Difficulty. Forms and Political Effects of Deviation in Writing and Contemporary Art
Study Group
Henrik Olesen, Inferno (Infierno), 2016, Museo Reina Sofía
Difficulty. Forms and Political Effects of Deviation in Writing and Contemporary Art is a study group aligned towards thinking about how certain contemporary artistic and cultural practices resist the referentiality that dominates the logics of production and the consumption of present-day art. At the centre of this proposal are the concepts of difficulty and deviation, under which it brings together any procedure capable of preventing artistic forms from being absorbed by a meaning that appears previous to and independent from its expression. By ensuring the perceptibility of their languages, difficulty invites us to think of meaning as the effect of a signifying tension; that is, as a productive and creative activity which, from the materiality of art objects, frees aesthetic experience from the representational mandate and those who participate in it from the passiveness associated with tasks of mimesis and decoding.
The economy of the referential norm translates the social logic of capitalism, where insidious forms of capturing subjectivity and meaning operate. In the early 1980s, and adopting a Marxist framework, poet Ron Silliman highlighted how this logic entailed separating language from any mark, gesture, script, form or syntax that might link it to the conditions of its production, rendering it fetichised (as if without a subject) and alienating its users in a use for which they are not responsible. This double dispossession encodes the political strategy of referential objectivity: with no subject and no trace of its own consistency, language is merely an object, that reality in which it disappears.
The political uses of referentiality, more sophisticated today than ever before, sustain the neoliberal-extractivist phase of capitalism that crosses through present-day societies politically, economically and aesthetically. Against them, fugitive artistic practices emerge which, drawing from Black and Queer studies and other subaltern critical positions, reject the objective limits of what exists, invent forms to name what lies outside what has already been named, and return to subjects the capacity to participate in processes of emission and interpretation.
Read from the standpoint of artistic work, the objective capture of referentiality may be called transparency. Viewed from a social contract that reproduces inequality in fixed identity positions, transparent in this objectivity are, precisely, the discourses that maintain the status quo of domination. Opposite the inferno of these discourses, this group aims to collectively explore, through deviant or fugitive works, the paradise of language that Monique Wittig encountered in the estranged practices of literature. For the political potency of difficulty — that is, its contribution to the utopia of a free language among equals — depends on making visible, first, its own deviations; from there, the norm that those deviations transgress; and finally, the narrowness of a norm which in no way exhausts the possibilities ofsaying, signifying, referring and producing a world.
From this denouncement of referential alienation, fetishisation and capture, Difficulty. Forms and Political Effects of Deviation in Writing and Contemporary Art turns its attention to the strategies of resistance deployed by contemporary artists and poets. Its interest is directed towards proposals as evidently difficult or evasive as those of Gertrude Stein, Lyn Hejinian, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Kathy Acker, María Salgado and Ricardo Carreira, and as seemingly simple as those of Fernanda Laguna, Felix Gonzalez Torres and Cecilia Vicuña, among other examples that can be added according to the desires and dynamics of the group.
The ten study group sessions, held between February and December, combine theoretical seminars, work with artworks from the Museo Reina Sofía’s Collections and exhibitions, reading workshops and public programs. All these formats serve as spaces of encounter to think commonly about certain problems of poetics — that is, certain political questions — of contemporary writing and art.
Difficulty. Forms and Political Effects of Deviation in Writing and Contemporary Art inaugurates the research line Goodbye, Representation, through which the Museo Reina Sofía’s Studies Directorship seeks to explore the emergence of contemporary artistic and cultural practices which move away from representation as a dominant aesthetic-political strategy and redirect their attention toward artistic languages that question the tendency to point, name and fix, advocating instead for fugitive aesthetics. Over its three-year duration, this research line materializes in study groups, seminars, screenings and other forms of public programming.
Group director
Erea Fernández
Research strand director
Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga
Organised by
Museo Reina Sofía
Practical data
Aimed at people with an interest in research, theory, writing and contemporary art.
- Participant selection: Special consideration is given to the suitability of candidates’ trajectory and interests in relation to the study group content and to a commitment to attending all in-person sessions. Session participation entails a three-hour commitment every month, in addition to time devoted to preparation.
- Accommodation grants: Five accommodation grants are offered to those selected who live outside of Madrid. The grant covers accommodation costs for the night corresponding to each session held. To apply for this grant, candidates must provide written confirmation via the registration form, commit to attending all sessions and submit a text or work already completed, in line with the subject matter of the group. The above will be taken into consideration when awarding grants.
Sessions: 23 February, 23 March, 20 April, 18 may, 15 June, 6 July, 7 September, 5 and 26 October, and 14 December 2026; from 4pm to 7pm.
Agenda
lunes 23 feb 2026 a las 16:00
Session 1. Against Transparency. Deviation as a Radical Practice
Work readings:
- Silliman, R. (1981). Disappearance of the Word / Appearance of the World. L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, 3, pp. 2-12.
- Stein, G. (1998). Composition as Explanation. In C. R. Stimpson and H. Chessman (Eds.), Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903-1932 (pp. 520-529). Library of America.
- Selection of difficult poems:
- Benson, S. (1991). Blue book. La página, encarte, pp. 104-107. (E. Pujals Gesalí, Trad). (Original work published in 1988).
- Bernstein, C. (1991). 3 or 4 Things I Know About Him (3 o 4 cosas que sé de él). La página, encarte, pp. 108-111. (E. Pujals Gesalí, Trad.). (Original work published in 1988).
- Silliman, R. (1978). Ketjak. La página, encarte, pp. 132-135. (E. Pujals Gesalí, Trad.). (Original work published in 1978).
- Stein, G. (2025). A Box (Una caja). In Ídem lo mismo (A. Fisher and B. del Pliego, Trads.) (p. 71). Kriller. (Original work published in 1914).
- Hejinian, L. (2012). constant change figures. In The Book of a Thousand Eyes (p.177). Omnidown Publishing.
- Söderberg, A. (2023). Sound a Rose In [Vídeo]. Vimeo.
- MM Cabeza de Vaca, F. and Salgado, M. (2019). Nana de esta pequeña era (This Littler Era Lullaby) [Vídeo]. HAMACA. moving image platform.
- Tacoderaya (2020). titula este triste ánimo yop uwu [Performance recording made at Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque’s PoemRoom on 19 November 2020]
Complementary materials:
- Hejinian, L. (2000). Reason. In The Language of Inquiry (pp. 337-354). University of California Press. (Original work published in 1998).
- Andrews, B. (1990). Poetry as Explanation, Poetry as Praxis. In C. Bernstein (Ed.), The Politics of the Poetic Form (pp. 23-44). Roof Books.
- Pujals, E. (1992). Language: un proyecto radical para la escritura de fin de siglo. In La lengua radical. Antología de la poesía norteamericana contemporánea (pp. 9-32). Gramma.
- Pujals, E. and Seminario Euraca (2019). También para la poesía hacía falta un 15M. L/E/N/G/U/A/J/E/o, 2, pp. 17-23.
- Shklovski, V. (1978). El arte como artificio. In T. Todorov (Ed.), Teoría de la literatura de los formalistas rusos (pp. 55-70). Siglo XXI. (Original work published in 1917).
lunes 23 mar 2026 a las 16:00
Session 2. Against Discourse. The Political Effects of Difficulty
Work readings:
- Wittig, M. (2006). El caballo de Troya. In El pensamiento heterosexual (J. Sáez and P. Vidarte, Trads.) (pp. 95-102). Egales. (Original work published in 1984).
- Wittig, M. (2006). El punto de vista: ¿universal o particular?. In El pensamiento heterosexual (J. Sáez and P. Vidarte, Trads.) (pp. 85-93). Egales. (Original work published in 1980).
- Raimondi, S. (2018). Para una poética. Notas. Nayagua, 27, pp. 157-162.
- Chacón, P. (2013, 11 agosto). Cierta literatura actual, ¿no está a la derecha de la sociedad? [Interview with Violeta Kesselman]. Télam.
- Kesselman, V. (2017). A. Rapallo, 2, pp. 8-12.
- Perec, G. (1992). Engagement ou crise du langage. In L.G. Une aventure des années soixante (pp. 67-86). Seuil. (Original work published in 1962).
Complementary materials:
- Wittig, M. (2006). El pensamiento heterosexual. In El pensamiento heterosexual (J. Sáez and P. Vidarte, Trads.) (pp. 45-57). Egales. (Original work published in 1978).
- Wittig, M. (2006). A propósito del contrato social. In El pensamiento heterosexual (J. Sáez and P. Vidarte, Trads.) (pp. 45-57). Egales. (Original work published in 1980).
- Abello, A., Navacerrada, A., Villanueva, C. and Fernández, E. (2025, 14 november). Monique Wittig [Dossier of texts]. Jornada Infierno de los discursos, paraíso del lenguaje. Encuentro alrededor del pensamiento y la escritura de Monique Wittig, La Villana de Vallekas, Madrid.
- Kesselman, V. (2013). Intercambio sobre una organización. Blatt and Ríos.
- Raimondi, S. (2010). Poesía civil. 17grises editora (Original work published in 2001).
lunes 20 abr 2026 a las 16:00
Session 3. Forms of Non-Patriarchal Writing. Drawing from Gertrude Stein and Lyn Hejinian
Work readings:
- Hejinian, L. (2013). My Life and My life in the Nineties. Wesleyan University Press.
- Stein, G. (1998). Patriarchal Poetry. In C. R. Stimpson and H. Chessman (Eds.), Gertrude Stein:Writings 1903-1932 (pp. 567-607). Library of America.
![Tracey Rose, The Black Sun Black Star and Moon [La luna estrella negro y negro sol], 2014.](https://recursos.museoreinasofia.es/styles/small_landscape/public/Obra/AD07091_2.jpg.webp)
Más actividades
International Museum Day 2026 with Radio 3
22 MAY 2026
On Friday, 22 May 2026 the Museo Reina Sofía celebrates International Museum Day by way of a vibrant music programme conducted by Radio 3.
From 9am to 11pm, the Museo’s Nouvel Courtyard will host the live broadcast of Radio 3’s day-long programme —also available on a video streaming on the Radio3 website and app, on RTVEPlay and on the Museo’s social media accounts. The programme comprises more than twenty live acts, including artists such as Carlangas, Shego, Soleá Morente, Kokoshca, La Tania, La Pegatina, Pipiolas, Ángel Stanich, Triángulo de Amor Bizarro and Zahara, and many others.
With this programme the Museo Reina Sofía concludes its celebration of International Museum Day, which takes place on Monday, 18 May. Both on 18 May, from 10am to 9pm, and 22 May admission to the Museo will be free of charge.
Institutional Decentralisation
Thursday, 21 May 2026 – 5:30pm
This series is organised by equipoMotor, a group of teenagers, young people and older people who have participated in the Museo Reina Sofía’s previous community education projects, and is structured around four themed blocks that pivot on the monstrous.
This fourth and final session centres on films that take the museum away from its axis and make it gaze from the edges. Pieces that work with that which is normally left out: peripheral territories, unpolished aesthetics, clumsy gestures full of intent. Instead of possessing an institutional lustre, here they are rough, precarious and strange in appearance, legitimate forms of making and showing culture. The idea is to think about what happens when central authority is displaced, when the ugly and the uncomfortable are not hidden, when they are recognised as part of the commons. Film that does not seek to be to one’s liking, but to open space and allow other ways of seeing and inhabiting the museum to enter stage.
Gerardo Mosquera: Island Thinker, Global Curator
19 MAY 2026
This encounter pays homage to Gerardo Mosquera (Havana, 1945), a pre-eminent curator, an essayist who has been part of key debates on decolonisation and the drifts of globalisation, a communicator and, primarily, an art critic who has managed to radically situate discourses and practices, while still taking on risks and perpetually upholding committed ethical positions.
Mosquera is one of the foremost curators internationally and was involved with the Havana Biennial from its foundation in 1984 to 1989, as well as curating pivotal shows in museums and art centres around the globe. Notable among his curatorial work is as adjunct curator at the New Museum in New York (1995–2009), the Liverpool Biennial (2006) and the exhibition It’s Not Just What You See. Perverting Minimalism (Museo Reina Sofía, 2000).
This round-table discussion, which features the participation of Gerardo Mosquerahimself and an ensemble of art critics, thinkers and artists, for instance Fernando Castro Flórez, Diana Cuéllar, Lillebit Fadraga and René Francisco Rodríguez, will approach the multifaceted and extremely fertile work of Mosquera as a renowned master curator.
Miguel Falomir, Director of the Museo Nacional del Prado, in Conversation with Museo Reina Sofía Director Manuel Segade
18 MAY 2026
Museo del Prado and Museo Reina Sofía directors, Miguel Falomir and Manuel Segade, respectively,engage in conversation on Monday, 18 May in the Museo Reina Sofía’s Auditorium 400, in conjunction with International Museum Day 2026, the theme of which is “Museums Uniting a Dividing World”. The discussion, moderated by journalist and poet Antonio Lucas, will see the two heads of these major cultural institutions share their reflections on the role they play in today’s society.
In addition to addressing the management of art, the conversation seeks to explore in greater depth museums’ potential as meeting points to face today’s social tensions, thereby fulfilling the international mandate of this year’s edition.
The activity will be live-streamed and is available at this link.
Collection. Contemporary Art: 1975–Present
Miércoles 13 de mayo, 2026 - 19:00 h
In this lecture, Museo Reina Sofía director Manuel Segade outlines the key readings of the new presentation of the Collection on Floor 4 of the Sabatini Building. This new arrangement is framed inside an ambitious rehang that harnesses the uses of the Museo’s architecture, in a plan that will continue in 2027 with the opening of Floor 3 in the same building, culminating with Floor 2 in 2028.
The new rehang of the Collections, unveiled on 16 February 2026, sets forth a journey through contemporary art history over the past fifty years in Spain. Rather than an unambiguous narrative, the floor recounts the same period — from the Transition to democracy in Spain to the present — in three different ways, starting back at the 1970s time and again.
The exhibition route gets under way with a prologue that travels through the affections, material culture and institutionalism of the Spanish Transition, serving as a starting point for the three routes that follow. The first, A History of Affect in Contemporary Art, advances from affective systems in artmaking linked to the second wave of feminism, arriving at grief as a tool to interpret new realities. The second route, The Powers of Fiction: Sculpture, New Materialisms, and Relational Aesthetics, is conceived as a sculpture gallery in which the artworks engage with the public, focusing on the performance side of the discipline. This route shows, among other aspects, how Spanish sculpture has gained significant international visibility since the 1980s, with women artists playing a key role in this display. The third route, A New Framework. The Institution, the Market, and the Art that Transcends Both, zooms in on the origins of the Museo and its role in the process of art’s institutionalisation in Spain. In May 1986 the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía opened, occupying the first and second floors of the former hospital: the forty years that have elapsed since then enable a re-evaluation of the effects of the Museo on Spanish art and art on the institution.
This talk strengthens the goal of socially integrating the narratives produced by the Museo at a time when the Collections are under permanent review.