PRESENTATION
PROA21 | Nicolás Rodríguez: Symbiosis & Sabotage
September – December, 2026
Organized by: PROA21
Sponsored by: Tenaris – Ternium
As part of its annual creation program, PROA21 presents Symbiosis & Sabotage, a proposal by Nicolás Rodríguez for his residency at the space from September to December 2026. The project harnesses the tensions between botanical appropriation, community action, and the symbolic repair of urban territory. Conceiving the institution as a living organism with a dual entry point, the project spills over from the exhibition space into the public realm of the La Boca neighborhood through two complementary gestures: spontaneous exchange and direct action.
Symbiosis & Sabotage begins in the garden during September by activating a botany of appropriation rooted in the popular adage that "for plants to grow, they must be stolen." The public is invited to participate in informal exchanges by bringing a plant cutting acquired through domestic or street "theft" to plant on-site, while simultaneously being allowed to take a cutting from the institution's own garden. This continuous circuit of transplanting transforms the green space into a non-hierarchical site of collective care, where memories embedded in cuttings from diverse neighborhoods merge with institutional soil.
Starting in October, the ground-floor gallery functions as a manual production hub. A large shelving unit is gradually filled with "seed bombs": hand-molded spherical clay sculptures containing classified seeds of plants, shrubs, and trees. These pieces remain displayed as an inventory of biological potential in a dormant state until their final activation.
Concurrently, the project unfolds through a cycle of guerrilla gardening interventions: the collective shaping and throwing of seed bombs in peripheral corners of La Boca. The action subverts the aesthetics of vandalism to counter concrete and neglect through germination, turning military terminology into a catalyst for covert gatherings and environmental reconstruction.
Credits
Organized by
PROA21
Artistic direction
Lucie Haguenauer
General coordination
Renzo Longobucco
Pilar Victorio
Sponsored by
Tenaris – Ternium