Magdalena Atria – Artistic Creation Award 2015

Magdalena Atria Lemaitre, an academic at the School of Art, has created a work of original and striking beauty, intervening in architectural spaces with a poetic discourse that impacts everyday life.

The idea that creation is a form of research has been one of the guiding principles of the Direction of Arts and Culture’s work. Consequently, one of its first actions was to establish the Artistic Creation Award, a recognition for academics whose careers represent a contribution to the artistic development of the country.

This year, the visual artist and professor at the Faculty of Arts, Magdalena Atria Lemaitre, won the award with unanimous approval. The evaluation committee cited her extensive career and her ability to construct imaginative worlds through the aesthetic appreciation of simple materials that, in her creations, take on a higher dimension. The committee was composed of Teodoro Fernández, winner of the National Prize for Architecture in 2014; Francisco Brugnoli, visual artist and director of the Museum of Contemporary Art; Guillermo Marshall, Deputy President; Juan Larraín, Vice President for Research; and Miryam Singer, Director of Arts and Culture.

Magdalena Atria holds a degree in Art and Aesthetics from the Catholic University and a Master of Arts from the Parsons School of Design in New York, USA. In her over 20-year career, her work has been exhibited in important national and international spaces, including the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles and Chateau de Tours in France, among others.

Regarding this distinction, she commented, ‘This is a very important recognition for me, marking the culmination of many years in which, with great effort – because artists in Chile always have to work very hard – and under adverse conditions, I have been able to carry out what has been a necessity for me: my artistic work. It is very important for the university to recognize creation and give it the status it deserves.