Arqueologías presentes: Group show

The exhibition “Arqueologías presentes” brings together at Galería ADN a selection of works from AT Colección as part of the program The Collector Is Present 2026, an initiative dedicated to fostering collecting.

In its beginnings, a collection is usually formed in an almost intuitive way: works are incorporated one by one, guided by taste, curiosity, or impulses of an emotional nature. Over time, these pieces begin to relate to one another and to weave invisible connections that give the collection an internal structure and a voice of its own. Thus, the collection is shaped layer by layer. There comes a moment when the selection, initially fortuitous, becomes progressively conscious. It no longer responds solely to personal pleasure, but rather articulates a network of meanings in which each work expands, nuances, or questions the narratives that the collection itself gradually reveals.

Rather than being inscribed within a logic of mere thematic affinity, the set of selected works is arranged as a montage: a field of tensions where the works act as strata that, when superimposed, configure a complex reading of the present, addressing issues such as the murder of women by their partners or former partners, the affective and material precarity faced by younger generations, wars and genocidal processes, as well as their consequences: destruction, madness, isolation, or hopelessness.

Instead of presenting these issues as something distant, the works bring them closer and make them visible, showing how they affect our lives and our way of understanding the world. Rather than offering closed answers, the exhibition proposes a space for critical confrontation and invites the viewer to assume an active position in front of the images, understanding the gaze as an act charged with political and ethical implications. In this sense, it does not merely present a part of the collection: it also makes visible collecting as a device for reading contemporaneity, capable of intervening in public debate and of reminding us that art is not a territory detached from the urgencies of the present, but a place from which —and through which— to act.

Antonio Toca is an industrial engineer and art historian. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Research in Art History at UNED. He is also a collector and leads AT Colección. AT Colección is made public with the aim of supporting and giving visibility to the artists who are part of it. This commitment materializes through the acquisition of works, participation in projects, presence on social media, and the loan of pieces for exhibition. With this vision, collecting is understood as a way of contributing to the cultural enrichment of society, through the transmission of the knowledge and experience that artists offer through their works.