Margins, Boundaries, and Peripheries as Sites of Resistance in Contemporary Artistic Practices: A Critical Analysis of Documenta Fifteen, BIAU XII, and Manifesta 15

Abstract

This article examines the concepts of margins, boundaries, and peripheries within the context of contemporary artistic practices, highlighting their recurrent presence in transdisciplinary projects and cultural events. It explores how the transgression of boundaries often serves as a central aim in artistic creation, while also recognizing the importance of defining limits to frame spaces of critical intervention. Margins—conceived both as symbolic frontiers and peripheral zones—have historically been regarded as fertile grounds for creative exploration. Based on this premise, the text questions whether the continuous expansion of margins in contemporary art reproduces colonial logics and symbolic extractivism aligned with capitalist growth paradigms, or, conversely, reflects a need to reconfigure socially engaged critical narratives capable of functioning as spaces of resistance and transformation in local contexts. This inquiry is situated within the framework of global cultural events that, through diverse curatorial approaches, seek to amplify dissident discourses and establish new centralities from the margins. The article is structured in two main sections: the first explores the interplay between margins, boundaries, and peripheries in artistic practices; the second analyzes the curatorial frameworks of three international events—Documenta Fifteen, BIAU XII, and Manifesta 15—that integrate these concepts as central axes of their programming.