Carlos Motta | ‘Stigmata’ no Bogotá Museum of Modern Art – MAMBO

Carlos Motta | 'Stigmata' no Bogotá Museum of Modern Art - MAMBO

Galeria Filomena Soares is please to announce the exhibition “Stigmata” by Carlos Motta at Bogotá Museum of Modern Art – MAMBO.

Stigmata: Carlos Motta

Carlos Motta

Curated by Eugenio Viola

March 16, 2023 – June 4, 2023

Bogotá Museum of Modern Art – MAMBO

Stigmata by Carlos Motta offers a comprehensive look at the trajectory of the Colombian artist and focuses on his ongoing preoccupation with documenting the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities, aiming at challenging dominant and normative discourses. The New York-based artist projects reveal the struggles of vulnerable communities under the constraints of oppressive social and political regimes.

Motta is internationally recognized for his works that question marginalized histories, the construction of repressed political memories, and normative discourses of sexuality and gender.
Commissioned for this exhibition, Hilos de sangre (2023) is one of the new research pieces on display and was carried out in close collaboration with historian Pablo Bedoya. The work is a new archive of stories, experiences, memories and documents related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Colombia; the most comprehensive effort of its kind in the country.
As well as Hilos de sangre, Virosis is presented, a thematic exhibition with works created by more than thirty intergenerational Colombian artists, the first museum exhibition in the country to present works of art made in response to the hiv/aids epidemic.
The exhibition will open to the public on Thursday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art. On the same day, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., the Museum will held a conversation with the artists Carlos Motta, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, the chief curator of MAMBO Eugenio Viola, and the junior curator fo MAMBO Juaniko Moreno.

Motta’s research is divided into two main themes. On one hand, there are projects that reflect on the construction of sexuality and gender as categories of knowledge during the conquest and the early days of colonialism in America. Works such as Nefandus (2013) which explores the colonial history of persecution of Amerindian sexual practices belong to this group; the miniature sculptures in tumbaga from Towards a Homoerotic Historiography (2014); Deseos (2015) that follows the epistolary correspondence between two women in the 19th century; and Corpo fechado: The Devil’s Work (2018), a video that tells the true story of a slave man who was tried for sodomy and witchcraft in Portugal in the 18th century, are projects that investigate the construction of sexuality and gender as categories. of knowledge during the conquest and the early days of colonialism in the Americas.

On the other hand, the artist explores critiques of democracy from the perspective of marginalized communities. To this group belong works such as Six Acts: An Experiment in Narrative Justice (2010), which documents a series of public performances on peace speeches made by left-wing Colombian politicians; We Who Feel Differently (2012), which explores the idea of sexual and gender “difference” in various geographical and cultural contexts; and the reconfiguration of Patriots, Citizens, Lovers… (2015), a work that presents video testimonies from Ukrainian queer and LGBTIQA+ activists about the critical situation that lesbian, gay, trans and intersex populations face in times of war.

Stigmata offers an overview of Motta’s work, demonstrating how he challenges the traditional norms of society by creating discursive platforms and aesthetic strategies that enable conversations around sex and gender as issues of social justice.

For more information, please visit the site: https://www.mambogota.com/