Exhibitions
No way out: art, power and resistance in times of necropolitics
The Roca Umbert Arts Space hosts a collective exhibition that interrogates the dynamics of power and violence of the contemporary global system.
The Espai d'Arts de Roca Umbert opens its doors to Sense sortida, an exhibition curated by Mercè Alsina that brings together the work of several international and national artists. Using diverse languages, these creators question the destructive impact of the global economic system on human lives and the planet, putting art, politics and historical memory into dialogue.
The exhibition is based on a solid theoretical framework that draws on thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Achille Mbembe . Foucault, in the 20th century, introduced the concept of biopolitics to describe the control exercised over the lives of individuals and societies. Later, Mbembe redefined this notion with the term necropolitics, analyzing how global neo-capitalism, with colonial roots, imposes its dominance through violence, human exploitation and the plunder of resources, affecting above all those excluded by the system. This perspective allows us to understand the dynamics of “letting live” and “making die” that structure today.
In this context, the relationship between image and historical memory plays a central role. The Holocaust caused a crisis of representation in art, photography and cinema, making it necessary to rethink the capacity of images to tell history and influence collective memory. Today, within the framework of necropolitics, artists, photographers and filmmakers continue to explore how images can denounce injustices, generate a critical perspective and raise awareness in society. Alfredo Jaar stated that culture is the last space where it is still possible to imagine a different world. In this sense, Mercè Alsina highlights that the works on display not only narrate history, but also aspire to transform it.
Among the pieces presented, the experimental documentary Insurgent Flows: Trans*Decolonial and Black Marxist Futures, by Marina Gržinić and Tjaša Kancler , proposes a forceful critique of structural racism and capitalism from a trans-feminist and anti-colonial perspective. In another vein, Virus, by French photographer Antoine d'Agata , captures striking images of the world during the hardest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, showing the fragility of the body and collective anguish in a context of institutional abandonment.
We also find Mar de luto, by Anna Surinyach , a photographic series that focuses on the silenced deaths in the Mediterranean, the result of migration policies that prioritize border control over human rights. Her perspective, beyond journalism, is deeply empathetic, giving face and voice to people who seek refuge and find, instead, a wall of indifference. Visual artist Kristiina Koskentola presents Our Bodies Have Turned to Gold, an installation that connects spirituality and ecosocial criticism, exploring extractive practices in colonized territories and the intimate relationship between body and land. Alán Carrasco , with Affannosa lotta per strappare alla morte, works on historical memory and the struggle for survival from a sculptural and symbolic perspective. Finally, One in three women, by Nieves Mingueza , addresses gender violence with rawness and sensitivity, another expression of normalized systemic domination.
Until June 8, the Espai d'Arts de Roca Umbert becomes a stage committed to the most urgent social issues. In addition to the exhibition, the project is complemented by a program of parallel activities that offer several ways of entering a debate as complex as it is necessary. No Exit not only puts power structures into crisis, but also invites the public to reflect on the role of art in the construction of a more critical and transformative collective consciousness.
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