Fragmenting Obsolescence. In the Life of Rocks

Opening: Saturday July, 26th, 5 p.m


Fragmenting Obsolescence is a curatorial project comprising multiple exhibitions within the framework of BIENALSUR 2025. It focuses on works and artists that challenge the modern conception of technological progress, encouraging new ways of observing matter and time, objects and their durability, with the aim of disrupting the future as currently imposed upon us.


Rocks, albeit seemingly motionless, follow a different rhythm. They have been seen by the human eye as inert and unchanging matter. We know the effects of erosion, yet we barely notice the stealth of time in that transformation. The mineral and vibrant state of matter underscores the idea of the rock as something that lives very slowly, changing without haste. This invisible life is revealed in certain gestures—eroding, photographing, filming, building—performed on a common element scattered across different geographies. Stones, caves, mountain profiles, fossilized remains, and fragments of landscape signal processes of transformation that defy human perceptions of time and question the logic of utility and exhaustion we tend to apply to matter.

This idea becomes radically present in a fossilized trunk dating back to a life that began twenty-five million years ago and that today, having turned to stone, invites a voyage across multiple times. The fossil-rock tree serves as a threshold prompting us to keenly listen to the sounds of erosion, closely observe the grooves of the lithic pattern, perceive every material boundary of sedimentation, and understand the shades within the darkness of caves. The works of these artists resonate in the stones not only as matter but also as language: drawings on ceilings, fictional excavations, testimonial photographs. There is a speleological attitude in these gestures—a desire to descend, to venture deep inside, and to recognize the marks time has imprinted on matter.



Image:  Francisco Vazquez Murillo, Herramientas.

Km: 986

Venue: EAC - Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo Paseo Cultural Castro Barros

Address : Pelagio B. Luna 699

City : La Rioja

Argentina

Curatorship:

BIENALSUR, Clarisa Appendino (ARG)

Type(s):

Exhibition

From 2025/07/26

To 2025/09/20