Daniela Ortiz is angry, and very angry. This has been made known on its networks, where it has advanced that it has requested the Reina Sofía Museum to withdraw its work from the Communicating Vases exhibition due to the art gallery’s decision “to allow the holding of a political act within the framework of the Summit of NATO using Guernica as a backdrop”.
The Peruvian artist has published a letter in which she demands that her work Castas Blancas (2019) be withdrawn “as soon as possible” as she considers it “aberrant” that a painting like Guernica — “a piece made in response to a bombing”- – be used by “those political figures who decide to impose war on a global level”.
“At this summit, held days after the massacre that took the lives of at least 37 migrants, the armed conflict in Eastern Europe is further stressed with the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO”, he lamented and considers that “one more step has been taken in the escalation of militarization, generation of wars and conflicts”, after pointing to China “as a threat”.
Likewise, Ortiz also criticizes the fact that the Spanish government headed by Pedro Sánchez has “achieved that NATO incorporates the so-called migratory flows as a hybrid threat.” “This decision will further strengthen the militarization of the border and the deadly violence against the migrant population,” he concluded.
The Reina Sofía has not made a statement at the moment. A spokesman for the art gallery has reminded Europa Press that the museum shows “respect” for the position of the artist, who “has her right to express herself freely.”
Communicating vessels is the reorganization of the Reina Sofía collection that was launched at the end of 2021. Eight thematic episodes are proposed “that open up to flexible temporalities and interdisciplinary approaches, and that can be linked to each other, generating new stories “.
