Prior to Viola’s arrival at the Museum of Modern Art Bogotá (MAMBO) in 2019, The New York Times reckoned it was ‘long on history but short on global clout’. Since taking over as artistic director, however, its stature has grown, with shows that either seek to canonise local names (such as the gallery’s first show in 30 years for Oscar Muñoz, a retrospective of the Cali-based conceptualist that opened in June) or introduce Bogotanos to international artists (such as a residency and show for Brazilian two-spirit artist UÝRA in March and the frenetic new media work of Taiwanese artist Su Hui-Yu in October). Viola’s curatorial interests tend to settle around ideas of the body, its representation, transformation and the violence that surrounds it – what he has termed ‘bodily poetics’ – a focus he brought to the Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala City and Antigua in November, including the likes of Luz Lizarazo and María José Arjona among the 30 commissions.