Rafael TRIANA

This piece articulates a profound critique of neoliberal systems through an act of symbolic violence: the crushing of banknotes and coins, emblems of the capitalist economy, using a wooden rolling pin. The everyday object, recontextualized, becomes a tool of subversion that transforms economic value into chromatic dissolution. The imprints of monetary inks fragment into a sculptural “splash,” challenging the stability of financial structures and their apparent solidity. The work unveils the intrinsic alienation of control systems within economics, visualizing the process of the dematerialization of value and the precarization of subjectivities under capitalism. Through the dissolution of the monetary, the piece fosters a reflection on the vulnerability and ephemerality of socio-economic systems, exposing their capacity to disintegrate in the face of global crises. This act of aesthetic decomposition functions as a metaphor for the obsolescence of the power mechanisms that govern human and environmental exploitation, while highlighting the inherent volatility of contemporary economic paradigms.

Rafael Triana is a Cuban artist based in Paris, whose practice explores themes of control, subversion, and the fragility of socio-economic structures. Using a variety of mediums including sculpture, installation, and video, he questions hegemonic systems of power, often drawing on the intersection of politics, identity, and the environment to create works that reflect contemporary societal tensions.