Fernando Prats
(Santiago de Chile, 1967)
Fernando Prats studied at Escola Massana in Barcelona, the University of Chile, and later at the University of Barcelona. His work is widely known for a series of actions and expeditions, primarily undertaken in Chile, including Gran Sur (2011), Acción Lota, Acción Géiser del Tatio, Acción Salar de Atacama, Acción Mina a Rajo Abierto (all 2006), and Congelación (2002), carried out on the Collins Glacier in Chilean Antarctica. Internationally, his projects include We Were Dead, and We Could Breathe (Paul Celan), Auschwitz-Birkenau (2012); Acción Líneas de Nazca, Nazca, Peru (2013); and the performance Nature Paintings at Asia Society Hong Kong Center.
His artistic career has been recognised with numerous grants and distinctions, including the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2006–2007); a residency at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne (2003); the Honorary Scholarship of the President of the Republic of Chile (1997–2000); the Pilar Juncosa and Sotheby’s Special Prize (1994); and the VII Miquel Casablanca Painting Prize (1992). He was awarded the First Prize Ciutat de Palma Antonio Gelabert d’Arts Visuals (2010).
He has participated in numerous international exhibitions. He represented Chile at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); participated in the Mediations Biennale (Poland, 2012); the Chile Triennial (2009); and the Zaragoza International Expo (2008).
Prats has also realised significant public works, including Pou de Llum, installed at La Balconada in Manresa (2008); Acción Medular (2017), a tribute to General Carlos Prats González, permanently installed at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile; and Su vertical nos retiene, a monumental work in Parque Metropolitano Los Cerrillos (2019). The Barcelona City Council has commissioned him to create a monumental project for Plaza Pablo Neruda, honouring the poet’s role in welcoming Republican exiles. He was also selected as an established international artist to exhibit at Fragmentos: Space of Art and Memory, National Museum of Bogotá, Colombia (2022).
In September 2024, he inaugurated the installation Tu nombre aumenta la eternidad at the Casa Central of the University of Chile, in the Andrés Bello Courtyard, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Carlos Prats González and Sofía Cuthbert (1974–2024).