Manuela Ribadeneira. About the direction in which the wind blows

Abstract

An important part of Manuela Ribadeneira’s work has orbited around punishment as a crucial topic and signifier, an underlying theme that can be contrasted against the polarizing discourse of ideologies, and against the aggressive and punitive climate established by various regimes. All the works gathered in this exhibition, produced in the last decade, emerged as reactions to the convoluted world and regional political scenarios of the period. Although the artist’s interest in hostile and arbitrary gestures in everyday life or in historical accounts intermittently appear in her oeuvre, it is from 2009 to the present when this subtext acquires an exceptional presence. Ribadeneira’s work operates in an emotional register crisscrossed by the political: although sparked by curious historical facts which allude to current events they are, in essence, an expression of how these junctures were personally experienced. Beyond all the contextual connections that shape a critical point of view in the works, they communicate a certain impotence and a sense of urgency caused by the understanding that we live immersed in a world governed by uncertainty and where post-truth prevails.