SEEKING DIGNITY THROUGH CREATION AND RADICAL TENDERNESS: UNFES AT THE MADC

UNFES is made up of eight feminist artists, curators, and activists from various Central American countries:  Maya Juracán (Guatemala), Emilia Yang (Nicaragua / Costa Rica), Marilyn Boror Bor (Guatemala), Gabriela Novoa (El Salvador), Ana Laguna (Panamá), Mariela Richmond Vargas (Costa Rica), nara ila (Nicaragua) y Risseth Yangüez Singh (Panamá) and the collectives of which they are a part.

This exhibition weaves together stories of individual and collective Central American feminist resistance against various forms of violence, reclaiming dignity through art and activism. The participating artists challenge official historical narratives, the exclusion of women and gender dissidents from contemporary art, and the erasure of Central America itself from global conversations. Their works address the systemic causes behind migration from the region — from economic, gendered, and racial violence to state repression and extractive practices.

"It fills us with joy to bring together in Costa Rica, at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC), these Central American artists and curators, who are also bearers of the voices, pulses of the collectivities and networks that inhabit their territories. We feel that this is an urgent time to intertwine our struggles, to weave sensitive, firm networks and thus resist together the waves of violence that cross us, sustaining us from creation and radical tenderness," said the UNFES Collective.

"For the Museum, it is an honor to receive the Central American artists and curators who make up the UNFES collective. We have worked in a committed way in the curatorial, museographic and educational fields to build an exhibition that dialogues with their diverse visions of the context, identities and material sensitivities," mentioned Sofía Villena Araya, chief curator of the MADC.

The exhibition presents the result of individual and collective research, an archive of their processes, references, inspirations and a Central American Feminist Art Library, as well as guest artists from the MADC Collection, to generate imaginaries of shared futures in solidarity, healing and liberation through art.

The exhibition will remain open until October 13, 2025, at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, WWPH+57V, Av. 3, Calle 15. West side of the National Library, San José (Costa Rica).