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
Rethinking Guernica
Monday and Sunday - Check times
This guided tour activates the microsite Rethinking Guernica, a research project developed by the Museo Reina Sofía’s Collections Area, Conservation and Restoration Department and the Digital Projects Area of the Editorial Activities Department, assembling around 2,000 documents, interviews and counter-archives related to Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica (1937).
The visit sets out an in-situ dialogue between the works hung around the painting and a selection of key documents, selected by the Museo’s Education Team and essential to gaining an idea of the picture’s historical background. Therefore, the tour looks to contribute to activating critical thought around this iconic and perpetually represented work and seeks to foster an approach which refreshes our gaze before the painting, thereby establishing a link with the present. Essentially revisiting to rethink Guernica.
Dear Felix:
Saturdays at 6pm
The immediately recognisable art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, which is on display, from May to October 2026, in the show Sweet Revenge, moves beyond the transmission of messages laden with poetic evocation, vital or biographical reflection, or even a clear political or ethical positioning. Rather, it seeks an active response by visitors to the exhibition. His work invites engagement with these messages so that, whether delighting, moving or challenging, it still prompts viewers to participate in the dialogue and complete the artistic undertaking with their own actions.
Thus, the guided tour Dear Felix: offers a shared, dialogue-inflected tour through the show, with the aim of collectively thinking and feeling the gestures the artist’s work puts forward. Ostensibly simple actions such as crossing through a beaded curtain to take a sweet and eat it, taking a poster from a stack of paper or simply observing a billboard closely, all contain ways of understanding life, loss, love, injustice or the passing — never linear — of time. The tour’s ultimate aim is not to set meanings or create an overload of interpretations of the work, nor does it seek to crystallise an image of the artist and his life in a response to questions which are not there. It looks instead to provide a space to open shared meaning in these apparently simple objects and to attempt a possible correspondence of return from the here and now. A lumbering attempt at responding which starts with a simple Dear Felix:
1926–2026: One Hundred Years of the Lyceum Club Femenino
Thursday, 2 July 2026
The Lyceum Club Femenino (Lyceum Women’s Club) was established in Madrid in 1926, constituting a space which opened new pathways for women to participate in Spain’s intellectual, artistic and political life in the first third of the twentieth century, and for figures such as designer Victorina Durán, pedagogue María de Maeztu, lawyer and politician Victoria Kent and artist Ángeles Santos, to name but a few. To mark the Madrid Club’s one hundredth anniversary, this research symposium examines its role as a key place for studying women’s and feminist culture in Spain’s Silver Age by analysing and vindicating the different agencies, trajectories and cultural projects that structured the space.
By way of three lectures and two round-table discussions, the symposium sets forth a journey through the Lyceum Club Femenino and the cultural context from which it emerged, from its standing as a pioneering institution to the study of cultural material from the period and the process of constructing the figure of the “modern woman”. These talks and discussions look to shed light on how new ways of thinking, creating and occupying public space were shaped, expanding the gaze on cultural, educational and social networks linked to the Lyceum — as much concerning its ties with other intellectual and artistic circles as the continuity and transformation of these networks during Republican exile. Finally, the symposium features three artistic interventions conceived to recover the artistic legacy of this space in Madrid.
The Museo Reina Sofia joins the Ministry of Culture’s cultural programme focused on the centenary of the Lyceum Club Femenino via these sessions, co-organised with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Robert Capa
Friday, 26 June 2026 – 6pm
This international encounter centred on the figure of Robert Capa (Budapest, 1913 — Thai Binh, Vietnam, 1954), one of photojournalism’s pre-eminent figures, is held within the framework of the government initiative Spain and Freedom. Fifty Years and in conjunction with a cluster of three locations — the building on number 10 Calle Peironcely, the Plaza del Fotógrafo Robert Capa and the San Carlos Borromeo Parish in Vallecas — declared as a Place of Democratic Memory.
The emblematic photo Robert Capa took in 1936 of this area of Republican Madrid, featuring anonymous children talking in front of a bullet-riddled building attacked by Nazi-fascist air forces, has, in recent years, become a catalyst for impassioned collective action vindicating memory and denouncing the horrors and brutality of wars, past and present.
Within this context, representatives from cultural and academic spheres and civil society organisations from Germany, the USA and Spain discuss the legacy of Capa and photojournalism in European democratic memory, exploring in greater depth two citizen initiatives constructed by Europe from its shared memory: #SalvaPeironcely10 (#SavePeironcely10), in Entrevías (Puente de Vallecas), and the Capa Haus Initiative in the Lindenau neighbourhood of Leipzig, both united by the protection and conservation of historical heritage and by the defence of peace.
The round-table discussion features the participation of Cynthia Young, Juan Miguel Sánchez Vigil, Ulf-Dietrich Brumann and José María Uría Fernández and is moderated by Myriam Soto Lucas. Carmina Gustrán Loscos, the commissioner of Spain and Freedom. Fifty Years, will also join the discussion.
equipoMotor
Jueves alternos, 23 de octubre, 2025 - 11 de junio, 2026 - 17:30 h
El programa equipoMotor regresa en su edición 25-26 con un aire espectral y mutante para lanzar la pregunta: ¿y si el Museo fuera «un poco más Frankenstein»? Inspirándose en dicho monstruo y en todas aquellas criaturas que desafían la norma desde los márgenes, el proyecto de mediación cultural Galaxxia diseña y acompaña una edición incisiva, intergeneracional y descentralizadora, donde saberes invisibilizados, cuerpos raros y deseos molestos se entrelazan para generar nuevas formas de imaginación crítica y radical. En los sótanos y corredores del Museo —un particular laboratorio— las dudas no se esconden: son materia prima.
Así, para este curso el equipoMotor convoca a personas de todas las edades que hayan participado en ediciones anteriores de los distintos equipos del Área de Educación a recorrer el Museo como quien manipula un cuerpo abierto: descoyuntando algunas de sus categorías teóricas y artísticas —la necropolítica, lo crip-cuir, la lucha de clases, las políticas del malestar, la decolonialidad, la temporalidad cuir, la descentralización institucional o el feísmo— para articular un relato díscolo, remendado y palpitante.
El programa se estructura en bloques temáticos sobre lo freak como metodología, el trabajo cultural, la intergeneracionalidad y la diversidad territorial. Cada bloque a su vez se despliega en sesiones que combinan disparadores teóricos y estéticos, visitas a exposiciones y espacios liminales del Museo, talleres artísticos con artistas, ejercicios de curaduría audiovisual colectiva y de relatoría radiofónica, así como instancias de activación pública, mediante proyecciones de cine experimental y coloquios compartidos con el público, en complicidad con el archivo Hamaca y el Área de Cine y Nuevos Medios del Museo.
De este modo, la presente edición incorpora una particularidad: el grupo de participantes irá transformándose en un «colectivo curatorial audiovisual temporalmente autónomo», con capacidad de incidir en la programación del Museo y de abrir la conversación de equipoMotor al público general, cuestionando y expandiendo así los límites entre las cabezas que deciden, las manos que producen y los cuerpos y presencias que habitan la institución. Las personas seleccionadas en la modalidad oyente serán invitadas a las proyecciones públicas, así como a otras activaciones y momentos de apertura del equipoMotor.
Frente al relato de un museo homogéneo, pulcro y lineal, apostamos por un Museo disidente, contradictorio y lleno de vida residual. Un Museo que no tema hacerse preguntas incómodas ni mostrar sus cicatrices. equipoMotor. Un poco más Frankenstein no busca repensar el cuerpo de la institución, sino habitarlo en sus desgarros, tal como es: híbrido, inacabado, infecto, fantasmagórico… y cargado de esporas y chispas por venir.