Conversation: Re-envisioning the Participation of the Spanish State in the Slave System
With José Antonio Piqueras, Lydia Delicado Moratalla and Rita Bosaho
Auditorium
General public
30 May 2025
José Antonio Piqueras is a Professor of Contemporary History at Universitat Jaume I and director of the UNESCO Chair on Slavery and Afro-Descendance.
Lydia Delicado Moratalla is a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Human Sciences and Education and Secretary of the Institute for Advanced Social Research I-COMMUNITAS at the Public University of Navarra.
Rita Bosaho was General Director for Equal Treatment and Ethnic-Racial Diversity of the Ministry of Equality of the Government of Spain between 2020-2023.
Cycle coordinated by Mercedes Jabardo.
Licensed in Philosophy and PhD in Social Anthropology, Mercedes is a professor at UMH where she coordinates the doctoral program in "Applied Anthropology in Crisis Contexts" and is also the director of the Official Master's program "New Trends in Social Anthropology. Risk Scenarios and Post-Development Strategies". She researches African immigration to Spain, especially from Senegal, migrations and multiculturalism, the analysis of the sub-Saharan diaspora from a gender perspective, the analysis of economic transformations through migration, development and development cooperation, and Black feminisms.
The MACA presents the largest Kara Walker exhibition held to date in Spain. The exhibition, which can be visited until September 7, is curated by Rosa Castells, and offers a journey through her trajectory over the last four decades. Kara Walker is one of the most prominent artists of her generation and one of the most interesting figures in the international art scene, with a complex body of work that analyzes, in sometimes chaotic scenes, issues of race, identity, power and desire used always as systems of oppression and subjugation, across centuries and continents.The exhibition brings together the numerous works by Kara Walker present in the Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero collection at the MACA. It consists of 44 pieces that cover part of her trajectory and constitute one of the most complete sets of the artist's work existing in European institutions. Here are displayed drawings, prints, sculptures, artist books and one of her most recent videos, a total of 31 works donated in ownership to the MACA in 2021 and 13 pieces deposited in 2024 for this exhibition that have traveled from New York. Her work addresses themes of violence, identity, race and sexuality in the context of the still-present psychological wound caused by the tragic legacy of slavery, presenting a critical vision of the historical past and examining racial and gender stereotypes in our current society.Known for her work of paper-cut silhouettes, inspired by the historical tradition of Victorian shadow portraits, shadow theater or magic lanterns, Walker uses, in works of great formal beauty, the language of satire and archetypes to reveal the contradictions of the concept a nation has of itself, while casting a very lucid subversive gaze on the historical-artistic allusions that influence her works.Through drawing, printmaking, sculpture, video and installation, the artist explores the representation of the notion of race in modern and contemporary art, as well as the need to establish new narratives that challenge the way we look at and understand history. The images in Walker's work, drawn from both historical realism and the fantastical space of the imagined, seduce through their emotional rawness, the intellectual force they contain and their extraordinary visual beauty.
Conversatory: Re-envisioning the Participation of the Spanish State in the Slave System
02.06.2025
May 30, 2025
Conversations around the work of Kara Walker.José Antonio Piqueras is a Professor of Contemporary History at Universitat Jaume I and director of the UNESCO Chair on Slavery and Afro-Descendant Studies.Lydia Delicado Moratalla is a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Human Sciences and Education and Secretary of the Institute for Advanced Social Research I-COMMUNITAS at the Public University of Navarre.Mercedes Jabardo holds a degree in Philosophy and a doctorate in Social Anthropology.
