BIENALSUR CURATES LATIN AMERICAN VIDEO EXHIBITION AT THE REINA SOFÍA
The Reina Sofía Museum, in collaboration with BIENALSUR, presents the exhibition Resistencia. Una selección de video sudamericano (Resistance: A Selection of South American Video). Curated by Argentine art historian Diana Wechsler, artistic director of BIENALSUR, the exhibition offers two complementary ways to engage with the works, both situated around the museum’s cinema hall.
In the lobby leading to the theater, visitors encounter a selection of historic video pieces that reflect resistance and bodily expressiveness—two intrinsic elements, alongside radical language, that characterize Latin American video art.
Featured in this section is Mapas elementares nº 3 (1976) by Anna Bella Geiger (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1933), a visual poem addressing cultural clichés in Latin America through an interplay of Southern Cone topography and semantics. AIRE (1989), an artistic-social action by Clemente Padín (Lascano, Uruguay, 1939), is presented in dialogue with the surrounding works.
Also included is Condena (2003), from the series Llenos de Esperanza, by Silvia Rivas (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1957), displayed on its original four-monitor setup. The section concludes with Bocanada – La carne (c. 1993) by Graciela Sacco (Rosario, Argentina, 1956–2017), a powerful piece that closes the historical sequence with striking intensity.
Due to their length, three more recent works are screened in the Museum’s Cinema. Miles Marchan (2018–21), by Sebastián Díaz Morales (Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, 1975), documents crowds in their seemingly transformative occupation of public space. This is followed by the visual essay Ficciones de tierra caliente (2022) by Francisca Jiménez Ortegate (Bogotá, Colombia, 1993), and Trauma Ocular by Voluspa Jarpa (Rancagua, Chile, 1971), a composite narrative of individuals who suffered eye injuries during encounters with police forces.
With this program, BIENALSUR celebrates its tenth anniversary by continuing its commitment to decentralized venues. For the Reina Sofía, the exhibition serves as a pilot initiative toward establishing a more sustained program of video and audiovisual art. As described as “a pilot program” by the museum’s director, Manuel Segade, Resistance represents a starting point for the institution’s future audiovisuals’ curatorial direction.
Resistance: A Selection of South American Video is on view through September 1 at the Reina Sofía Museum, Santa Isabel 52, Madrid, (Spain).
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