2025 - Fragmenting obsolescence, in the life of rocks.
The first BienalSur exhibition was held in La Rioja in July 2025.
In its 5th edition, BIENALSUR arrived for the first time in the province of La Rioja, where it was declared of Provincial Interest, to present two collective exhibitions curated by Clarisa Appendino, held in two venues of the provincial capital: the Octavio de la Colina Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Art Space Paseo Cultural Castro Barros.
FRAGMENTING OBSOLESCENCE. IN THE LIFE OF ROCKS, at Paseo Cultural Castro Barros (Pelagio B. Luna 699), and FRAGMENTING OBSOLESCENCE. WAYS OF UNVEILING A BRICK, at the Octavio de la Colina Museum of Fine Arts (Pje. Diaguita 75), respectively.
Exhibiting artists:Hicham Benohoud (Morocco), Marcela Cabutti (Argentina), Florencia Caiazza (Argentina), Jonathan Alexander Chaparro Moreno (Colombia), Sergio Andrés Díaz Cortés (Colombia), Luciana Lamothe (Argentina), Jorge Pomar (Argentina), Diego Sarmiento (Argentina), and Juan Suárez (Argentina).
Link to BIENALSUR: FRAGMENTING OBSOLESCENCE. IN THE LIFE OF ROCKS
Curatorial Text
Rocks, seemingly motionless, live at another rhythm. They have long been perceived by the human eye as inert and immutable matter. We know the visible effects of erosion, yet we seldom notice the quiet passage of time within that transformation. The mineral and vibrant state of matter highlights the idea of the rock as something that lives very slowly—changing without haste. This invisible life becomes exposed through certain gestures—eroding, photographing, filming, building—upon a common element scattered across different geographies. Stones, caves, mountain profiles, fossilized remains, and fragments of landscape reveal processes of transformation that challenge the human perception of time and question the logic of utility and exhaustion we tend to impose on matter.
This idea manifests itself radically in a fossilized trunk, born from a life that began twenty-five million years ago, which—now turned to stone—stimulates an escape toward multiple temporalities. The tree-fossil-rock becomes a threshold that invites us to listen attentively to the sounds of erosion, to observe in detail the grooves of lithic drawing, to perceive every material limit of sedimentation, and to grasp the nuances hidden in the darkness of caves.
The works of these artists reverberate within stones not only as material but also as language: drawings on ceilings, fictional excavations, testimonial photographs. Within these gestures lies a speleological attitude—a desire to descend, to go inward, and to recognize the marks through which time has inscribed itself upon matter.
