Exhibitions
Terrafilia: Beyond the Human at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza presents its new temporary exhibition, Terrafiia . A reimagining from an ecological, spiritual, and decolonial perspective to create a sensorial and philosophical journey, forging a connection between humanity and bridge.
In collaboration with TBA-21, curated by Daniela Zyman, the exhibition features around 100 works from the museum's permanent collection, the Carmen Thyssen collection, and the TBA21 collection, spanning five centuries of artistic creation to confront the ontological rupture between human beings and the planet.
Wassily Kandinsky, Painting with Three Spots, nº196, 1914, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Terrafilia is an invitation to imagine a new cosmopolitics, where human beings, animals, plants, elements, and spiritual forces coexist in a shared planetary community. Elements such as equity, empathy, and care exist within this creation, with six scenarios for inhabiting the Earth.
The exhibition opens with a prelude and will then be followed by Cosmograms, an animated planet with works by Max Ernst, Diana Policarpo, and Wassily Kandinsky. This is followed by The Art of Dreams, which explores dreams as a language of the invisible, with Salvador Dalí and Sarah Lucas.
Brad Kahlhammer, Bowery Nation, 1985-2012
The Objectified World delves into the desire for knowledge and control that marks modernity and is inspired by works by Olafur Eliasson and Hans Baldung Grien; Terra Infirma is the Earth as a wounded body and agent of memory, based on works by Albert Bierstadt and Daniel Oterro Torres. The penultimate chapter is The Return of the Time of Myths, with symbolic and spiritual tales such as Thomas Cole's, based on the piece Expulsion: Moon and Firelight from 1828.
The Terrafilia journey concludes with Oceanic Cosmogonies, where the ocean is presented as a living intelligence with works by Susanne M. Winterling, and where artist Sissel Tolaas presents a new olfactory installation, whereareWEarewhere , commissioned by TBA21 Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary. The exhibition will be on view from July 1st to September 24th, 2025, with a special focus on the spatial design by Marina Otero and Andrea Muniáin.
Akeem Smith and Jessi Reaves, Mannequin (with dress) No. 2 and No. 1, Sandra Lee, 2005, 2020
