Among Ruins:
Contemporary Art
from Puerto Rico

Among Ruins: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico

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Among Ruins brings together the work of 27 artists who create with discarded materials,
place their bodies in decaying spaces, or depict abandoned landscapes that make
visible the consequences of unplanned development. The concept of ruin is
polysemic—especially in Puerto Rico, where physical ruin is accompanied by fiscal and
political decline. In these artworks, architecture, construction, and everyday objects play
leading roles.

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Construction and architecture have long been associated with progress, development,
and modernity on our island. The artists in this exhibition portray the diversity of ruins in
our environment, including domestic and public architecture alike, while compelling the
audience to ask difficult questions about the value of construction in relation to the
environment—or even about who progress is really for.

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The human body appears sporadically in performances and some photographs,
inhabiting the ruins. But most of the artworks exhibit extraordinary restraint, allowing just
the spaces to evoke our presence. Moreover, the materials used in some pieces remind
us that we live in this precariousness, transforming discarded objects into raw material.
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Ruins are dangerous. They can turn poverty into a spectacle—or worse, into a
consumable aesthetic: an image to be shared on social media. Ruined spaces also lend
themselves to nostalgic narratives of the “better past.” For some, however, they
represent sites of opportunity that enable radical change—sometimes for profit,
sometimes for transformation. Many of the artists in this exhibit are concerned with
fostering that sense of transformation not only in their art, which carries a political seed,
but also through the creation of nonprofit entities, public site interventions, and
community initiatives that include workshops and exhibition spaces – efforts that
collectively reclaim and recontextualize neglected or abandonded spaces.

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