Margarita Azurdia

Date

Event

• Margarita Azurdia was born in Antigua Guatemala.

• Margarita and her two sisters are sent by their mother to the boarding school, Loretto College School, in Toronto, Canada.

• Returns to Guatemala.
  Marries Carlos Fanjul.

• Moves to Palo Alto, California. During her short stay she visits museums and enrolls in art workshops and a welding workshop at the San Francisco Art Institute. Meets sculptor Bella Feldman.

• Holds two personal and simultaneous exhibitions. In the lobby of the Cruz Azul building, she exhibits twenty-four informalist paintings while in the Enrique Acuña room of the National School of Plastic Arts, she exhibits her first ovals.

• Starts her Geométricas series.

• She receives the second prize in the National Contest organized in El Salvador with her geometric work titled Nebaj.

• Exhibition of minimalist sculptures at Vittorio restaurant and gallery, Guatemala City.
  Exhibition of the Geometricas series at Galería DS, Guatemala, and Cisneros Gallery, New York.
  Participates in the collective exhibition Feria Hemisférica, San Antonio, Texas.

• Presentation of her series Asta 104 in the Enrique Acuña Room of the National School of Plastic Arts, Guatemala City, and catalog with text by art critic Edith Recourat.

• Presentation of her Asta 104 series at the 10th Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Wins an honorable mention.

• Makes the art installation Por favor quitarse los zapatos at II Coltejer Art Biennial, Medellín, Colombia.
     
  She begins the production of her sculptural series Homenaje a Guatemala. She participates with her series Asta 104 in the III Salón Independiente, Mexico City.

• Participates in the permanent contest on September 15, Guatemala City. An archive photograph suggests that her participation is with a polychrome wooden sculpture that, according to artist Jamie Bischoff, was activated with movement and music.

• She participates with her series Asta 104 in the III Salón Independiente, Mexico City.
     
  Presentation of her series of marble sculptures at Vittorio restaurant and gallery, Guatemala City.
     
  Participates with her series of marble sculptures in the III Coltejer Art Biennial, Medellín and San Diego Gallery, Bogotá. Colombia.
     
  Personal exhibition entitled Unforgettable Moments of my Life, of old engravings that have been intervened and a catalog that, like a book, includes images from the exhibition and a poem by the artist. Abraxas Gallery, Guatemala City

• Exhibition of her marble series in the Macondo gallery, Guatemala City. Participates in the Juannio auction with two figurative sculptures of monumental proportions.

• Participates in the XII Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil, with her work titled Ritos, of her series Homenaje a Guatemala.

• Concludes her series Homenaje a Guatemala, made up of fifty pieces. Her son Carlos Fanjul made the most complete photographic record of all the pieces that make up the series, near her country house. Three days later, Azurdia decides to move to Paris.
     
  Participates in the micro-salon, entitled Grandes femmes petits formats, at Galerie de l’Objet, curated by Iris Clert et Christofle, Paris.

• Presentation of her book of drawings and poems El encuentro de Una Soledad, within the framework of the group exhibition organized by gallery Au Lieu D Images, Paris.
     
  Edition of her book of poems 27 apuntes de Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, by Ediciones Calabaza, Guatemala City.

• Writes book Des flashbacks de la vie de Margarita par elle même, which includes drawings and texts that illustrate memories of her childhood in Antigua Guatemala and urban and everyday environments in Paris.

• Presentation of her drawing book Rencontres at the Headquarters of the Society of French Women Writers, within the framework of the event Elles Tornent la page, Paris.
     
  Publication of her book of poems titled 27 anotaciones de Margarita Azurdia, Paris, Guatemala.

• After eight years of living in Paris, Margarita Azurdia returns to Guatemala accompanied by her dog Guadalupe Valdez.
     
  Together with the artists Benjamín Herrarte and Fernando Iturbide, she forms the group Laboratorio. Better known as the Laboratorio de     Creatividad, it is dedicated to the observation, practice and perceptual experience of body movement.
     
  First presentation of the dance titled La semilla de la imaginación, by Margarita Azurdia and Benjamín Herrarte at Hotel El Dorado, Guatemala     City.

• El Laboratorio de Creatividad sends Norma Padilla, director of Fine Arts, a letter explaining the objective of the collective and its premises.
     
  El Laboratorio de Creatividad bursts into Galería El Túnel to present its work Los Cuatro Elementos Presentation of the Amor y paz para el planeta ceremony at the Kaminal Juyú archaeological site, Guatemala City.
     
  Presentation of the Laboratorio de Creatividad group at the Faculty of Humanities, University of San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City.

• Margarita Azurdia organizes and participates in the exhibition Seis mujeres, at the Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Costume, Guatemala City. Participants: Jamie Bischoff, Milena Prem, Merche Jiménez, Imogen Sieveking and Lucrecia Herrera. Together with the dancer Lucrecia Herrera, Azurdia presents the dance Fábula.

• Presentation of the dance Sola, an investigation by the artist into the movement and sound of the human body, at the La Alternativa café-theater, at the La Casona cultural center, at 14 calle 0-61 zona 10, Guatemala City.

• Accompanied by members of the Laboratorio de Creatividad, she organizes and presents the dance and performance entitled ¿Quién tiene un rosal que le sobre? a public demonstration against the decision of the Municipality of Guatemala to remove the rose bushes from the Plaza del Obelisco, Guatemala City.

• She presents with Lucrecia Herrera the dance El cuento de Clara Luz, within the framework of a fashion show, held at Hotel El Dorado, Guatemala City.

• The Creativity Laboratory presents the Cuatro Nahuales dance, in the lobby of the Guatemalan American Institute (IGA), Guatemala City. Margarita Azurdia, Benjamín Herrarte and Lucrecia Herrera participate. In addition, the exhibition of photographs of the group, taken by photographer Luis Martínez, is presented.

• Presentation of the dance titled Colores, by the Laboratorio de Creatividad, in the Canal 5 television studio, Guatemala City.
     
  Dissolution of the Laboratorio de Creatividad. Margarita continues her personal experience focused on movement and sacred rituals. She begins to teach creative movement workshops in her home studio and country house.

• The literary magazine Massachusetts Review dedicates an article to its Homenaje a Guatemala series.
  
  The artist donates two pieces of Homenaje a Guatemala to Smith College University. Currently the works are part of the artistic collection of the Smith College Museum of Art.

• Zoe Anglesey selects poems by Margarita that are included in the anthology entitled Ixok Amar-Go. Poetry of Central American women for peace. Granite Press, New York.
     
  Acquires the house located at 5 avenue 16-39 zone 10 where she opens her home studio.

• Participated with painting, sculpture and creative movement work in the collective event Un envoltorio magico, at the La Villa cultural center, in Madrid, Spain. Event supported by the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (INGUAT).

• Participates in the group exhibition 42 mujeres por el arte, presented at the National Museum of Modern Art of Guatemala, Guatemala City.

• Begins writing and drawing for the book Iluminaciones.

• With her dance group, made up of only women, she presents Una,a dance, in her home studio, Guatemala City.

• Presentation of the conference Toda una vida en el arte, at the Guatemalan American Institute (IGA), Guatemala City.
     
  Participates in the group exhibition Abstract Pioneers, Contemporary Plastic Gallery, Guatemala City.

• Presentation of the Una dance in the auditorium of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of San Carlos, Guatemala City.

• Presentation of the Una dance in the auditorium of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of San Carlos, Guatemala City.

• Exhibition of the illustrations that make up her book Illuminations in her home studio, Guatemala City.
     
  Presentation of the work Cuando Una camina el camino, with her son Carlos Fanjul, in her home studio.
     
  Participates in the group exhibition Guatemala: 42 women in the arts, at the International Monetary Fund Visitors Center, Washington, and UCSB Womens Center Art Gallery, University of California. Santa Barbara, California, USA.

• Participate in the discussion El rollo de la maternidad, organized by El Pensativo bookstore, Antigua Guatemala.

• Participate in the round table La mujer latinoamericana y el desafío de la creatividad, organized by the University of San Carlos of Guatemala and the Chilean Embassy in Guatemala.
     
  Publishes and presents in the former convent of Santo Domingo, Guatemala City, her poetry book, El libro de Margarita, with a prologue by the academic and feminist Raquel Cordero.

• Participates in the VIII Paiz Art Biennial. She wins an honorable mention with her work Autoretrato.
     
  She participates in the Mujeres por el arte exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Guatemala City.

• Presentation of her book Illuminaciones at the Museum of Colonial Art, Antigua Guatemala.
     
  For the first time, she unveils her series Homenaje a Guatemala in her home studio.

• Guadalupe Valdez dies.

• Presentation of ritual Ceremonia de amor a la Diosa Gaia, within the framework of the Indagaciones exhibition, curated by Rossina Cazali. Sol del Río Gallery, Guatemala City.

• Participates in the IX Paiz Art Biennial. Honorable mention for her Santísima Trinidad triptych. Guatemala City.
     
  Presentation of Puente de luz, second ritual carried out at the Kaminal Juyú archaeological site, Guatemala City.
     
  Participate in the collective exhibition Warm, A message from women artists to the world. Beijing, China.
     
  Presentation of the project that unites a conference and a visual tour Acerca de la espiritualidad en el arte. Antigua and Guatemala City.
     
  Participates in the group exhibitions Vision of contemporary art Visión del arte contemporáneo en Guatemala II, Carlos Mérida National Museum of Modern Art, Guatemala City.

• With her group, made up of only women, she performs the dance Amor a la Madre Tierra in the El Áttico gallery, Guatemala City.
     
  The photographer Irene Torrebiarte makes a series of photographic records of the artist during her movement sessions in her home studio and in a field.

• She makes two altars using old cabinets where she places different objects of a symbolic nature, reflecting her career and interests in the Mother Goddess, art and nature.
     
  Margarita Azurdia dies in her studio home.

• The Margarita Azurdia Museum is inaugurated in Guatemala City but closes a year later.

• The exhibition, Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, takes place in the Museo de Arte Reina Sofía,     Madrid, España.