The Museo Nacional de Antropología presents “La Quema. A Retrospective” by Elena del Rivero

The Museo Nacional de Antropología presents “La Quema. A Retrospective”, a major exhibition dedicated to the artist Elena del Rivero, as part of the museum’s Visiones críticas programme and its 150th anniversary celebrations. The exhibition is on view until 24 May 2026.

Curated by Mateo Feijoo, the exhibition takes as its starting point an action developed by the artist in 2024 in San Pedro Fiz de Vilar (Ourense), where she presented a series of works in domestic and rural spaces before subjecting them to a collective burning ceremony with the participation of the local community. This gesture articulates a reflection on memory, transformation, and the connections between art and shared life.

The exhibition brings together collages, assemblages, and works from the Diarios series, incorporating reclaimed materials and everyday objects transformed into affective archives. The retrospective is complemented by the presentation of Canto para un monumento funerario, produced in collaboration with students from EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona and presented at the Panteón de España, expanding the collective and pedagogical dimension of the project.

“La Quema” offers a transversal view of Del Rivero’s practice, where the act of burning is understood not as destruction, but as transformation and passage, in an ongoing dialogue between territory, memory, and community.