The NON Community

This exhibition, curated by Blanca de la Torre and Ricardo Ramón Jarne, offers a multi-faceted view of the idea of loneliness as a consequence of non-belonging, based on a selection of works by Spanish and foreign artists. Under the title The NON Community we propose examining loneliness from the perspective of a questioning of the idea of community, with that non-community which defines late capitalist society, whose idiosyncratic features have to do with the rupture of social connections. In this way, the exhibition is developed in the form of an essay around the idea of loneliness at the present time, an analysis which delves into its different forms, as an epidemic engendered by capitalism and its forms of biopolitical separation.

The overview isn’t set out linearly, but rather in a reversible format. You can start out from the central cabinet of mirrors and portraits, where the observer’s reflection strikes up an exchange with a series of portraits and self-portraits by an outstanding selection of artists. From there, multiple settings unfold which reveal the consequences of late capitalism in the form of solitudes, such as the contemporary city, or its counterpoint in the various concepts of periphery that are embodied in the islands, space, the sea or the consequences of abandoning the rural environment. The development of technology opens up another chapter in the problem of solitude. It ties in with the section that looks at the ages of loneliness, before moving on to another setting that expands into the notion of the border, explored from all of its angles: immigration and ideology but also seclusion, gender and identity.

Thus, the exhibition offers a panorama of solitude: from the most heartrending perspective to the most optimistic views, which are offered in particular by artists commissioned to create new works for the exhibition.

Organised by Madrid City Council, with the collaboration of Foro de Empresas por Madrid this project is part of the programme Madrid te acompaña, which promotes the fight against undesired loneliness through culture, education and health.

Participating artists:
Marina Abramovic, Pilar Albarracín, Helena Almeida, Eugenio Ampudia, Vasco Araújo, Artemio, Basurama/Dagoberto Rodríguez (co-founder of Los Carpinteros), Gregory Crewdson, John Coplans, Elena del Rivero, Rineke Dijkstra, Willie Doherty, Gonzalo Elvira, Pepe Espaliú, Simon Faithfull, Joan Fontcuberta, Regina José Galindo, Alberto García Alix, Miguel Ángel Gaüeca, Anthony Goicolea, Pierre Gonnord, Luis Gordillo, Paul Graham, Nuria Güell, Mona Hatoum, Zang Huan, José Iges, Concha Jerez, Francesco Jodice, Jesper Just, Jürgen Klauke, Sigalit Landau, Eva Lootz, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Lucía Loren, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Cristina Lucas, Esko Männikkö, Juan Carlos Martínez, Boris Mikhailov, Mitsuo Miura, Jorge Molder, Vik Muniz, Markus Muntean & Adi Rosenblum, Shirin Neshat, Marina Núñez, Jorge Perianes, Liliana Porter, Richard Prince, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Antonio Saura, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Trine Søndergaard, Sam Taylor-Wood, Darío Villalba, Antonia Wright