Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa

From 28 May to 20 October, the Sabatini Building (Floor 4) at the Reina Sofía Museum will present the most complete exhibition to date of the artist from Guatemala, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, who fuses sculptural installation, video and performance to open a reflection on his own biography and on his country’s turbulent history.

The style and inspiration behind the work of Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala City, Guatemala, 1978) lies in the history of his country, which has been ravaged by different forms of violence and armed conflict.  His pieces are sculpted thanks to Latin American political activism and experimental theatre.

Through a prism that combines absurdity and humour, not to mention a dose of coarseness, the artist addresses issues such as identity, the body and cultural history, going beyond the specific context of Guatemala. This is all achieved without losing sight of the senselessness of displacement and exile, which his own family experienced first-hand when they were forced to emigrate to Vancouver in the 1980s.     

This exhibition, which is the most complete in Spain to date on Ramírez-Figueroa, analyses the complexity and richness of his artistic universe through a set of works that pave the way for new interpretations of his unique creative practice.  The exhibition also includes an unprecedented project in which the artist transforms his own past in an oneiric stage of collective memory, interweaving the colonial violence inflicted on the Ch'orti people and the silent genocide in Guatemala, as a result of a civil war that lasted almost four decades in the second half of the 20th century.

Image Credits:

Naufus Ramírez Figueroa, Place of Consolation, 2020 Long-term loan from the Reina Sofía Museum Foundation, 2022 (Donation by Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza)