Miami Biennale
Miami Biennale Events
Miami Biennale Inaugural Exhibition:
Beyond the Erotic. From the Collection of Milagros Maldonado
December 1st, 2010 to June 30th, 2011


Essay on Permanence


Flows


Invention of Place


Erotic Instinct

Beyond the Erotic: Erotic Instinct

Eroticism in a strict sense, focused on corporal sensuality and sexual desire, constitutes an important part of modern and contemporary art which has been of special interest for this collection. Whether it involves nudes or scenes which allude to sexual relations, the collection has given priority to eroticism as a representational problem doubly and complexly linked to the notions of life instinct vs. death instinct, later metaphorically rendered as the opposite Greek gods Eros and Thanatos, respectively, in post-Freudian psychoanalytic literature.

Some of these works appear to have a close affiliation to a conception of eroticism as a movement toward the limits of our subjectivity and humanity, that is, as a form of communication and excitation which perturbs in the extreme all constituted forms of social life. The death instinct coupled with the erotic instinct would then press the furthest limits in the search for sexual satisfaction.

Wifredo Lam Manuel Álvarez Bravo Leonora Carrington André Masson Fernando Botero Roberto Matta
Roberto Matta Tilsa Tsuchiya Emiliano di Cavalcanti Francis Picabia Man Ray Luca Pignatelli
Luis Caballero Michele Oka Doner Michele Oka Doner Agustín Cárdenas