Córdoba Team Tops Student Sculpture Contest in Resistencia

The international sculpture biennial in Resistencia, capital of Argentina’s Chaco province, has handed its top student prize to a team from the University of Córdoba. Working for 48 hours on a quebracho trunk in the open air, Néstor Fabián Ponce, Luca Daniel Vargas Ferreyra and Gustavo Julián Pizarro earned the “Premio Desafío Hierros Líder” with their piece Metamorfosis Interna.

The competition, held parallel to the main event featuring ten world-renowned sculptors, drew twelve student teams from across Argentina. Honourable mentions went to entries from the National University of Tucumán, the Alfredo Pértile Fine Arts Institute in Chaco, and the Manuel Belgrano Art School from Buenos Aires. For the first time, a student delegation from Paraguay joined the showcase as a special guest, presenting a work titled Umbral which explored the theme of migration.

The 2026 edition of the Bienal, organized by the Urunday Foundation, opened on 18 July and closes on 26 July. The main competition features sculptors selected from over 400 applications across 70 countries, alongside seven invited international artists. The event draws large crowds to the open-air museum that Resistencia has become, with more than 700 permanent sculptures on public display.

A Founder’s Vision Comes to Life as Young Sculptors Take the Stage

Fulfilling the Dream of Fabriciano Gómez

The inclusion of Paraguay marks a poignant milestone for the biennial. The event’s creator, sculptor Fabriciano Gómez, who died in 2022, had long imagined Resistencia as the “Bariloche for art students” – a must-visit hub where emerging talent could gather internationally. Josese Eidman, president of the Urunday Foundation, recalled Gómez’s vision that simply walking through the city’s streets offers a class in contemporary Argentine and international sculpture. The arrival of the first Paraguayan team turns that dream into reality, reinforcing the biennial’s role as a regional anchor for arts education.

A Real-World Studio for Emerging Sculptors

The student challenge is not merely symbolic. The 48-hour creative sprint with only a quebracho trunk as material mirrors the high-intensity conditions of professional art residencies. For the winners from Córdoba – and for their counterparts from Tucumán, Chaco and Buenos Aires – the competition provides exposure to an international audience and a chance to join a lineage of artists who have placed works permanently in the city. In a sector where early career visibility is scarce, such open-air contests act as both training ground and launchpad.

Cultural Diplomacy Through Art

Paraguay’s invited participation, though outside the contest, signals a deliberate effort to strengthen cross-border cultural ties. Jonathan Jesús López Salinas, a Paraguayan student, explained that the theme of migration grew from the challenge of crossing into another country to compete. By embedding this personal narrative in the work, the team added a layer of contemporary relevance to the biennial’s mission of fostering dialogue among nations.