Guillermina Buzio
Argentina / Toronto
In 2020, Cecilia Araneda spoke with Guillermina Buzio as part of a multi-year curatorial research project on Latin Canadian cinema. This is a brief extract of her research.
Guillermina Buzio is a Toronto-based artist and curator with studies in visual and media arts. She holds a BFA from the National University of Fine Arts in Art, a Bachelor of Media Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design (Vancouver), and an MFA from OCAD University. As an artist, she worked in a diverse range of forms and media, including video installation and performance. Her work focuses on human rights and the female identity, and has been shown nationally and internationally. As a curator, she had programmed work for the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, BIM (Bienal de Arte en Movimiento) and Inside Out LGBT Festival, among others. Guillermina co-directs Colectivo Toronto. Buzio additionally has been teaching workshop for youth and the Queer community for many years. | guillerminabuzio.com
Research Notes
Guillermina Buzio was born in Argentina and came to Canada in 2000. She was an art teacher in Buenos Aires, interested in advancing her studies, but this was not possible in Argentina, with its few opportunities for the formal advancement of art practice. Buzio’s brother was already living in Vancouver and so she enrolled in the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design. There, she was able to build upon her knowledge of media art and film, which was an increasing interest for her at the time. After graduating from Emily Carr, Buzio moved to Ottawa and gained more experience in filmmaking with the support of IFCO: Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa. Eventually, she would move to Toronto, where she worked with a number of organizations before shifting her career to focus on her independent practice as a filmmaker and curator. Early in Buzio’s career, she was interested in the wide access permitted by video art, but would later incorporate work on Super 8.
Buzio’s art practice is expansive and incorporates writing, painting, drawing, video and small gauge film. Her art practice is a way to speak back to what has been left behind, and incorporates narrative and storytelling approaches. Similar to other Latin Canadian filmmakers who came to Canada in early adulthood, Buzio’s arrival in Canada marked the start of a reinvention of herself. For Buzio, where and how one grew up serves as the starting point for how a person defines their life and their art practice. Her sense of being away from all that is primordial to her identity due to the chronic violence in Latin America is what she dialogues with in her art practice.
Buzio is currently in edit with a Super 8 film that she shot over the course of many years.
Filmography
- Chacarita – 2016, 03:00 minutes, colour, spanish (no dialogue)
- Boundaries (Installation) – 2015, 11:00 minutes, colour, no language
- Performing Borders (Installation/Performance) – 2010, 10:00 minutes, colour, english
- the process of making consistent – 2009, 05:55 minutes, colour, english, closed captions
- The Burning House (Installation) – 2008, 15:37 minutes, colour, spanish/english
- Shade – 2007, 02:37 minutes, colour, english
- Black – 2007, 05:45 minutes, colour, spanish with english subtitles
- 85% – 2006, 03:00 minutes, colour, english
- vos…you – 2006, 04:00 minutes, colour, spanish w/ english subtitles
- Through Your Eyes – 2002, 09:00 minutes, colour, spanish with english subtitles
- Pepe – 2002, 07:00 minutes, colour, no language
Buzio’s work is available for viewing on her website.