Rubén Ojeda Guzmán will develop a project at Collegium exploring the role of art in the context of the current crisis of truth. Drawing on the Pope’s Magnifica Humanitas discourse, the project examines the conditions that shape what we consider true, human and magnificent, and the possibilities of art to address these questions in a context marked by technological transformation. To this end, the artist will continue his exploration of gunpowder and smoke as materialities of emergency, drawing on collaborative methodologies developed alongside craftspeople and local residents.

The planned actions include intervening in European newspaper front pages with smoke, obscuring their images, as well as transcribing texts related to truth, history and speculation about the future using candle smoke and gunpowder. Through these processes, the project will explore the fragility of images and the capacity of matter to question the narratives we construct about the present and the future.

Rubén Ojeda Guzmán (Mexico, 1991) is an artist who understands art as provocation. After a decade of artistic research into corruption in Mexico, he moved to Europe in 2019 and settled in Madrid the following year, where he completed a Master's degree in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture. His practice investigates gunpowder and smoke as materialities of emergency. Drawing on counterculture, the avant-garde and popular culture, he develops in situ interventions and temporary works that activate imaginaries of urgency through scarcity and dissent. He has undertaken residencies at institutions including the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, Casa de México in Spain and the Huarte Centre for Contemporary Art. His work has intervened in emblematic spaces across Mexico, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, and has received various awards, grants and institutional support.