TAKING ROOT

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In Enraizar (Taking Root), Vides reaffirms the act of putting down roots as a deep process of introspection—a return to one’s own humanity. It is a gesture of silence and slowness that reconnects us with our essence, allowing us to cultivate greater empathy with ourselves, with others, and with the natural world. This act of rooting is, at the same time, a form of re-sensitization and healing.

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The exhibition also marks two key moments in the artist’s trajectory during 2024. The first is her return to El Salvador in April, after thirteen years of voluntary exile in the Argentine Patagonia. In coming back, she resumes working with iron sculpture through her Milpa series, a multifold body of work that extends her long-standing exploration of environmental themes present since the beginning of her career. Inspired by mangrove roots and plants such as corn, the series delves into the idea of connection with nature and human consciousness.

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The second pivotal moment is the presentation of the performance Eran Bosques, developed within the Visión y Presencia program at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. For this piece, the artist traveled to Madrid and spent a month creating a cloak made of branches. In the performance, she embodied humanity in its coexistence with nature—and its exploitation of it. Wearing the branch cloak, she walked through the museum gallery in an act that was both homage and mourning for the ecosystem, placing flowers before paintings that depict landscapes now threatened by the environmental crisis.

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Through Enraizar, Vides reaffirms her essential message: “Nature and humanity are an indissoluble unity that must heal in order to survive.”