KUITCA 86: THE VESTIGES OF MATTER
The sincere fiction crafted by the Argentine artist captivates and steals the voice of those who come to see it. Honest and raw, it reveals the indelible traces of history.
At the Malba, the exhibition Kuitca 86 rests uneasily—a show that explores the work of Guillermo Kuitca (Buenos Aires, 1961), organized around three of his series: Nadie olvida nada (Nobody forgets anything) (1982), El mar dulce (Sweet sea) (1983), and Siete últimas canciones (Seven last songs) (1986). Curated by Sonia Becce and Nancy Rojas, the journey offers no respite.
A green room introduces the artist’s first series, created during a time of turbulence and pain in Argentina, as well as the world that Kuitca conjured. Rustic, with dry brushstrokes and heavy color. In this room, viewers instinctively soften the sound of their footsteps. The figures turn their backs and hide their faces, appearing vulnerable and afraid; they grow accustomed to undefined spaces with messy, shifting strokes, and yet the atmosphere seems static—or lost. The empty bed of someone who will not return remains unmade, waiting. No one forgets anything, and nothing forgets anything either, because these living objects also hold memory.
The figures contained within seem to awaken in confined yet immeasurable, silent spaces. Doors, walls, staircases, floors—eternal. These are theatrical scenes, filled with dramatic and tragic themes, where objects fade and matter drips. The viewer must revisit the work several times to uncover the many elements the artist places within these eerie settings.
It may seem that only ghosts could inhabit these spaces—but no, they are people. Madness, alienation, and loneliness unravel from them. Beds never leave the canvas, but other objects, like chairs—witnesses to the consequences of human action—are introduced. Perhaps El mar dulce reveals the artist’s inner world, as well as the darkness of the world we live in.
Those figures that once appeared eventually fade away. Only the spaces remain, as traces of their presence in Siete últimas canciones. “I lie, but my voice does not,” the artist writes on one of the pieces in the series. Time and again, Kuitca alludes to the traces left behind, the witnesses of what has transpired. The sincere work of a corrupted man—an art that does not lie.
Kuitca 86 will be on view until June 16, 2025, at Malba, located at Av. Pres. Figueroa Alcorta 3415, Buenos Aires (Argentina).
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