Luz María Sánchez holds a major solo retrospective exhibition named In the Absence of the State (works from 2006-2024), showcasing how individuals deal with life in a failed State. The exhibition features various works that address social issues related to Mexico’s struggle to survive, such as migration to the North, crimes against humanity and among them enforced disappearances, power, and the destruction of democracy. The latest work by the artist – a complex installation power · room that will premiere at Arsenal – sheds light on the latter issues. At the same time, Sánchez develops her private, individual discourse, discreetly telling her own story, which is intertwined with the history of contemporary Mexico. All this makes her discourse not just local but universal. Sánchez develops the concept of the artwork as an archive/memory. With engagement strategies, she focuses on violence and the forms by which it is naturalized and institutionalized. Her multiform, transdisciplinary artworks depict a post-disaster landscape, expressing a sense of hopelessness and loss. At the same time, however, her art parallelly initiates opposition actions and proposes resistance tactics.

Sánchez’s artwork concept revolves around an archive/memory and focuses on violence and its institutionalization. Her multifaceted, transdisciplinary works depict the post-disaster landscape, expressing a sense of hopelessness and loss. However, her art simultaneously initiates oppositional actions and proposes tactics of resistance. Her artworks emerge from analytical studies that result in archives collected by the artist, which serve as the basis for artworks.

Sánchez’s political interest is expressed through outrage and concern, representing an activist stance and ethical commitment. It is both a research activity and a protest demanding social change. It is a grassroots politics built outside of institutional structures. Her artistic and research projects are centred on testimony and dialogue.

Luz María Sánchez’s multimedia, transdisciplinary, hybrid art represents the most critical trends in contemporary art. The exhibition displays a range of Sánchez’s works, including multimedia sound installations, interactive installations, single and multi-channel video works, complex installation using VR technology, photographic works, sculptures, drawings, and screen prints. The exhibition highlights the use of found sound in visual arts, which characterises the artist’s approach.

Through her transdisciplinary approach to practice and research, Sánchez continually questions the limits of the disciplines. Her art practice also addresses climate change, the environment, and the breakdown and corruption of political structures.

Luz María Sánchez is a transdisciplinary artist, writer, and researcher with a professional career spanning over 27 years. She holds a Doctorate in Art from the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Her extensive body of work has been exhibited in Europe and the Americas, with recent showcases at such institutions as Trondheim Elektroniske Kunstsenter, Trondheim (2024); Ruby City Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio (2023-2024); Haus Kunst Mitte, Berlin (2023); Scuola Grande di Carmini, Venice (2023); Elektroakustisk Trondheim at the Planetarium/Trondheim Science Center (2023); Opalka Gallery, Albany, New York (2023); Circuits and Currents, Athens (2023); GAM, Mexico City (2022-2023); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2022); Piksel Festival, Kunstskolen I Bergen, Bergen (2022); Ars Electronica, Linz (2021, 2020); Contemporary Art University Museum MUAC, Mexico City (2019); Musikkens Hus, Aalborg (2019); WRO Art Center, Wroclaw (2019); Sala Ricson/Hangar, Barcelona (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City (2018); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2017); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá (2016). Sánchez has received several awards and recognitions, including two consecutive Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mentions in 2020 and 2021 for her projects Vis.[un]necessary force_3 and Vis.[un]necessary force_4, and the 2015 Climate Change Artist Commission by the Land Heritage Institute (Texas). In 2014, she received the First Prize Award of the Biennial de las Fronteras (Mexico).

By invitation, Sánchez has presented her art-research projects at leading institutions such as the University of the Arts London (2024, 2020), Universitat de Barcelona (2024, 2020), Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 (2023), Freie Universität Berlin (2022), the Department of Sound School of the Art Institute Chicago (2021), Concordia University (2017) and ZKM | Center for Art and Media (2017) among others.

As a Samuel Beckett scholar, Sánchez has extensively studied Beckett’s electronic work and served on the Samuel Beckett Society’s Executive Committee from 2019 to 2023. She is also a member of the Norwegian Norske Billedkunstnere NBK, the National System of Art Creators, and the National System of Researchers from the National Council for the Humanities, Sciences, and Technology in Mexico.

Sánchez is a professor at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana an associate professor at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and førsteamanuensis at Universitetet i Bergen. She has authored five books and curated exhibitions and transdisciplinary conferences. Her monographs comprise Sound · Beckett · Object (2023), Sonar. Navigation // Location of Sound in the Artistic Practices in the 20th Century (2018), Electronic Samuel Beckett / Cochlear Samuel Beckett (2016) and The Technological Epiphanies of Samuel Beckett: Machines of Inscription and Audiovisual Manipulation (2016). She is also a guest writer for the forthcoming The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Sound Studies (2027).

Sánchez’s solo exhibition is a testament to her exemplary contributions to the art world and marks her first major retrospective.

Ryszard Kluszczyński, curator