Feliciano Centurión

San Ignacio Guazú, Paraguay, 1962 - Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1996

            Feliciano Centurión was born in a town near the Paraná River, between Misiones and Corrientes. In his own words, "Paraguay is a land built by women," referring to the resilient female figures of the Great War, as the war of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) is called in the country. In this feminine world, Centurión grew up surrounded by embroidery, crochet, ñandutí, and different forms of handicrafts as an everyday language. After living in Formosa for a few years, Feliciano traveled to Buenos Aires to study art. Stimulated by his roots, he began to produce works with unconventional materials, always textiles. He portrays motifs that recall his childhood in Mesopotamia, such as dragonflies, lush vegetation, rivers, and flowers, which he often combines with ñandutí embroidery made either by himself, or one of his aunts or sisters. 

            His work transmits a deep sensibility that explores the problems related to affective bonds, personal identity, and the new discoveries and freedoms he found in Buenos Aires as a homosexual man. With an exotic personality and an optimistic spirit, Feliciano became an important figure in the late 80s at the Centro Cultural Rojas. His most recognized works belong to the blankets' series, where he uses this material as a canvas, playing with the wefts. The autobiographical narrative of his work becomes even more palpable in his embroideries: the presence of the word threads each work as a kind of intimate diary where Feliciano relates his reflections and experiences.

            With an aesthetic that could be described as kitsch, during the 1990s, Feliciano shared a studio in San Telmo with Ana López and was a neighbor of Pablo Suárez, Juan Pablo Renzi, Cristina Schiavi, and Marcelo Pombo, among many other influential artists of the time. In the last years of his life, Centurión was diagnosed with AIDS and his work mutated towards smaller scales. The work with the poetic became relevant, and he began to include other materialities such as pillowcases, handkerchiefs, and pieces of sheets. In 1996, at the age of 34, he passed away, leaving behind an inspiring legacy and a strong personal mark that would influence new generations of artists because of the way he worked with the domestic and the autobiographical.