All around the world, we are living through times of extreme fragility, characterised by uncertainty and worry, with a rising number of challenges and complexities that mutually influence and interlink with one another, from political and economic issues to environmental and humanitarian crises. During this phase of tension and instability, we are also seeing the perpetuation of active conflicts, geopolitical disputes on global scale, and the rapid spread of media discourses and images that promote hatred and discord.

War: Reality, Myth and Fiction brings together a group of works from the MACAM collection by artists of different nationalities and generations, and offers a reflection on the concepts of truth and reality, mythology and fiction, promoting open dialogues that encompass and question both past and future. In an atmosphere marked by the warlike visuals of death and destruction, it makes explicit and simultaneously exalts the vulnerability and fragility of life. It also seeks to establish a relationship between visual language and written language, imagination based on mythological and fictional narratives that develop within the real, as well as the richness and limitation of myths and beliefs.

Through the interplay of appearances and temporal references that interweave memories, it highlights the crucial role of art in pondering, questioning and creating peace in the world. Hence the inexorability of creative potential, which using diverse media, supports and forms – painting, sculpture, video and installation – exhibits that which surrounds us, intensifying it with profound sensitivity. Art, synonymous with a fundamental commitment to freedom and the expression of authenticity, is a symbol of openness and fresh perspectives and a platform for the creation of empathy.

In a world of ongoing wars and conflicts, to which we cannot help but bear witness nowadays, the latent questions and contemplations in contemporary artworks reveal the complexity of the human experience, where reality and imagination merge to embody the reflections that define who we are, and how we see and shape the world around us.