Maga Berr
Born in Lima, Peru
Lives and works in Rotterdam-The Netherlands

I grew up in Peru during the civil war of the 1980s and 1990s, witnessing violence, fear, and fractured identities—experiences that shaped my political consciousness from an early age. Much of my work emerges from an attempt to understand power, destruction, and the colonial processes that silence, erase, or fragment identity. Mythology became a way for me to interpret violence, to transform it, and to imagine other forms of life beyond survival. My practice draws on non-binary thinking, ancestral imaginaries, and a deep commitment to ancestral memory.

At the heart of my practice lies a guiding question: How do we live together? I investigate how historical and structural forces hold silenced narratives in place, and how spiritual ecologies, ritual gestures, and sensorial forms of relation can open spaces for imagining other modes of coexistence.

My work is deeply informed by lived stories—my own, those of my family, and those of the people who surround me. I often involve others directly in the process of creating new work: through conversations, shared storytelling, and collaborations that allow me to understand how people experience power, vulnerability, care, and resilience in their everyday lives. These encounters become sources of knowledge and inspiration, shaping both the conceptual and visual language of my work. At times, collaborators become protagonists within my portraits or installations; at other moments, their voices inform how an artwork is structured to carry meaning beyond itself.

Collaboration is therefore central to my practice—not only as a method of research, but as a way of expanding impact. I have worked with rappers, people from informal settlements, and communities navigating precarity, seeking not to represent them from a distance, but to learn how art can become a vessel through which stories, messages, and lived realities travel further. These exchanges help me understand how artworks can remain open, accessible, and capable of engaging others in dialogue.

Through sculpture, multimedia installation, ritual, and sound, I examine how beings with fractured histories, ancestral echoes, and non-binary identities relate and negotiate power. I approach my sculptures as entities and my installations as ecosystems they inhabit. I understand these figures as Divine Hybrid Beings—divine not despite their hybridity, but because of it. They merge gods, plants, animals, landscapes, humans, and objects, embodying multiplicity rather than fixed identity.

Working through manual processes is, for me, a way of generating knowledge, care, and repair. By animating my creations with intrinsic character, I construct parallel worlds that reflect on how we coexist—and on what new relational possibilities might still be imagined.

2012-2017
Bachelor Fine Arts, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Thesis keywords: Power Dynamics of Oppression, the Artist as a Shaman, Homeopathic Healing in Art.

2005
Postdoctoral Education in International Development Studies, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Thesis on Politics of International Cooperation for Development.

2002-2004
Master in International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Thesis on the dynamics of Racism, Multiculturalism, De-colonialism, Environmental protection and Empowerment in Education System in the Amazon rainforest in Peru 2004: 5 months field research in the Amazon rainforest of Peru, for MA thesis on intercultural education.

1996-2000
Bachelor in Communication Sciences, specialisation in Film and Television, University of Lima, Peru.

2005-2011
Worked as a coordinator in diverse international social and environmental projects (in South East Asia, Europe, and Latin America), at organizations such as Oxfam-Novib, Amnesty International and Both ENDS. Research on environmental and social inequality in diverse regions of the world gathered experience in a bottom-up approach for participatory project development, facilitation processes, intercultural communication, and project management.

1999-2002
Worked in the broadcasting business in Peru in diverse positions as set journalistic researcher, designer, scriptwriter, photographer, and producer. Gathered relevant information about the socio-political situation in my own country, Peru, by developing journalistic research.

Since 2023: Member of the Cool Clay Collective in Rotterdam.
2021 Decolonial Summer School Maria Lugones hosted by Van Abbe Museum, organised by Walter Mignolo and Rolando Vasquez.
2021 Organisation of Collective IANDE, with Latin American artists living in Europe. Co curation of exhibition at CBK Zuidoost.
2020-ongoing: Permaculture activities in local community gardens in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
2020 Organisation of Capoeira Experience program: initiative to create empowering energy within the artistic community through the practice and philosophy of Capoeira.
2019 Art and Politics, six week course given by Maria Hlavajova at BAK, Utrecht.
2018 Screening of video “expectations’’ at SWITCH, Roodkapje Rotterdam.
2017-2018 Organisation of collective “The Bridge”, where artists and refugees were working together to bring their reflections about migration to the outside world.
2016-2017 Participation in working group of the “Flag of Compassion,” project by Rini Hurkmans.

2025 "Dauwpunt", Drawing Center Diepenheim, NL — group exhibition featuring Flesh of the Flower, Spine of the Seed (reviewed in Metropolis M)
2024 Big Art 2024, Amsterdam, NL
2024 Test Case, Open Studios at EKWC, Oisterwijk, NL 2023
2023 "De Bekendste (Onbekende)Ontdekking van Breda", exhibition organised by Kop in Beeld, Breda Bontanique, Breda.
2023 “Yamitata Untold Stories”, exhibition of IANDE collective, WM Gallery, Amsterdam. Co-curation.
2023 “Prospects” exhibition at Van Nelle Factory during Art Rotterdam fair, The Netherlands.
2022 “Pincoyas Memorias Resistentes”, is a traveling exhibition, Centro Cultural Tome, Chile.
2022 “A World of Many Words”, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam (upcoming March-April). Co-curation.
2021 “Pincoyas Memorias Resistentes”, is a traveling exhibition, Museo de Historia Natural de Concepcion, Chile.
2021 “Zomer Salon, Royal”, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam.
2020 “Chemistry Proofread at Test Site”, Open Ateliers Zuidoost, Amsterdam. Co-curation and artistic contribution.
2020 “Zomer Salon, Royal”, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam.
2020 “City Life”, Arnhem Museum, Arnhem - The Netherlands, February-August.
2020 “A House for the Un-Known” exhibition and artist talk, puntWG, Amsterdam - The Netherlands. Solo.
2019 BijlmAIR residency exhibition and artist talk, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam-The Netherlands.
2019 Residency exhibition, Despina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July.
2019 Residency exhibition, Despina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and artist talk, June.
2018 BijlmAIR residency exhibition, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam-The Netherlands.
2018 “On my way to the Galactic Supermarket, need anything?”, Garage Rotterdam.
2018 “New Found Land”, RADION, Amsterdam. Curation and artistic contribution.
2018 “Jetzt Schlägt's Driezehn”, V & B showroom, Rotterdam.
2017 “Bougie 2017”, CBK Amsterdam.
2017 “Summer of Love”, De Vishal, Haarlem.
2017 Graduation Show, Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
2017 “Notes”, Peer Paper Platform, Amsterdam.
2016 "Syzygy", Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. Co-curation and artistic contribution.
2016 "Excellence. Simply delivered. (1/3)", as part of the Uncut Festival, Brakke Grond, Amsterdam. Co-curation and artistic contribution.
2016 "For example: etc.", A Lab, Amsterdam. Co-Curation and artistic contribution.
2015 'Wonder and Wander', De Oude Kerk, Amsterdam.
2014 Part Two, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, 2015. Dogtime 2, Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
2014 “BIT(e)S”, Sixty One Gallery, Amsterdam.

2024 March-May Residency at EKWC, The Netherlands (upcoming)
2022 June-August Research Trip to Cajamarca-Peru.
2021 May-July Residency at Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam
2020 February Orientation trip to prepare second stage of project in Rio de Janeiro.
2019 August-November Residency BijlmAIR Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2019 May-July Residency Despina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2019 January Trip to Peru. Pre- Colombian ceramic workshop with professor Jose Luis Yamunaque.
2018 November Residency BijlmAIR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2018 August Residency BijlmAIR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2018 May Orientation trip to Peru, Pre- Colombian ceramic historical places - Sechura desert.

Maga Berr
magaberr0000@gmail.com
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