“Walter Benjamin Is Dead”: Dora García’s First Solo Exhibition at Elba Benítez

Elba Benítez Gallery presents Walter Benjamin is Dead, an exhibition by artist Dora García, on view from November 22, 2025 through January 31, 2026. The project takes as its starting point García’s reading of several key intellectual and cultural figures of the twentieth century: Asja Lācis, Latvian theatre director and pedagogue; Carla Lonzi, Italian art critic and feminist; Alejandra Pizarnik, Argentine poet; and, more indirectly yet centrally, German theorist and critic Walter Benjamin.

The exhibition is composed of a group of interrelated works across various text- and drawing-based formats, including wall and floor pieces, works on paper, and mixed-media objects. While rooted in intellectual history, García’s practice does not seek to construct a biography. Instead, her own reading —and writing— becomes part of the narrative, extending the historical material into the present.

A key thematic thread is the coexistence of past and present, linked to the temporal structure of the “present perfect.” This temporal liberty emerges notably in the series Hopscotchs, which presents biographical data of Lācis, Lonzi, and Pizarnik as hopscotch-like floor diagrams. The sequence is determined not by chronology but by chance and choice, explicitly referencing Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch and implicitly questioning linear, progress-driven conceptions of history associated with twentieth-century political thought.

Another central group of works is Letters of Disenchantment, inspired by private expressions of disappointment found in diaries and correspondence of the three women. These pieces evoke the collapse of political hopes and ideals that shaped their trajectories. The exhibition title notes that Walter Benjamin “has died” (past perfect), “is dead” (present), and “will remain dead” (future), extending this reflection to the dreams and expectations of that historical moment.

Dora García (Valladolid, 1965) lives and works in Oslo. Her diverse practice spans performance, installation, drawing, video, theatre, film, text, and relational projects. She examines the negotiated nature of cultural artefacts and the social, cultural, temporal, and political frameworks that shape their creation and reception.

She has held solo exhibitions at Fondazione Baruchello (Rome, 2024); M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (2023); Amant Foundation (New York, 2023); Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani (Palma de Mallorca, 2023); Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid, 2022, 2004); Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2018, 2008, 2005); MUAC (Mexico City, 2017); Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona, 2017); CA2M (Móstoles, 2017); IVAM (Valencia, 2016); The Power Plant (Toronto, 2015); CGAC (Santiago de Compostela, 2009); MACBA (Barcelona, 2009, 2003), among many others.

García represented Spain at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2011) and was again selected in 2015. She also participated in dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (2012), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007), and the 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003). Walter Benjamin is Dead is her first solo exhibition at Elba Benítez Gallery, which now represents the artist.

DORA GARCÍA
Walter Benjamin is Dead
Elba Benítez Gallery, Madrid
November 22, 2025 – January 31, 2026

On the cover: Drawing and photograph by Dora García. Courtesy of the artist and Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid