Regina José Galindo / Arcangelo Sassolino: Mechanisms of Power

Under the title Mechanisms of Power, the Frankfurter Kunstverein presents two monographic exhibitions of Guatemalan performance artist Regina José Galindo and Italian sculptor Arcangelo Sassolino.

Coming from different backgrounds with distinct individual approaches, both artists explore the limits of art and question its role in society. They refuse their practices to be confined to a merely symbolic realm and confront the subject matter of their works with the social and material realities they are situated in. Galindo’s uncompromising performances centre around the effects of physical violence and power relations on the individual and the collective body. Sassolino’s sculptures are brought to their material limits by mechanical, hydraulic forces, suspending the works in a state of potentiality and threatening destruction. Mechanisms of Power at the Frankfurter Kunstverein is the first comprehensive exhibition of both artists in a German institution.

The starting point for the work of Regina José Galindo (b. Guatemala City, 1974, where she lives and works) is her own body, which she uses in a critical and political way. In her performances, documented in photographs and video, she exposes herself to situations of extreme physical and mental strains and pressures. Especially in her early years of artistic production, Regina José Galindo dealt with the socio-political context of her home country Guatemala, which is determined by a long-lasting civil war and enduring political and social instabilities. Subsequently, Galindo’s later works investigate more universal ethical questions raised by social injustices, discriminations and repercussions fuelled by unbalanced power relations. Employing explicit imagery, she addresses existential experiences of liminality like violence and power, life and death, as well as loss and grief. Galindo’s politically motivated art focuses particularly on the fight for the rights of women who fell victim to ferocious crimes during the most violent phase of the civil war in Guatemala. Using her own body as a kind of representative for the bodies of these women, Galindo makes tangible the effects of political violence and discriminating power structures.

The exhibition features both current artworks of Regina José Galindo and a selection of significant older works realized over the last fifteen years. During the opening on February 18, Regina José Galindo will perform Secreto de Estado (State Secret), a piece specifically conceived for Frankfurter Kunstverein. The exhibition is co-curated by Eugenio Viola, Curator at Large at MADRE, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Napoli.

Arcangelo Sassolino (b. Vicenza, 1967, where he lives and works) creates mechanically precise and materially dense sculptures and installations. For his large-scale spatial works, he uses industrial materials such as steel, glass or concrete and pushes them to their limits. Under the impact of extreme pressures and tensions, the materials are tried and tested up to their breaking points. In laboratory-like setups, mechanical forces work in different intervals, levels of persistence and intensity and change the sculptures’ forms up to a tipping-point of sudden destruction and noise. Giving over parts of the artistic process to chance, Sassolino nevertheless carefully calculates the material properties of his works. His sculptures and installations always exude the possibility of disruption and collapse, should the forces contained within the works be suddenly unleashed. This play with risk and suspense becomes an elemental part of the artworks, influencing our perception of them.

At the Frankfurter Kunstverein, four exemplary works will be presented, providing an insight into Arcangelo Sassolino’s exceptional oeuvre. In addition to these, the artist will present a new sculpture entitled Purgatory, specially conceived for the exhibition.


Supported by: Hessische Kulturstiftung, Stadt Frankfurt am Main