Resistance

 

'There is a fundamental affinity between a work of art and an act of resistance. (…) What is this mysterious relationship? (...) Only an act of resistance resists death (...) What relationship is there between human struggle and a work of art? The closest and, for me, the most mysterious relationship of all.'

Gilles Deleuze. What is the creative act? (1987)

BIENALSUR and the Museo Reina Sofía present Resistance. Selected videos from South America, an experimental exhibition exploring the crossover between contemporary art and the moving image. The museum's cinema, usually closed for the summer, will instead serve as an exhibition space for a couple of months and host a selection of video art. The fleeting, looping nature of the form, and its allegorical qualities, therefore combine with the more structured and traditional setting of the cinema. The exhibition examines the potential for acts of resistance to be both political and aesthetic, through the coming together of radical language and the radical nature of the medium, via a remarkable collection of historical and contemporary works of video art from South America.

The exhibition presents visitors with two different modes of viewing: via a tour of the gallery or through contemplation in the cinema. The foyer outside the cinema showcases several trailblazing works of South American video art, each one addressing a range of different issues and presenting political dynamics specific to a particular time and place but transcending their eras to challenge us in the here and now. Mythical notions of territory, as outlined by Anna Bella Geiger (Brazil, 1933), appear oppressive in work by Silvia Rivas (Argentina, 1957) and become a battle ground for human rights violations and environmental issues in a video poem by Clemente Padín (Uruguay, 1939). Bocanada - La carne (Nothingmouth - The flesh) by Graciela Sacco (Argentina, 1956-2017) takes a short story by Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera and reaches a disturbing conclusion, superimposing it over the image of an endlessly moving mouth: 'To eat is to die'.

The second space, inside the cinema itself, explores the intersection of art and resistance via three longer pieces. These works, shown on the big screen, offer symbolic resolutions to modern day conflicts. Sebastián Díaz Morales (Argentina, 1975) portrays the masses as a dynamic social force by removing all faces and flags from a demonstration, thus revealing the transformative power of the crowd in an endless loop. Francisca Jiménez Ortegate (Colombia, 1993) provides a visual essay on the different narratives that have emerged from the Colombian countryside, the so-called ‘tierras calientes’ ('hot lands'), a local term used to define areas where war has had more of an impact or where high levels of violence still exist. Finally, Voluspa Jarpa (Chile, 1971) tells the story of eleven young people shot in the eye through police violence. The video employs a choral narration that culminates in eight of them forming a band for eye-trauma victims and singing one of their songs in front of Plaza Baquedano, the scene of recent social unrest in Chile.

BIENALSUR (the International Biennial of Contemporary Art from the South) is organised by the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Argentina and the Southern Forum Foundation of Argentina. Launched in 2015, with the Global South Sessions – a platform for contemporary art and culture – BIENALSUR is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

The platform that BIENALSUR provides allows for unprecedented artistic circulation and critical thinking, with exhibitions appearing simultaneously in museums, cultural centres and public spaces across five continents, thus promoting a global network of institutional collaboration that transcends borders and celebrates diversity. Its methodology is based on open international calls for proposals, with specific, original projects then developed by artists and curators based on their own research. Using its own cartography, and with MUNTREF (the UNTREF Museum of Immigration and Contemporary Art Centre) in Buenos Aires as its KM-0, BIENALSUR devised this exhibition in conjunction with the Museo Reina Sofía to commemorate its first decade of activity.