Roni Horn I Am Paralyzed With Hope
1 April—10 September 2023
Botín Centre, Santander, Spain
I am paralyzed with hope is a comprehensive and site-specific presentation by American artist Roni Horn (born New York, 1955). The exhibition was designed by the artist in response to Centro Botín’s architecture and location on the open bay of Santander.
The artworks on display and their distinct layout reinforce Horn's practice of being present in the moment, awake to her surroundings and atmospheric variations. In this spirit, the exhibition invites us to slow down, to be attentive to the pairings and oppositions revealed in each room, to invest time in the profound dialogue created between space, light, water, and Horn's quietly radical oeuvre.
The exhibition spans three decades of Roni Horn's career through conceptually oriented photographs, drawings, sculptures, and performance. It highlights Horn's ongoing exploration on the process of becoming in relation to identity and place.
It also includes the first institutional presentation of LOG (March 22, 2019 - May 17, 2020). The series features 406 sheets of drawn paper that function as a record of daily observations and events that have informed the artist's sensibility and voice.
The artist has travelled extensively across Iceland’s remote, vast landscapes since 1975. These solitary experiences in a geologically young—and therefore changeable— landscape have long been important influences in her life and work. Water and weather are also central to her practice, as their mutability and ambiguous nature mirror our identity, understood as something that is not fixed or stable.
