When Picasso painted his monumental work Guernica, a Nazi officer allegedly asked him: “Did you do this?” To which Picasso replied, “No, you did."
Runo Lagomarsino’s exhibition Silence Answers All at Marabouparken konsthall takes Guernica as a starting point: not only the painting itself, but also its circulation and the importance it has had, and the symbol it has become. In a larger sense, the exhibition sets in motion questions of the potential of images, or rather of the image as a site for memory, as a site for struggle. Can images continue to live, to affect, and to transform each time they are exhibited, replicated, documented, and reproduced.
Central to the exhibition is a newly produced film. In the film, we see a replica of Guernica and the artist sweeping and mopping the floor of the pavilion in front of the painting. The rhythmic movements of the clean ing points toward the deep scars that history has etched into our collec tive memory. If Guernica condemns the horrors of war, the cleaning – the act of washing away dirt and dust – is a reminder of the impossibility of erasing the past. The image haunts us and should haunt us.
RUNO LAGOMARSINO is one of Sweden’s most renowned artists. He has exhibited at institutions such as Reina Sofía, Madrid, LACMA, Los Angeles and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. He has also been rep resented at the São Paulo Biennial, The Istanbul Biennial, The Venice Biennial and The Gwangju Biennial.
- Marabouparken konsthall
