This paper gives voice to bold and experimental Italo-Argentinian Antonella Trovarelli. Artist-in-residence based in Costa Rica, her professional trajectory has taken her from strength to strength. Most recently breaking ground at Museo C.A.V. La Neomudéjar near the heart of Madrid, Trovarelli first became known to contemporary Spanish audiences also physically speaking while working at the Associations Lab section of brutalist and cutting-edge regional contemporary art museum Zapadores Ciudad del Arte – a politically activist, visual accompaniment to the aforementioned 4,000 square metres Neomudéjar avant-garde art centre occupying the former Fuencarral army barracks in an obscure part of Madrid proper. The provocative pieces and representations at transfixing Zapadores contrasted starkly with the notion of art as beauty. Rather, covering an expansive art space that has since ceased to exist, were works that hurled us back to Spain’s dark Francoist past. Images of executed soldiers, and torture victims shocked into silence. We were reminded of the brutality of a regime that haunts Spanish citizens to date. Trovarelli, in turn, engages with identity and migration politics through abstract, primitive, anthropomorphic and shapeless figures that verge on the grotesque and step out from their limitless space, challenging the viewer and leaving room for interpretation. This paper argues that chaos is needed for a creative spark to fly and draws on S.E Guthrie when asking what role animal symbolism plays in Trovarelli’s art, if her skeletal figures can escape their liminal space in the existential margins, and what diasporic message is conveyed through her art.

Authors:
Jytte Holmqvist, Lund University, Sweden

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Jytte Holmqvist acts as Senior Lecturer in Spanish Studies at Lund University, where she specialises in Spanish and Latin American literature and film, supervises degree students, and represents her university within different public forums.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jytte-holmqvist-75863432/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.sol.lu.se/person/JytteHolmqvist/

Additional website of interest
https://jytteholmqvist.academia.edu/

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