Anuar Maauad and Roger Muñoz have cocurated the exhibition "La Alegría de Vivir" at Estudio Anuar Maauad in Mexico City, featuring works by Jorge de León, Benjamin Orlow, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Berenice Olmedo, Miguel Ventura, Paul McCarthy, and Teresa Margolles. The show confronts themes of necropolitics and systemic violence through sculptures, photographs, and installations that depict war, state power, and human suffering as ongoing, normalized conditions.
The exhibition matters because it offers a rare, unflinching artistic examination of how violence has become a continuous, prosaic feature of modern life rather than an exceptional event. By juxtaposing works from different eras and regions—from Guatemala's political protests to Colombia's internal conflict and Mexico's morgues—the show challenges viewers to confront the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of representing brutality, while maintaining a tone of blunt honesty and even dark humor.