Luz María Sánchez’s major solo retrospective, In the Absence of the State, features artworks created between 2006-2024 and explores the ways in which individuals deal with life in a failed society. The featured works address social issues related to Mexico’s struggle to survive: migration to the North, crimes against humanity such as enforced disappearances, the distribution of power, and the destruction of democracy. The latest work by the artist, a complex installation entitled power · room exhibited for the first time at Arsenal, will shed light on the latter. At the same time, Sánchez pursues her private, idiosyncratic narrative, discreetly recounting her personal life story, which is intertwined with the history of contemporary Mexico. This makes her message not only geographically specific, but universal. Sánchez develops the notion of the artwork understood as an archive/memory. Utilizing participatory strategies, the artist puts an emphasis on violence and the ways in which it is naturalized and institutionalized. Her multiform, transdisciplinary artworks depict a post-disaster landscape, and evoke a sense of hopelessness and loss. At the same time, however, her art calls for antagonistic actions and tactics of resistance.

participants: Luz María Sánchez, Agnieszka Jelewska, Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

moderation: Marek Wasilewski