Lo que no vemos, lo que el arte ve

Can art give to see what we do not see? This book relies on the inexhaustible power of art to make visible the resistant invisibility of two threats that hang over man and the planet in the 21st century: environmental disaster and the increasingly disturbing immersion in a digitally managed world. Graciela Speranza was looking for answers in contemporary literature and art when the covid-19 pandemic not only accelerated virtual communication, control and surveillance, but also confronted us in deserted cities with "a glimpse of a possible future, a world without us". But what can art say in the midst of catastrophe? From the mountain of fir trees that Agnes Denes planted in Finland and the arachnocosmic concerts of Tomás Saraceno to the fragmentary novels of Olga Tokarczuk and Jenny Offill and the short essays of Karl Ove Knåusgard, from the telephotography of Trevor Paglen and the videos of Hito Steyerl to the acute reconstructions of Forensic Architecture or Agustín Fernandez Mallo, art and literature reveal, recompose, rebuild and, in the attempt, renew their means. The result of the tour is an astute reflection on the contemporary world and the meaning of art today, "a privileged lens to change the scale and recalibrate our place on the planet", to "look at things again, lift the veil that opaque".