Minimal Resistance

In this selection of works from its Collection, the Museo Reina Sofía takes a close look at art produced in Spain and abroad during the 1980s and 1990s. Minimal Resistance centres on the search by artists for new spaces of resistance in a globalised world, and examines a series of dualities that polarized the period dealt with, from the global economic crisis to financial capitalism, from the potential of the collective to the recuperation of the myth of the artist, from interventions reclaiming public spaces to discourses revolving around memory and the body, from a form of theatricality that emphasizes staging and architecture, to performative languages and relational models, and from the rehabilitation of traditional genres to the appropriation of images from mass media and mass culture. These tensions, which were very much a sign of the times, translate into a multiplicity of overlapping practices and discourses, and into a renewal of the art codes and languages that come from the perception of modernity as something past.

This exhibition encourages dialogue between pieces that, for the most part, have not been shown in the museum, as they are recent acquisitions and deposits. Taking the inevitably fragmentary nature of the starting point of all contemporary art collections as a given, this is only the first view of a series of new presentations of the Collection planned for the future.

Organised by Museo Reina Sofía within the framework of "The Uses of Art," a project by the European museum network L'Internationale. L'Internationale proposes a new form of artistic internationalism, one that is non-hierarchical, decentralised and based on the value of difference and of horizontal exchange among the facets of a large constellation of cultural agents locally rooted yet globally connected. The network is composed of six important European museums, Moderna galerija (MG, Ljubljana, Slovenia); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS, Madrid, Spain); Museu d'art Contemporani of Barcelona (MACBA, Barcelona, Spain); Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium) and SALT (Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey) and Van Abbemuseum (VAM, Eindhoven, the Netherlands). L'Internationale has the collaboration of associated institutions from the university and artistic worlds.

Among the artists and collectives who are part of the exhibition are: Ignasi Aballí, Agustín Parejo School, Pep Agut, Txomin Badiola, Ángel Bados, Georg Baselitz, Lothar Baumgarten, Dara Birnbaum, Cabello/Carceller, Miguel Ángel Campano, Jordi Colomer, Guy de Cointet, René Daniëls, Hanne Darboven, Moyra Davey, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Marlene Dumas, Diamela Eltit, Erreakzioa-reacción, Pepe Espaliú, Estrujenbank, Marcelo Expósito/Arturo Rodríguez/Gabriel Villota, Harun Farocki, María Luisa Fernández, Fischli & Weiss, Peter Friedl, Pedro G. Romero, Patricia Gadea, Dora García, General Idea, José María Giro, Jack Goldstein, Leon Golub, Dan Graham, Guerrilla Girls, Federico Guzmán, Candida Höfer, Cristina Iglesias, Peio Irazu, Sanja Ivekovic, Joaquim Jordá, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Louise Lawler, Pedro Lemebel, Rogelio López Cuenca, LSD, Les ready made appartiennent à tout le monde, Mark Lombardi, José Maldonado, Allan McCollum, Miralda, Juan Luis Moraza, Reinhard Mucha, Matt Mullican, Antoni Muntadas, Juan Muñoz, Paz Muro, Itziar Okariz, Ulrike Ottinger, Marc Pataut, Raymond Pettibon, Sigmar Polke, Preiswert, Radical Gai, Martha Rosler, Helke Sander, Allan Sekula, Cindy Sherman, Fernando Sinaga, Jo Spence, Hito Steyerl, Thomas Struth, Rosemarie Tröckel, Juan Ugalde, Juan Uslé, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Eulàlia Valldosera, James Welling, Franz West

Minimal Resistance
Between late modernism and globalisation:
artistic practices during the 80s and 90s

artist/s:
Ignasi Aballi, Agustin Parejo School , Pep Agut, Txomin Badiola, Angel Bados, Georg Baselitz, Lothar Baumgarten, Dara Birnbaum, Helena Cabello & Ana Carceller, Miguel Angel Campano, Jordi Colomer, Guy de Cointet, René Daniëls, Hanne Darboven, Moyra Davey, Jirí Georg Dokoupil, Marlene Dumas, Diamela Eltit, Erreakzioa-reaccion , Pepe Espaliu, Estrujenbank , Marcelo Exposito, Arturo Rodriguez, Gabriel Villota, Harun Farocki, Maria Luisa Fernandez, Fischli / Weiss, Peter Friedl, Pedro G. Romero, Patricia Gadea, Dora Garcia, General Idea , Jose Maria Giro, Jack Goldstein, Leon Golub, Dan Graham, Guerrilla Girls , Federico Guzman, Candida Höfer, Cristina Iglesias, Peio Irazu, Sanja Ivekovic, Joaquim Jorda, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Louise Lawler, Pedro Lemebel , Rogelio Lopez Cuenca, LSD , Les ready made appartiennent à tout le monde , Mark Lombardi, Jose Maldonado, Allan McCollum, Antoni Miralda, Juan Luis Moraza, Reinhard Mucha, Matt Mullican, Antoni Muntadas, Juan Muñoz, Paz Muro, Itziar Okariz, Ulrike Ottinger, Marc Pataut, Raymond Pettibon, Sigmar Polke, Preiswert , Radical Gai , Martha Rosler, Helke Sander, Allan Sekula, Cindy Sherman, Fernando Sinaga, Jo Spence, Hito Steyerl, Thomas Struth, Rosemarie Trockel, Juan Ugalde, Juan Uslé, Isidoro Valcarcel Medina, Eulalia Valldosera, James Welling, Franz West...

curator/s:
Manuel Borja-Villel, Rosario Peiro, Beatriz Herraez