Exhibitions and events:
Salvage
Núria Güell’s practice exploits established systems of power and their effects on everyday realities. Her work, often originating from a personal or corporate action, materialises where subjectivity is artificially limited by institutions such as governments, and where moral and legal realms are not in alignment.
Güell’s recent solo presentations include Middlesburgh Institute of Modern Art, Project Arts Centre Dublin, Salle Zero Havana. She took part in Biennale de Paris Beirut, The School of Kyiv, Bienal de la Fronteras Mexico, 4th Athens Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, Gothenburg Biennial, and exhibited at Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona, CCA Zamek Ujazdowski Warsaw, Reina Sofia Madrid, Casa Incendida Madrid, and Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.
‘Good Intentions’ questions the patronising Western aptitude and its post-colonial gaze towards cultural heritage preservation in a new satirical fashion. Developed in collaboration with Levi Orta, ‘Buenas Intenciones’ consists of a series of donation boxes to rescue stolen Syrian antiquities sold on the black market.
Núria Güell, Buenas Intenciones. La letra pequeña (Good Intentions), ongoing
installation
GUE005
‘The Flower Fair’ shows a series of guided tours carried out by minors through the works of the Colombian artist Fernando Botero at the Museum of Antioquia in Medellin. The guides are young girls exploited by the growing business of sex tourism in Medellin, which, throughout the tours, reveal their own traumatizing experiences of sexual exploitation.
Núria Güell, La Feria de las Flores (The Flower Fair), 2016
video, 42’
GUE004
‘Stateless by choice’ emerges from the artist’s desire to reject her nationality and become ‘stateless’. After a series of negative responses from governmental institutions, it becomes clear that nationality cannot be given up following an individual choice.
Núria Güell, Apatrida por voluntad propia (Stateless by choice), 2016
installation, video, print on paper, 4’50”
GUE003
After creating an anonymous corporation in a tax haven, the artists Núria Güell and Levi Orta cede their company to a group of activists who are developing an autonomous society project on the margins of the capitalist dynamics. This company allows its recipients to evade the regulations imposed by the states, challenging the financial system monopoly and thus facilitating an autonomous economy development.
Núria Güell, Arte Político Degenerado (Degenerate Political Art), 2014
installation
GUE006
‘Humanitarian Aid’ focuses on issues related to immigration restrictions and the social consequences that these engender. For this project, Núria Güell offered herself as a bride to any Cuban who wanted to immigrate and obtain Spanish citizenship. The aspiring husbands were invited to write a love letter that was submitted to a jury composed by three prostitutes who eventually declared the winner. Once married and having the husband obtained the Spanish citizenship, the couple would divorce.
Núria Güell, Ayuda Humanitaria (Humanitarian Aid), 2013
video, 21’14”
GUE002
‘Police Officers Contribution’ is a video recording of official misconduct performed by some Cuban police officers. Although the local law forbids any kind of sexual or affective relationship between police officers and foreigners, the former seem to break the law quite often.
Núria Güell, Aportación de agentes del orden (Police Officers Contribution), 2009
video, 2’12”
GUE001