The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and TBA21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art) have just opened the exhibition "More than humans" that will be open to the public until December 1st.

This exhibition brings together the work of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tomás Saraceno, under the curating of Stefanie Hessler, in the third project of collaboration between both institutions so far. With these cooperation proposals, the Thyssen Museum expands its connection with contemporary art and explores ways to generate a dialogue between both collections.

Tomás Saraceno, “How to catch the universe in a spider web?”, 2018

Hessler has always been interested in interdisciplinary creative processes and the desire to share the work of artists and researchers who feed on different sources. This has led her to manage projects where art coexists with other disciplines to enrich a shared message that allows addressing issues from different perspectives. In this exhibition, the viewer is invited to ask questions about topics related to technology, artificial intelligence or the power of the unknown. The coexistence of the work of these two artists, apparently so disparate, articulates through the idea of vibration: the one that causes the sound or movement of objects in space, and the one that perceives a receiver, as a passive listener or as a being connected to a sensor network.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, “Opera (QM.15)”, 2016. Video-intallation. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection. Photo: Andrea Rossetti

The strange link that originates between these works requires an interpretive effort to understand the subtlety of the approach, but everything makes sense in this space inhabited by works of art and waiting to receive visitors to unravel those mysteries.

The recent work of Tomás Saraceno has focused on investigating the development of spiders, which has led him to collaborate with geologists and entomologists to examine the behaviour of these arthropods and study their architectures. In the exhibition, one of his latest work "How to catch the universe in a spider web?", a large installation that mimics the networks that weave arachnids, will be present. With these delicate structures, we realise the subtlety of the movement of the air, of the soft tensions that occur with each vibration.

Tomás Saraceno, “Hybrid semi-social solitary Instrument HD 74874” built by: a triplet of Cyrtophora citricola - four weeks and a solo Agelena labyrinthica - one week, 2019

For his part, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster enters the scene with a piece from his latest project, in which he recovers famous characters thanks to the support of technology. In “Opera (QM.15)”, the artist himself plays the role of the soprano María Callas thanks to a holographic illusion. Synchronising his movements with the sound, when reproducing some of the most famous arias that the singer interpreted, he creates a spooky effect that makes its way between the rooms of the museum. Here, the vibrations of the voice will be those that move the threads of the cobwebs, revealing the relationship between these works.

The circle as critical device and the marker as contemporary catalyst

POSCA, the Japanese brand of water-based paint markers, has established itself since the 1980s as a central instrument within contemporary artistic practices associated with urban art, illustration, graphic design, and interdisciplinary experimentation. Its opaque, highly pigmented, fast-drying formula—compatible with surfaces as diverse as paper, wood, metal, glass, and textiles—has enabled a technical expansion that extends beyond the traditional studio, engaging public space, objects, and installation practices alike.

In this context, POSCA operates as more than a working tool; it functions as a material infrastructure for contemporary creation. It is a technical device that enables immediacy of gesture without sacrificing chromatic density or formal precision. Its versatility has contributed to the democratization of languages historically associated with painting, fostering a more horizontal circulation between professional and amateur practices.

This expanded dimension of the medium finds a particularly compelling conceptual framework in The Rolling Collection, a traveling exhibition curated by ADDA Gallery. The project proposes a collective investigation of the circular format, understood not merely as a formal container but as a symbolic structure and a field of spatial tension.

Historically, the circle has operated as a figure of totality, continuity, and return. Within the framework of The Rolling Collection, the circular format shifts away from its classical symbolic charge toward an experimental dimension, becoming a support that challenges the hegemonic rectangular frontality of the Western pictorial tradition. The absence of angles demands a reconsideration of composition, balance, and directional flow.

Rather than functioning as a simple formal constraint, this condition generates a specific economy of visual decisions. The curved edge intensifies the relationship between center and periphery, dissolves internal hierarchies, and activates both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics. The resulting body of work interrogates the very processes through which images are constructed.

Following its 2025 tour through Barcelona, Ibiza, Paris, London, and Tokyo, a selection of the exhibition is presented at Art Madrid, reinforcing its international scope and its adaptability to diverse cultural contexts. The proposal for Art Madrid’26 brings together artists whose practices unfold at the intersection of urban art, contemporary illustration, and hybrid methodologies: Honet, Yu Maeda, Nicolas Villamizar, Fafi, Yoshi, and Cachetejack.

While their visual languages vary—ranging from graphic and narrative approaches to chromatic explorations charged with gestural intensity—the curatorial framework establishes a shared axis: a free, experimental, and distinctly color-driven attitude. In this sense, color functions as a conceptual structure that articulates the works while simultaneously connecting them to the specific materiality of POSCA.

The marker’s inherent chromatic vibrancy engages in dialogue with the formal assertiveness of the circle, generating surfaces in which saturation and contrast take center stage. The tool thus becomes embedded within the exhibition discourse, operating as a coherent extension of the participating artists’ aesthetic vocabularies.

One of the project’s most significant dimensions is the active incorporation of the public. Within the exhibition space—activated by POSCA during Art Madrid’26—visitors will be invited to intervene on circular supports installed on the wall using POSCA markers, thereby symbolically integrating themselves into The Rolling Collection during its presentation in Madrid.

This strategy introduces a relational dimension that destabilizes the notion of the closed artwork. Authorship becomes decentralized, and the exhibition space transforms into a dynamic surface for the accumulation of gestures. From a theoretical standpoint, the project may be understood as aligning with participatory practices that, without compromising formal coherence, open the artistic dispositif to contingency and multiplicity.

The selection of POSCA as the instrument for this collective intervention is deliberate. Its ease of use, line control, and compatibility with multiple surfaces ensure an accessible experience without diminishing the visual potency of the outcome. In this way, the marker operates as a mediator between professional practice and spontaneous experimentation, dissolving technical hierarchies.

The title itself, The Rolling Collection, suggests a collection in motion—unfixed to a single space or definitive configuration. Its itinerant nature, combined with the incorporation of local interventions, transforms the project into an organism in continuous evolution. Within this framework, POSCA positions itself as a material catalyst for a transnational creative community. Long associated with urban scenes and emerging practices, the brand reinforces its identity as an ally of open, experimental, and collaborative processes.

POSCA x The Rolling Collection should not be understood merely as a collaboration between a company and a curatorial initiative; rather, it constitutes a strategic convergence of tool, discourse, and community. The project proposes a reflection on format, the global circulation of contemporary art, and the expansion of authorship, while POSCA provides the technical infrastructure that makes both individual works and collective experience possible.