Resistance. A Selection of South American Video

From Wednesday, July 9th

"The work of art has a fundamental affinity with the act of resistance," stated Gilles Deleuze, who immediately reflected: "What is that mysterious relationship? (...) Only the act of resistance resists death (...) So, what is the relationship between human struggle and the work of art? The closest relationship, and to me, the most mysterious one.” This set of works invites the viewer to engage in two modes of viewing: one through a gallery walkthrough, and the other through contemplative screening in the auditorium. At the entrance, a set of historical Latin American video art pieces features a repertoire of issues through which a distinctly political dimension unfolds—one rooted in a specific time and place, while simultaneously transcending them to challenge our present. The mythical sense of territory explored by Anna Bella Geiger becomes an oppressive space in the work of Silvia Rivas, and undertakes the role of denunciation in Clemente Padín’s video poem, where human rights and environmental concerns converge. Among them, MouthfulMeat by Graciela Sacco presents a disturbing assertion emerging from the text of a short story by Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera, overlaid on the image of a mouth in constant motion: to eat is to die. In the second space, the auditorium, three lengthier works explore—placing themselves in the tension between art and resistance—other symbolic resolutions vis-à-vis today’s conflicts. This exhibition was specially designed for display at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) as part of BIENALSUR 2025. The biennial, founded by Aníbal Jozami and Diana Wechsler and developed within UNTREF (Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina), is a transnational platform for contemporary art that unfolds on a global scale—across more than seventy cities in over thirty countries spanning five continents. We celebrate ten years of a pioneering network that is redefining the world map of art by connecting communities and territories through the most extensive platform for art and culture in the world. We firmly uphold the right to culture as a means of building a contemporary, dynamic, and universal humanism. BIENALSUR connects artists, cultural institutions, and audiences around the globe. Through this openness to cultural and geographic diversity, we aim to break isolation and transcend individualism. Each artistic project, each local initiative, becomes a stage in a greater journey—where the local nourishes the global, and where every voice enriches the others. Together, we strongly assert the humanist and transnational dimension of contemporary art.


Organizes



Image: Sebastian Díaz Morales, Miles marchan, 2018-2021.

Km: 10048

Venue: MNCARS - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Address : Calle de Santa Isabel, 52

City : Madrid

Spain

Curatorship:

BIENALSUR, Diana B. Wechsler (ARG)

Type(s):

Exhibition

From 2025/07/09

To 2025/09/01