MEMORY, MOURNING AND REBELLION: BETTINI AT DA2

DA2 Domus Artium in Salamanca presents Cierta tarde, la más bella de las tardes de mi vida, the first retrospective in Spain dedicated to Gabriela Bettini (Madrid, Spain, 1977). The exhibition outlines a representative survey of her artistic career, developed between Madrid and Buenos Aires, where the relationship between nature and poetry converges to create presences that bear witness to waiting and remembrance.

The exhibition begins with Memoria del agua, a recent work revolving around the meaning of an unfinished poem written by her grandfather, discovered at the end of a book by Edgar Allan Poe. Her relative, who was disappeared during the Argentine military dictatorship, left verses interrupted by commas—expressive marks that denote a silence reflecting on absence.

In this way, the entire exhibition moves through frustration and resistance in the face of disappearance and oblivion. The Spanish-Argentine artist’s work is shaped by a memory marked by the inheritance of violence, trauma and exile. Her personal experience serves as a starting point to reflect on the policies surrounding official history and what it chooses to silence.

Bettini plays with temporality and anachronism to foreground her ideas. Her work explores the iconography of colonial paintings, seventeenth-century expeditions and contemporary settings marked by ecological conflict. Artistic representation can also be understood as instrumental and ambiguous, creating a space for reflection from which its own processes are made visible.

Gabriela Bettini. Cierta tarde, la más bella de las tardes de mi vida can be seen until 24 May 2026 at DA2 Domus Artium, Avenida de la Aldehuela, s/n, Salamanca (Spain).