Sandra Vásquez de la Horra: Soy Energía

"That was the moment, I think, when I really started to understand myself. Armed with a tripod and this camera, I started recording short performances to express what was going through my mind—what it’s like to live in Germany as a woman, as a migrant, as a mother with a small child, confronted with so many prejudices. I immersed myself completely in the process. It was an inner journey in which I learned so much about my history, my expectations, my skin. I asked myself questions such as: Who am I here? How do I live here as a 'foreigner?'

I was ignored and belittled. That was very difficult. In Chile, I’m just an ordinary person. I’m visible. In Germany, however, I constantly felt vulnerable. With each passing day, I closed myself off more and more. That’s exactly why I had to do these performances. It was my way of healing myself. My way of expressing myself—of not remaining stuck in the trauma, of transforming it instead. These ritualized gestures came quite intuitively. I didn’t plan them. They just happened.

 There was a lot of censorship in Chile, particularly with regard to the body. I had to overcome this—to shed my shame, learn to work with the naked body and show it in public. Because at that time in Chile, being naked was unthinkable. The body was hidden and not talked about. Nudity was forbidden and punished. Working with the body liberated me. Because in the end, it was my own censorship, in my head. You judge yourself, categorize other people, restrict yourself—and I wanted to let go of all that. I wanted to break down those inner barriers and all the norms I had adopted from the Western world."

 —Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, 2025

Soy Energía is the first European survey of the Chilean artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (born 1967, Viña del Mar, Chile) and presents the transnational and Indigenous perspectives of her multidisciplinary artistic practice. Her oeuvre, which consists primarily of drawings and paintings as well as films and performances, encompasses complex events, stories, rituals and beliefs rooted in both her upbringing in Chile and her many years living in Europe, opening up new perspectives.

The multi-perspective nature of the work invites an encounter with the artist’s spiritual worlds, which reconcile humans and nature, and the exhibition honours her commitment to self-determination, women’s and human rights. It is dedicated to Vásquez de la Horra’s experimental practice, with a particular focus on her spatial and energetic thinking. Her experiences of persecution, oppression and migration play an essential role in this. The artist has developed her own exhibition practice, which is derived from working with organic materials and extends scenographic approaches into the space, conveying poignant existential experiences.

Vásquez de la Horra’s early works were created during the Pinochet regime in Chile in the 1980s and 1990s. Drawings of fabulous hybrid creatures combining human, animal and plant features allude to the incompatibility of history and morality. The artist presents these works, which are soaked in beeswax—a technique she has been using since 1997—in experimental hangings to create multilayered constellations. During her early years in Europe, Vásquez de la Horra created video performances and films that are being exhibited for the first time. In these works, she addresses significant themes and events such as loneliness, separation and racism. This retrospective exhibition brings together the historical dimension of her work and its contemporary development, honouring Sandra Vásquez de la Horra’s transdisciplinary oeuvre spanning four decades.

Curated by Jana Baumann with Marlene Mützel

We thank our shareholders, the Free State of Bavaria and the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Stiftung Haus der Kunst München e. V., for their annual support of our programme. We further thank our major supporter, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung for their generous commitment to our work, as well as the Ulli und Uwe Kai-Stiftung and the Beisheim Stiftung (for supporting the "Third Place").