TRACES | Adriana Del Pilar García Galán: Witnessing the Biennial

Adriana Del Pilar García Galán: Witnessing the Biennial. Embodied Spectatorship and Independent Narratives in Bogotá
This talk offers a reflection on the Bogotá Art Biennial from the perspective of embodiedspectatorship and independentnarratives. Rather than focusing exclusively on institutional discourse, this session explores how the body of the spectator can act as a living archive that witnesses and reinterprets artistic acts.
Drawing on my experience both as a participant in independent programs and as a critical observer, I will discuss how large-scale exhibitions are inhabited and embodied by their audiences. We will analyze the tensions between the official curatorial gaze and the sensual, often invisible knowledge that emerges through the act of witnessing. This is an invitation to reflect on how art exhibitions can become shared resonant spaces in which the mediation work and the situated presence of the viewer shape the meaning and memory of the event.
The event will be held in English.

The Transdisciplinary Research Center for Exhibition Studies (TRACES) bundles interdisciplinary research approaches on the history and present of exhibitions at the School of Art and Design Kassel and various Faculties of the University of Kassel. The research station on Lutherplatz was built by students at the University of Kassel in summer 2021, based on a design by Bauhaus teacher Ludwig Hilberseimer, and serves to promote dialog between urban society and the university. Here, students and lecturers provide insights into their work with talks, lectures, workshops, seminars and exhibitions and involve the public in research in the sense of "citizen science". more about TRACES

TRACES lecture series summer 2026