DIGNA RABIA

"Is anger not noble when society is corrupt and brutal?”
Martha Nussbaum. La ira y el perdón. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2018.

This project explores a universal and timeless impulse behind artistic creation: anger as a creative force within individuals and communities. Far from being vengeful or destructive, anger can inspire artistic expression and transformative action. Drawing on artworks and archival materials from the Banco de la República’s collections, the presentation reclaims personal emotion and collective affect as legitimate grounds for artistic and poetic creation when anger is directed toward realities perceived as hostile, unjust, or painful.

Rather than focusing on those realities themselves—or on the ideologies that have shaped them—the exhibition examines the ethical and aesthetic responses developed by artists. Through gestures, sensations, actions, and symbols, their works bear witness to experiences of discomfort, frustration, and dissent.

The journey unfolds through three thematic sections. The first considers subjective anger as expressed through energetic mark-making, contrasts of color, symbolism, and other visual strategies. The second looks at how artists and documentarians have represented collective anger, capturing moments when communities mobilize against perceived injustice. The third explores the ways in which urban communities and younger generations express their rejection of social models they refuse to embrace, as well as their anxiety in the face of an uncertain future.

Ultimately, the exhibition returns to art as a means of expressing what often escapes language—particularly those profound and motivating emotions such as anger, resentment, and discontent that emerge in response to difficult realities and adverse circumstances..