María José ArjonaLa Buena vida. Obras de la colección del Banco de la República01.11.2023 - 31.03.2024
Museum of Modern Art of Medellín, Medellín, Colombia

Curated by Emiliano Valdés, Ana Ruiz Valencia.

Durational performance, documentation, scriptwriting, collective actions, and other practices related to the body are at the core of the work of María José Arjona, an artist born in Bogotá who began her career through an engagement with dance. She understands her body as representing more than the self and individuals, considering the human being as a transpersonal category that surpasses gender, geographical, and political limitations. In her work, the body, with its beauty and fragility, exalts a world that subjugated and objectified it by language, power, and violence.

On Knowledge and Liberation / Composition, a part of the Vires, Power Exercises performance cycle, examines the relationship between power (political, cultural, social, and economic) and the body as a means of resistance, transformation, and liberation. During the performance at the Anatomical Theater in Bologna, Arjona lies on a structure consisting of thirty black leather strips and fastens them onto various parts of her body, immobilizing her. The audience then unlocks the padlocks to release her. This work, which has explicit sexual overtones, is also a rite that juxtaposes desire and self-protection, gratification and sadomasochism, and suppression.