MAXXI in Rome presents Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda, an exhibition on view 15 March–24 June 2012.
Doris Salcedo Plegaria Muda
Over 120 pairs of tables placed one on top of the other and separated by a block of earth, from which sprout slim blades of grass: this is Plegaria Muda, the latest project by Doris Salcedo.
The artist has drawn inspiration by turning her gaze to the victims of the massacres by the army in Colombia, her home country, as well as the violent deaths in the Los Angeles suburbs.
Plegaria Muda is a cry of pain against the senselessness of every violent death; it is a prayer dedicated to those people who have no voice to speak of their own existence but it is also, and above all, a message of hope: life, in the end, prevails.
Born in Colombia in 1958, Doris Salcedo lives and works in the capital Bogotá. Her work is intimately intertwined with her native country’s conflict-ridden history and present, but it is also based on thorough investigations of human conflicts in other parts of the world and at different times in history. In a language that is subtle and poetic, yet of shattering power, she explores violence as a universal phenomenon and creates physical manifestations of the unspeakable wounds that it leaves behind.
Since the mid-1980s, Doris Salcedo has exhibited extensively with solo exhibitions at amongst others The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York (1998), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999), Camden Arts Center in London (2001), Castello di Rivoli in Turin (2005) and Tate Modern in London (2007). Doris Salcedo has also participated in a large number of international group exhibitions and events, including Documenta 11 in Kassel (2002) and the 8th Istanbul Biennal (2003). In year 2010 Doris Salcedo was awarded the prestigious Velázquez Visual Arts Prize.
MAXXI
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