RADICAL TENDERNESS

Radical Tenderness is an open invitation to unlearn inherited systems of power and representation, creating space for alternative narratives and more inclusive perspectives. Through provocative interventions, playful gestures, and critical reflections, Colombian artist Iván Argote challenges us to rethink our relationship with public space and the often-troubling histories inscribed in its monuments and architectures.

Based in Paris, where he moved to study in 2006, Argote destabilizes the authority and perceived permanence of memorial structures and reimagines art institutions as sites for political activism, redefining both the norms and the notion of spectatorship. Who decides which individuals and histories are commemorated and which are marginalized or erased? What role do public statues play in shaping our collective memory and national identity? How can the transformative power of art activate new forms of solidarity and collective healing?

Radical Tenderness traces over fifteen years of Argote’s diverse practice, which encompasses painting, photography, sculpture, installation, performance, and film. This comprehensive institutional presentation, the largest of his work to date, includes new commissions alongside key pieces from his most acclaimed series. Across eight rooms of Galerie Rudolfinum, the exhibition also provokes contemplation of how experiences of occupation and national revival have shaped the building and the city of Prague. 

By deconstructing the symbols of past ideologies and colonial power, Argote’s works offer a new possible vision, one that responds to urgent calls for social justice and environmental concern. And by reconceiving the public space and art institutions not as places of hierarchy, but as sites of openness, resistance, and connection, Argote

offers us more diverse ways to memorialize our shared past and build a more caring, compassionate future.

Leonardo Bigazzi

Curator of the exhibition