In 1991, Elena del Rivero began the project MOTHER, inspired by Kafka’s Letter to His Father. The artist has developed this project throughout her career through letters, interventions, installations and other artistic forms, always focused on the concept of mother as a site of conflict and encounter. The intervention on the façade of the Museu Tàpies features a large neon sign with the words “Letter to the Mother”. As part of the project Extramural, it seeks to offer a message of hope for vulnerable groups in society—and particularly the trans community, given the circumstances it has been subject to by the government in the United States since 2021. Letter to the Mother does more than prolong a living project, interconnecting it with an ethics of responsibility that is both affective and emotional, the central notion of Transiting “La Quema” [“The Burning”].
The work is likewise aligned with a profound poetic dimension that is echoed in the poem by Emilio Arauxo dedicated to the artist, which culminates in the verse: “el círculo inmenso de la palabra mother” [the immense circle of the word mother]. From out of this immensity, Elena del Rivero turns artistic gesture into an act of affect, memory and resistance, where the personal and the political are fused in a visual and textual language of deep emotional resonance.
Extramural is a project led by the Museu Tàpies in coordination and exchange with various creators, structures, and institutions. It envisions the city of Barcelona as a space for reflection and dialogue, as well as for articulating and intervening in public space and the environment.
Artist Elena del Rivero and curator Mateo Feijóo are the guests of this edition of the Extramural project, promoted by the Museu Tàpies in collaboration with the Festival Grec Barcelona, Eina Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi, Centre d’Art La Capella, Galeria Senda, Loop Festival, Mescladís, and Tantàgora.
Museu Tàpies
Carrer Aragó, 255, Barcelona
08.07.2025 – 23.11.2025
Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm; Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm
