Flow States – La Trienal 2024

Flow States – La Trienal 2024, is El Museo del Barrio’s second large-scale triennial of Latinx contemporary art which features commissioned projects, exhibition highlights, an illustrated catalogue, and opening week programming.  Organized by the museum’s chief curator Rodrigo Moura, curator Susanna V. Temkin, and guest curator María Elena Ortiz, the exhibition will feature 33 artists working across the United States, Puerto Rico, and—for the first time—geographies that reflect the complexities of diasporic flows, with artists based in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.

Emphasizing plurality and a sense of movement, the exhibition’s title, Flow States, borrows from the psychology of creative focus and the fluidity of geographic boundaries and cultural exchanges. As such, the phrase reflects the ever-changing paths of Latinx artistic diasporas that inform the exhibition. Participating artists share interests in transformation, hybrid belongings, collective memories, porosities of landscape, and material exchanges. These threads come together against a background of displacements and migrations that continue transforming local and global ecosystems.

Throughout the exhibition, conversations between artworks reflect the solidarities and frictions that emerge when different populations and diasporic communities come into contact with one another. Emphasizing the exhibition’s themes of plurality and multiplicity, works on view encompass a wide variety of media, ranging from paintings and textiles to social practice and participatory installation. Most participating artists will present new work for the first time. Additionally, Flow States will feature 10 projects specially commissioned for the exhibition by artists Hellen Ascoli, Liz Cohen, Tony Cruz Pabón, Koyoltzintli, Mark Menjívar, Carlos Reyes, Ser Serpas, Chaveli Sifre, Cosmo Whyte, and Joe Zaldivar.

In a statement, the curators said:

“Flow States – La Trienal 2024 presents itself as a summit in which the artworks reflect affinities and solidarities, as well as distinct perspectives and individualized points of departure. Together, they reflect our complex cultural geographies and offer strategies for resistance and diverse imaginations for the future”.