b. 1971, Rancagua, Chile

Voluspa Jarpa’s work sits at the intersection of collective history and personal experience, blending investigative practices, public discourse, individual perspectives, and psychoanalytic theory. Drawing on declassified intelligence documents and postcolonial critique, she examines the lasting effects of state violence, colonialism, and political repression in Latin America and beyond.

Jarpa critically examines the construction of hegemonic history and memory, highlighting its inherent omissions and distortions. Projects such as Altered Views, presented at the Chilean Pavilion of the 2019 Venice Biennale, dissect aspects of European colonial history to expose the manipulation and violence underpinning modernity’s construction. Developing a distinctive visual language that merges rigorous research with poetic abstraction, her works delve into the materiality of archives, often incorporating large-scale reproductions layered with paint, glass, textiles, and other media. These installations function as acts of remembrance, inviting viewers to critically engage with the complexities of the past and its enduring consequences. 

Jarpa has exhibited widely in major institutions and biennials, including the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennial and Shanghai Biennale. Her work has been exhibited at MAMBO, Bogotá; MALBA, Buenos Aires; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Kunst Museum, Bern, and Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland; and the Jewish Museum, New York. She is represented in the collections of MALBA, Buenos Aires; Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago de Chile; LARA (Latin American Roaming Art) Foundation; and Kadist Foundation, Paris/San Francisco. She was awarded Julius Baer Prize for Latin American Artists (2020), the Acquisition Award of the Cifo Foundation of Miami/USA (2024)  and the Ama Amoedo Foundation Grant (2025) for the artistic development of Latin America.