GOSHKA MACUGA AT MUSAC

Goshka Macuga (Warsaw, Poland, 1967) brings into focus the relationships between art, power, and history in her practice. Her works comprise large installations that mix her own pieces with material found in archives and collections to explore new interpretations of inherited narratives of historical events and characters. Macuga engages with continuous recycling of images and accounts, a method inspired by art historian Aby Warburg who juxtaposed thematically or aesthetically related images from different historical periods to create a visual continuum. Macuga blends together the items in her installations and builds narratives focused on a single event or on revealing relationships and connections between a priori unrelated historical characters. Her works suggests new interpretations of the political and social events.

IN FLUX is the first presentation of the artist"s work in Spanish territory. Curated by Neus Miró, the show aims to showcase some of her more renowned installations: Plus Ultra (2009), Untitled (2011), and The Nature of the Beast (2010). Each of them explores and reinterpret inherited narratives regarding historical events and characters. 

The title, IN FLUX, alludes to the constant flow of images and events; the cycling nature of certain historical forces as well as the historical variations of past events, the recurring inertia. This idea is well suited to Macuga’s method, as she makes constant use of past references to repurpose them in the present, this applies to both images as well as artistic disciplines.