The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) announced in New York City that among the official collateral events of the 60th Biennale di Venezia, the comprehensive exhibition and research project of the Mexican artist Betsabeé Romero, titled “El spiral sin fin” will participate. ”, organized by the aforementioned museum venue and curated by Argentine Gabriela Urtiaga, art historian and researcher.
The exhibition aims to explore Betsabeé’s artistic journey through commissioned works and new installations, and is the result of the long relationship between the artist and the MOLAA Museum. In fact, her work is part of the Museum’s permanent collection and, after her participation in La Biennale, it will be exhibited in 2025 at MOLAA in Long Beach, California.
The curatorial lines and concepts branch out throughout the rooms of the exhibition spaces of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, with the implicit premise of investigating the theme “Foreigners everywhere” title of this 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venice.
The exhibition presents different sections that create a different approach to this crucial topic, bringing out ideas and concepts from the body of works that highlight dualities, tensions, conflicts and fractures in our culture and history.
The announcement of the participation of the Mexican artist in La Biennale was made known at a press conference in New York, Santiago García, promoter of Betsabeé Romero’s work in Mexico and abroad through Itaca Arts stated that: “When reflecting on Bathsheba’s contributions to the art world, let us also recognize the lasting impact of her legacy. Her art is not confined by borders; she transcends them, reaching across generations and inspiring change for years to come.”
García added that: “As we celebrate the profound impact of Betsabee Romero’s art, it is also essential to extend our sincere gratitude to MOLAA, as well as William and Michelle Lerach, for inviting Itaca Arts to this collaboration and bringing this exhibition to life.”
MOLAA explained that the artist initially developed a strong narrative emphasizing the experience of being a stranger in the world, from the point of view of many who lack a space to take refuge and survive. She speaks of those who, in their flight from her, collide with political and economic borders, always foreign and exclusive; of the mirror that she does not recognize us, that she doubts, observes, ignores and distorts. From mirrors that do not include identities and genders, beyond obsolete classifications and discriminations. From homes where violence prevails, exercised by those who have wielded the baton of command, like a dagger that arbitrarily marks borders that define their power, small patriarchs, to the detriment of the lives of vulnerable and defenseless women and children. Of the wisest and most coherent communities that had to hide to defend their sacred places and save the world from barbarism, to which the logic of greed and excessive consumption has led.
It should be noted that the exhibition is divided into six sections. The aesthetic experience begins with the installation Signs that guide us towards exile, which questions the concept and experiences of migration that occurred before, during and after our time, and highlights how a community can contribute to dismantling horror and injustice.
Through the work Identity, concave security mirrors, which will completely cover the room, will observe and distort our image. Mapped and manipulated mirrors, with hard and confining lines, broken mirrors in a broken universe.
Thorny Border explores the suffering that borders cause. They are imposed lines that oppose necessity, survival and understanding, scars that bleed the world. Lines that follow us throughout our lives, inscribed on the body, engraved on our feet, in the footprints we leave. Cruel lines, sick and deadly edges.
The installation Rolling Rubber and Gold Totems introduces the visitor to mobility and urban totems on wheels, hand-engraved wheels that were once instruments of memory, cylindrical seals that have imprinted history in all cultures of humanity. The Western wheels have changed the course of the race, prioritizing speed and forgetfulness to continue overwhelming. These recycled tires claim the opposite meaning of modernity; Instead of serving on roads and power vehicles, they move backwards, manually operated to remember and make visible what speed had left behind, never to be seen again. A mobile totem of indigenous iconography from all over America, embroidery and ceramics, stelae and stone objects from different regions and cultures. At the vanishing point of shadows, the artist reflects on culture as a home that we carry inside; a refuge that has survived in the shadow of all powers.
Finally, Feathers of a Spiral Dawn is a journey through an endless spiral, the wisdom that sows and germinates in cycles, a rotating compendium of collective and captivating flights. Snail with circular and labyrinthine wings, horizontal and infinite crest, architectural and ritual appearance, a space where everyone can enter and live.
The exhibition is organized together with Main Partners William S. & Michelle Ciccarelli Lerach and Santiago García Galván. It will also be accompanied by a publication and booklet available to visitors.
On Sunday, April 21 at 2 p.m., a conversation open to the public between Betsabeé Romero and the curator Gabriela Urtiaga, followed at 4 p.m. by a guided tour by them.
Betsabeé Romero is an artist who has had the opportunity to live and produce her work in different countries, cultures and contexts. Gabriela Urtiaga writes about her “Betsabeé is a nomadic spirit who always seeks new experiences and perspectives, focusing on examining various essential and urgent topics for an international audience. She works with a strong awareness of issues such as migration, gender roles, cultural traditions, religiosity, miscegenation, and individual and collective memory. Its method of transgressing the limits of different established categories, of making injustice in the world visible as a point of examination and call to action, is redefined as a community commitment through a dialogue between art, social justice and heritage, which interact. with the common good. The artist has developed a strong initial narrative that focuses on the experience of being a stranger in the world and from the perspective of many who lack the territory to seek refuge and survive.”
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– 2024-04-12 20:08:26
