The possibility of not having been

During the course of the preparatory sessions for the Maroon Anti-Futurism exhibition, its “curanderas” [curators] Yuderkys Espinosa and Katia Sepúlveda inspired research and dialogue among the participating artists on the basis of one core question: What would have happened if Europe had never existed? In this case, relating Europe, not to a geopolitical territory, but to a trope, a civilisational idea that has historically configured the set of relations pertaining to power and domination that form the basis of the colonial project. Understood in this way, considering the possibility of Europe never having existed implies chipping away at the current condition of coloniality and revealing how the splintered cultures, beliefs and lives, erased from history by colonial violence, would still be capable of activating other potential histories alongside the dominant one.

Exhibiting Maroon Anti-Futurism at the Santa Mònica, a European institution whose mission has historically been to contribute to generating a very specific cultural narrative, poses a problematic paradox. The central question about the possibility of Europe never having existed creates, when set within European walls, the potential for calling one's own very existence or essence into question. Aware of this problem, and with the complicity of the “curanderas” of Maroon Anti-Futurism, the Santa Mònica posed this same question to seven local collectives in order to present another exhibition that delves into the paradox posed by the initial question set within a European context.

Difraccions, Flux, Grup d'Estudi, Jiser and Sabers migrants, Koniclab, Mixtur and Sâlmon were, for different reasons, the seven groups called upon to consider the initial question from this paradoxical position, inevitably transformed into a question on the possibility of challenging existence itself. Over the course of months of conversations as part of a shared curatorial exercise the seven groups have developed the various pieces and actions that make up this exhibition, which is accompanied by itineraries and counter-itineraries, narratives and counter-narratives that aim to highlight the prevailing unresolved, permanently ongoing condition of the issue that permeates the entire exhibition.

Enric Puig Punyet

Opening: 12.10.2023 at 19h

Artists / Exhibited Works:

Alejandra Rocabado Koya / Apthapi
Anna López Luna / Sense títol / Pancartes / Platja del Tarajal / Sindicat
AzkonaToloza i Rammsy / Concierto geológico
Boris Mercado / Águila Dorada
Camila Opazo Sepúlveda / Memorias coloniales, silencios deliberados y amnesia pública en Barcelona
Daniel de la Barra / Ministerio
Danilo Adriano Marinho / FANTASMAS
Eugenio Tisselli / Tientos de multinaturalismo digital
Fares Yessad / Abstraction
Gemma Ragués / EUROPA (Absent Bodies III)
Gonzalo Marcuzzi Iglesias / Ulises. Buscando un EuroHogar seguro. Ensayo error
Guerthy Gutiérrez / Señor H
Gunda Gottschalk / Journey of thoughts
Hamja Ahsan / Residència artística al Santa Mònica
Houari Bouchenak / Ardor it's you, it's me, it's him
Ida Barbati / Dove finisce la Terra e dove inizia il Mare?
Maria Eugenia Piola Simioli, Saber Lech-hab el Ghoury i Araceli Muñoz Garcia / Mi voz no tiene espacio. De silencios y silenciamientos
Marina Barsy Janer x Isil Sol Vil / 1492
Mounir Gouri / Ma mer est fragile
Nora Daoud i Soukaina Sentissi / Memorias difusas
Óscar Escudero i la Belenish Moreno-Gil / ÁDYTON
Reiko Yamada / Instruments of Desire
Rosó Cusó / Miracles que no vindran
Séverine Sajous / التراب یجبد والقلب یبرد La terre absorbe et le coeur guérit
Teo Vázquez / Minorías y resistencias: una mirada desde dentro
Toni Serra *) Abu Ali / Entremons (Anit Dikr - Al Barzaj - Trance with the Green Man - Sol de mitjanit - Siete contemplaciones - En el camí de les abelles)
TRES (ilana boltvinik + rodrigo viñas) + Medialabmx (Leonardo Aranda Brito) / No quiero oro, ni quiero plata… lo que quiero es el quinto irreal

Exhibition’s Activities:

15.10 / 12:30 h: Journey of thoughts, concert by Gunda Gottschalk

Polysemies of silence I
19.10 / 18:00 h: Polysemies of Silence. Dialogues and Collective Creations. (Round table discussion
20.10 / 18:00 h: Kalima.radio 1. Common ground for confronting the silence. (Radio)
21.10 / 11:30 h: Creative Fragments and Plural Stories. (Workshop). Approx. duration: 2 hours
26.10 / 18:00 h: Memories of the absent bodies. (Round table discussion)

02.11 / 19:00 h: Concierto geológico, concert by Azkona Toloza and Rammsy 

Polysemies of silence II
16.11 / 18:00 h: Collective mapping and counter-narratives. (Round table discussion)
17.11 / 18:00 h: Kalima.radio 2. The right to one's own story. (Radio)
18.11 / 17:00 h: Sound map in transit. (Workshop)

30.11 / 19:00 h: Absent Bodies, performance by Gemma Ragués

14.12 / 19:00 h: 1492, performance by Marina Barsy Janer x Isil Sol Vil

2024:

Polysemies of silence III
11.01 / 18:00 h: Migrations, resistances and critical epistemologies. (Round table discussion)
12.01 / 18:00 h: Kalima.radio 3. Decolonial perspectives. (Radio)
13.01 / 17:00 h: What part of your existence refuses to be colonised? (Workshop)

18.01 / 20:00 h: Tientos de multinaturalismo digital, performance by Eugenio Tisselli

25.01 / 20:00 h: Instruments of Desire, performance by Reiko Yamada 

Exhibition’s Residencies:

03.10 – 13.10.2023: Abstraction, mural action by Fares Yessad

15.11 – 26.11.2023: Art residency by Hamja Ahsan

Artists:
Alejandra Rocabado Koya
Anna López Luna
AzkonaToloza i Rammsy
Boris Mercado
Camila Opazo Sepúlveda
Daniel de la Barra
Danilo Adriano Marinho
Eugenio Tisselli
Fares Yessad
Gemma Ragués
Gonzalo Marcuzzi Iglesias
Guerthy Gutiérrez
Gunda Gottschalk
Hamja Ahsan
Houari Bouchenak
Ida Barbati
Maria Eugenia Piola Simioli, Saber Lech-hab el Ghoury y Araceli Muñoz Garcia
Marina Barsy Janer x Isil Sol Vil
Mounir Gouri
Nora Daoud y Soukaina Sentissi
Óscar Escudero y la Belenish Moreno-Gil
Reiko Yamada
Rosó Cusó
Séverine Sajous
Teo Vázquez
Toni Serra *) Abu Ali
TRES (ilana boltvinik + rodrigo viñas) + Medialabmx (Leonardo Aranda Brito)

Curatorial group formed by: 
Difraccions (Lluïsa Espigolé and Miquel Vich) 
Flux (Lis Costa and Josep M. Jordana) 
Grup d’estudi (Max Azemar, Martí de la Malla, Berta Esteve, Ada Fontecilla, Carla Lupa, Antonio Ortega and Eloi R.
Romeu) 
Jiser and Sabers migrants (Xavier de Luca and Paula Durán) 
Koniclab / ECOSS (Rosa Sánchez and Alain Baumann) 
Mixtur (Oliver Rappoport Bianchi and Oriol Saladrigues Brunet) 
Sâlmon (Néstor García, Andrea Rodrigo, Noe Laviana and Raquel Tomàs) 

Curatorial process supported by: 
Enric Puig Punyet 

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