When sport becomes art: the Santa Mònica Arts Center offers an exhibition on competitive sport.

BarcelonaEntering the Santa Mònica this summer is like stepping onto an unusual playground that unites art and sport. The arts center, located at the end of Barcelona's La Rambla, presents, until September 14th and free of charge, CITISSIMUM ALTISSIMUM FORTISSIMUM, a major exhibition that focuses on a current but underrepresented theme in the art world: competitive sport.

The exhibition, curated by Cabosanroque –who also participates as an artist– and by Enric Puig Punyet, presents more than a dozen works, created and produced specifically for the occasion, by Curro Claret, Ca l'Enredus-Actuavallès, Flexo Arquitectura, François Delaunay and Julià Carbon Masaló, Joachim Schmid, Joan Fontcuberta and Arnau Rovira, Juan Gallery, Mateo Maté, Miet Warlop, Pasión/Aquasión, Paula Artés and Verdadero Bravo.

Through humor, irony, and play, the works explore concepts such as competitiveness, performance, the body, spectacle, and media image, and push the limits of competitive and mass sport to make us reflect on how, in some way, we all live by the same logic: we all compete and are part of this great spectacle.

Faster, higher, stronger

The exhibition reinterprets the Olympic motto. haughty strong civics (what does it mean faster, higher and stronger) and shows how the need to compete has also reached companies, institutions and brands.

With this idea, Cabosanroque and Flexo Arquitectes transform the Santa Mónica into a participatory stadium that questions the rules and invites people to play; Mateo Maté reflects on the aesthetic canon of gymnastic bodies; Joan Fontcuberta and Arnau Rovira expose the monstrosity of pushing the body to the limit; Paula Artés investigates the power networks at work behind mass sport; and Curro Claret explores the meaning of the trophy and reveals the tricks some athletes use to obtain it.

Irena Visa and Pau Masaló address the repetition of the sporting gesture; François Delaunay and Julià Carboneras explore sports broadcasting as a spectacle; FRAUDE Búsquedas Visuales explores the construction of media reality; Ca l'Enredus-Actuavallès takes a critical look at the gender issue in sports; and Verdad Bravo focuses on flags, brands, and logos. The exhibition also includes existing works by artists such as Miet Warlop, Joachim Schmid, and Passión/Aquassión.

A space to experiment

In recent years, Santa Mònica has established itself as a space for new creation and experimentation, where art can be experienced in an active, participatory, critical, and intimate way. This new season aims to reinforce the commitment to a public, open, lively, and collective center, where art and contemporary creation belong to everyone.

After CITISSIMUM ALTISSIMUM FORTISSIMUM The next exhibition at the Santa Mónica will arrive in October, led by Tomàs Aragay, Sofía Asencio, Carolina Campos, and Sara Manubens, who will question what exactly a "cultural event" means. And then, in November, a new exhibition curated by Nancy Garín and Íngrid Blanco will explore how hegemonic narratives and Eurocentric institutions have constructed a universe of ghosts, specters, and inaccuracies surrounding those we consider "the others."