magalí arriola speaking in tongues,

Nara Roesler São Paulo is pleased to present Speaking in tongues, curated by writer and curator Magalí Arriola (Paris, France, 1970; lives and works in Mexico City). The exhibition is part of the commemorative cycle marking 50 years of Nara Roesler’s career as a gallerist and celebrates the Roesler Hotel, a project launched in 2004 that, over the course of 29 editions, brought together artists, curators, and ideas from different parts of the world, establishing itself as a space for experimentation within the gallery.

Bringing together works by Adriano Amaral, Ann Lislegaard, Antonio Dias, Carlos Bunga, Dan Graham, Gino De Dominicis, the duo Guadalupe Rosales and Rafa Esparza, Julia Gallo, Jonathan Torres, Petrit Halilaj, and Tania Pérez Córdova, the exhibition takes the figure of the oracle and the impossibility of accurately reading the future as its starting point. “What happens when, faced with the acceleration of events and the excess of information, the oracle speaks in tongues, and what once offered guidance — our social and political coordinates — becomes unstable and diffuse?” Arriola asks in her curatorial text.

In this context, the future ceases to be the territory of grand narratives, predictions, and promises and instead becomes a field of possibilities, where technology and messianism, fear and nostalgia, waiting and utopia intertwine. “To consult an oracle is to formulate questions as if destiny were singular and entirely legible, when, in fact, we know that there is always room for interpretation,” observes the curator.

The very notion of “speaking in tongues” suggests a form of communication that cannot be fully translated. Among undecipherable messages, mythological references, images of the past, and possibilities for the future, the works relate to one another as echoes, signs, or omens. Meaning does not emerge in a single or definitive form, but is constructed through the relationships between the works.

It is within this space between what can be understood and what remains opaque that Speaking in tongues constructs its narrative. In the text accompanying the exhibition, Arriola states that the show opposes the “contemporary logic that seeks to categorize us as individuals, erasing all forms of opacity.” Against this tendency, the exhibition “reactivates speculation, dreaming, and other forms of subjectivity as strategies for resisting the urgency to crystallize the future,” bringing together different voices and perspectives without seeking a single interpretation.

In conversations with Daniel Roesler and Luis Pérez-Oramas about an exhibition celebrating Nara Roesler’s 50 years as a gallerist, Arriola says she thought “a little about what came before, but also about the future.” One of the works that guided this reflection was Oracles, Owls… Some Animals Never Sleep (2011–2021), an animation by Ann Lislegaard. In the work, the figure of the oracle is represented by the owl, revered as a symbol of wisdom in ancient Greece and regarded as an omen of misfortune in different Mesoamerican cosmologies.

Another fundamental work in the conception of the exhibition was Oráculos (2025), by Tania Pérez Córdova, which led Arriola to explore mythological figures and the different ways in which they are embodied. From there, the curator created echoes between gallery artists and invited artists. One example is Cocoon skin 1 (2025), by Carlos Bunga, a work that evokes what remains of the past while also suggesting something that may yet happen or be reincarnated in another form.

about roesler hotel 

“The idea for Roesler Hotel emerged during the gallery’s internationalization process, through our travels and participation in fairs across Europe and the Americas, the increasing dynamism of the art world, the presence of an enthusiastic public eager for new discoveries, renewed encounters with new works by familiar artists and, especially, contact with art spaces in different countries—with their bold approaches, generosity, and fascinating rosters of represented artists,” says Daniel Roesler, partner and director at Nara Roesler.

Created in 2004, Roesler Hotel began as a program dedicated to welcoming artists, curators, and ideas from different languages, perspectives, and contexts, bringing distinct contemporary art scenes into closer dialogue. Conceived as a space for curatorial experimentation within the gallery, the program took on different formats over time, ranging from solo exhibitions to group shows conceived by guest curators and establishing dialogues between Brazilian artistic production and other contemporary art scenes.

Across 29 editions held between 2004 and 2019, the program brought together Brazilian and international artists and gave guest curators the freedom to develop their projects. Its early editions presented artists from abroad in Brazil, including Martin Sastre (Uruguay), Miguel Angel Tornero (Spain), Susan Turcot (Canada), Xawery Wolski (Poland), Dino Bruzzone (Argentina), Martín y Sicilia (artist duo, Canary Islands), Máximo González (Argentina/Mexico), Daniel Malhão (Portugal), José León Cerrillo (Mexico), Jasper Krabbé (the Netherlands), Rosario López Parra (Colombia), Sutapa Biswas (India/London), Ernesto Ballesteros (Argentina), Paul Ramírez Jonas (USA), Jonathan Hernández (Mexico), and Melanie Smith (United Kingdom). The program also presented the group exhibitions Otras Floras, conceived by Colombian curator José Roca and bringing together fourteen Latin American artists; Cromofagia, by Victoria Noorthoorn (Argentina); and Leveza e Aspereza da Linha, by Agnaldo Farias (Brazil).

From 2012 onward, in particular, the program hosted group exhibitions and curatorial projects with the following curators and exhibitions: Patrick Charpenel (Mexico), Lo Bueno y Lo Malo; Vik Muniz (Brazil), Buzz; Alexia Tala (Chile), Hamish Fulton – Atacama 1234567, a solo exhibition by Hamish Fulton (United Kingdom); Tim Goossens (Belgium/New York), Dark Paradise; Moacir dos Anjos (Brazil), Cães sem plumas [prólogo]; Luisa Duarte (Brazil), Dispositivos para um mundo (im)possível; Matthieu Poirier (France), Spectres; Michael Asbury (England), A Pureza é um mito; Vik Muniz, in collaboration with Lucas Blalock and Barney Kulok (USA), Screenspace; Agnaldo Farias, Reflexões sobre espaço e tempo; and now Magalí Arriola (France), Speaking in tongues.