s Institute of Aesthetic Research since 1993.
At MUAC, he curated exhibitions featuring a range of international artists, among them Harun Farocki, Carlos Amorales, Ai Weiwei, Beatriz González, Raqs Media Collective, and Kader Attia. In 2012, Medina curated the 9th edition of Manifesta, which was held that year in Belgium, and he curated the 12th Shanghai Biennial in 2018. He won the $15,000 Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2012.
Sonia Hutarte, the executive director of the Fundación Paiz, hopes that the upcoming biennial, which will be on view from November 2027 through February 2028, will “ask what a biennial should mean today and what Guatemala can contribute to the conversations shaping contemporary art.” She expects Medina to oversee a contemporary art event that “produces knowledge, generates meaningful dialogue, and creates a legacy that extends far beyond the exhibition itself.”
