Minerva Cuevas – No Room To Play

The daadgalerie is currently showing the exhibition No Room to Play by Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas, whose work explores the correspondence of social problems and artistic practices. The exhibition presents works that were recently elaborated in Berlin and that question the construction of political roles in society as well as the significance of the public space, where imageries from childhood, freedom and political activism coincide.

From the street, before entering the gallery, one can make out graphic elements reminiscing the aesthetics of the Olympic Games as a stage for triumph and competition. Nonetheless, this first impression fades as one passes through the exhibition, observing among others, documentary material on the development of playgrounds in Europe and North America in the second half of the 20th century, photographs registering the Fridays for Future protests against climate change by children and young adults, reinterpreted messages from advertising aimed at children and a video on abandoned parks in Berlin.

In 2003 Minerva Cuevas took part in the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm as artist in residence in Germany. In 2019 she was invited by the daadgalerie to develop a new project as part of the interest in maintaining a relationship to the participating artists of the program.

No Room To Play is showing from 9 June at the daadgalerie in Berlin.

daadgalerie
Oranienstraße 161
10969 Berlín

Text and photos by Óscar Ardila, curator and artist based in Berlin.