Exhibitions
CITISSIMUM ALTISSIMUM FORTISSIMUM: sport as a contemporary symptom
An exhibition at Arts Santa Mònica explores the most critical and symbolic dimension of sport.
In today's society, almost everything seems to revolve around comparison, classification and constant improvement. We measure ourselves among ourselves and with ourselves, whether by speed, endurance, performance, efficiency or any other unit that allows for a clear hierarchy. This way of understanding the world is not new, but it has gained particular momentum in recent years, and not only in the work or academic field, but also in the way we relate to each other, how we show ourselves and how we experience our own bodies. In the midst of this panorama, sport has not only gained prominence, but has become the great symbol of this culture of profitability, improvement and control.
The exhibition CITISSIMUM ALTISSIMUM FORTISSIMUM, which can be visited at the Arts Santa Mònica center from today until September 14, takes sport as its starting point. The title, which plays on Latin, speaks to us of this desire to go to the limit, faster, higher, stronger. Here, the objective is not to celebrate sporting success, but to observe it closely and see what lies behind so much display of strength and merit.
Cànon, Mateo Maté
Despite being a deeply rooted and omnipresent practice in our society, sport has often been little addressed by the world of contemporary art. This exhibition aims to fill this gap and proposes a critical reflection on its role as a mirror —and at the same time a driver— of many of the dominant logics of our time: competitiveness, the obsession with measurement, the normatization of the body and the constant search for performance. Through pieces that often resort to the absurd, irony or symbolic deformation, the exhibition unfolds a gaze that questions the values that sustain mass and competitive sport, and invites us to recognize the extent to which this system of values permeates our daily lives, making us participants in a continuous race where everything is susceptible to being quantified and turned into a spectacle.
O Campo, Joachim Schmid
With the participation of creators such as Cabosanroque , Curro Claret , Ca l'Enredus - Actuavallés , François Delaunay and Julià Carboneras , FRAU recerques visuals , Irena Visa and Pau Masaló , Joachim Schmid , Joan Fontcuberta and Arnau Rovira , La Juan Gallery , Mateo Maté , Miet Warlop , Passión/Aquassión , Paula Artés and Realmente Bravo , the works use all kinds of visual and conceptual resources to address themes such as body surveillance, the manufacture of success, the technification of movement and the pressure to stand out. Here, stopwatches, sensors and biometric data cease to be neutral tools and become symbols of a society obsessed with quantifying everything.
The exhibition has been conceived by Cabosanroque and Enric Puig Punyet , who form the curatorial board. Together they have constructed a story that not only portrays the most visible face of sport, but also points out how this competitive culture crosses many other areas. CITISSIMUM ALTISSIMUM FORTISSIMUM is therefore a critical look at a way of life marked by the need to stand out, by the fear of being left behind and by self-demand taken to the extreme.
Anatomies del límit, Joan Fontcuberta i Arnau Rovira (2025)
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