romina
rivero
artist statement
The links between the European "I clear" and the Oriental "I blurred" are the constant of my work, in a topography where medicine and philosophy are intertwined with biopolitical violence. I transform pain into dignity, and address the complexity of the female experience, contrasting neoliberal western medicine with traditional medicine, as well as classical Taoist philosophy with contemporary currents of thought.
This is the fabric of a critical investigation, which shows the state-sponsored fictions from the 15th century to the present, fictions that, embodied in clinical discourses, reflect bio-power. In this context, it is essential to recognize the destruction of feminine power in the field of medicine, biological and social reproduction, as well as in social and political creativity.
My work seeks to narrate the experience of pain that operates in our being, direct or indirectly. Through this exploration, I try to highlight the textures of the wound, the scar, the healing, as well as that space where all this happens, and which is often omitted in our contemporary reality.
Ultimately, my work becomes an act of clarity, resistance and transmutation, a spell to give voice to what is silenced, the process of opening the wound so that it can breathe, of beautifying the pain and transforming it into living memory. A space where what was destroyed can be, again, created.
bio
Romina Rivero, 1982.
Graduated in Fine Arts from the ULL in Multidisciplinary Contemporary Art (2014) and Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, specializing in Manopuncture from the CAO (2016-2020).
In her career there are individual exhibitions such as Primum non nocere_lo primero es cuidar closed in August of last year at CIC EL Almacén de César Manrique, Ikigay_Anatomy of the fireflies at the Artizar Gallery last year and En Fuga at the SAC (Tenerife) both in 2021, as well as Resistencias at Hybrid Art Fair'19 (Madrid) again with Artizar. In 2018 she starred in El espíritu no es un hueso at TEA (Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes), and in 2017 he presented Ad Intus, the space we inhabit at La Regenta (Gran Canaria).
She has also participated in various national and international collective exhibitions such as: V Contemporary Graphic Salon at the Nahim Isaías Museum (Ecuador) in 2022, and Decomposition/Expansion for the Francis Naranjo Foundation (L.P. from Gran Canaria) or Dúo Project at the Fair JUSTMAD in 2021. Years before, in 2019, Alégrame ese Pascuas opened at “Factoría de Arte y Desarrollo” and SeAlquila Futuro (8th edition) both in Madrid, Benches for Europe in France, and the III Biennale di Genova (Italy) where it receives the Critics Award.
Artizar Gallery presents her at NOW'15 as a young contemporary emerging artist in the Canary Islands arts scene, and that same year she won a competition for the exteriors of the European Parliament (Strasbourg), where one of her pieces is currently located. She has been awarded other prizes such as: the NOW'19 Scholarship by the Artizar Gallery, the 2018 Artistic Residency at TEA, or the Sculpture Contest for the contemporary SEGAI author building of the University of La Laguna in 2014, hosting since then in its headquarters the work of the artist.
She has presented her debut for the VII edition of MMM (Mujeres Mirando Mujeres) and participated in MAV Okupa los Museos. Currently, is preparing her next objectives: individual exhibition at the Modus Operandi Gallery (Madrid), collective exhibition at Sala Bretón de Astillero (Cantabria), art residency at RARA (Málaga), public presentation of the unprecedented exhibition project Declarations, prayers and treatises in La Regenta, among others. Her work is in both private and public national and international.
