This exhibition invites us to recognise nature as a true protagonist of creative and social practices. The artists encourage us to listen to the stories that forests and rivers tell, to see the marks that volcanoes leave like words in a poem, and to learn from animals another way of seeing the world and ourselves.
In Nature, the Architect, far-reaching research, fantastic imaginations and sensorial delight are paths of knowledge that allow us to take on this change of perspective. In the first gallery, a large table-river functions as a research workshop, offering a dialogue between art, architecture, poetry and ecological activism, combined with concrete actions that operate directly on geography and history. As the projects seek to transform complex territories, they embrace the expansion of disciplines: botany becomes social history, cartography is interwoven with poetry, and zoology becomes a form of aesthetics.
In the next room, sheltered by cliff walls, the artists display immersive works that intensify our perceptions. Faced with natural phenomena that challenge our usual ways of seeing and understanding, they use art’s sensorial tools to broaden empathy and wonder, attempting other relationships with the natural world.
Attuned to a choir of voices that exceeds geographical boundaries, the exhibition asks us some crucial questions: how do we inhabit the planet, what worlds become possible if we stop putting ourselves at the centre, and what new forms of co-habitation might art allow us to imagine?
Artists and collectives: Manuel Brandazza (Argentina, 1975), Adriana Bustos (Argentina, 1965), Ariel Cusnir (Argentina, 1981), Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil, 1982), Julián D’Angiolillo (Argentina, 1976), Cao Guimarães (Brazil, 1965) & Rivane Neuenschwander (Brazil, 1967), Florencia Levy (Argentina, 1979), m7red (Argentina, 2005), Valeria Maggi (Argentina, 1985), Eduardo Navarro (Argentina, 1979), Rayana Rayo (Brazil, 1989), Casa Río Lab (Argentina, 2021), Florencia Rodríguez Giles (Argentina, 1978), Sebastián Roque (Argentina, 1982), Tomás Saraceno (Argentina, 1973), Felix Shumba (Zimbabwe, 1989) and Paulo Tavares (Brazil, 1980), and Utopía del Sur / Fundación Nicolás García Uriburu (Argentina), among others.
Curated by: Patricio Orellana, Head of Curatorial Department, in dialogue with Victoria Noorthoorn
Curatorial assistance: Florencia Morel
General Coordination: Agustina Vizcarra y Noelia Magnelli
Museum Design: Daniela Thomas, Felipe Tassara, Iván Rösler and Gonzalo Silva
Production: Ana Cambre and Julieta Potenze
Installation coordinator: Germán Sandoval
Technical coordinator: Guillermo Carrasco
Graphic design: Job Salorio