Dora García
Amor Rojo

As part of our commitment to developing and accompanying projects over time and across chapters, we present Amor Rojo (Red Love). This installment marks the culmination of Dora García’s trilogy of films about the complicated yet ongoing legacy of Alexandra Kollontai, which we began last winter with the screening of the first two films as part of the exhibition Revolution, fulfill your promise!.

Screening Time:
12pm, 1:30pm, 3pm, 4:30pm

Can love also become a weapon? In Amor Rojo, Dora García uses the historical figure of Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), a Marxist theorist and Soviet revolutionary, radical feminist, and sex activist, as a guide to walk the labyrinth of female freedom and sexual emancipation.

In the first film, Love with Obstacles (2020), Kollontai’s personal archive became the starting point for filmic reflections that continued in If I Could Wish for Something (2021), which documented the recent surge in feminist demonstrations across Mexico. For this third film, Dora García collaborated with three young Mexican researchers (Olga Rodríguez, Carla Lamoyi, Paloma Contreras Lomas) and Mexican historian and author Rina Ortiz.

Amor Rojo borrows its title from Kollontai’s best-known work of fiction and presents a complex narrative crossing continents and an entire century. Geographically, the project moves between Moscow, Kollontai’s revolutionary birthplace and site of her official archives, and Mexico City, where she was Soviet ambassador from 1926-27 (this coincided with the aftermath of the Mexican revolution in which the women’s movement played a pivotal role). Juxtaposing the 1920s with today, Amor Rojo probes a historical throughline between the revolutionary demands of early 20th century Marxist feminism and today’s trans-led feminist struggle that intersects with the call to dismantle colonial power structures.

Amor Rojo is part of Rituals of Speaking, a film-led series that explores how artists represent the voices of others through collective storytelling. Revolution, fulfill your promise!, the first chapter of Dora García’s project on the legacy of Kollontai, is part of First Person, Third Person, Same Person, Amant’s inaugural film-based series, charting artistic methods of giving historical figures a voice in the present.

About the artist

Dora García lives and works in Oslo. She often works with film, performance, and theater. Her research focuses on contemporary history, ethics, and politics.

Dora García represented Spain at the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011. Her works have been exhibited internationally in museums and biennials, such as MuHKA, Antwerp; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès, Brussels; Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto; Fonderie Darling - Centre d’Arts Visuels, Montreal; FRAC Île-de-France, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris; as well as (d)OCUMENTA 13 in Kassel, 2nd Athens Biennial, Lyon Biennial, 29th São Paulo Biennial, and the Gwangju Biennial. This is her first solo show in New York.
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Installation view, Dora García, Amor Rojo. 2023. Photo by New Document.
Series
Rituals of Speaking
Rituals of Speaking is a film-led series that explores how artists represent the voices of others through collective storytelling.
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Study Line
Love Expanded Love Extended
Our Study Lines are the connective tissue between our events, collaborations with artists, publications, and our conversations with our community. We pursue open-ended insights that challenge understandings of art, art-making, and art’s impact in the world at large. We currently focus on Hearing Voices and Love Expanded Love Extended.
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