2025: A SPACE ALGODICY – ROMEO GÓMEZ LÓPEZ

Suffering is a double-edged sword
 
Which meaning can suffering have in 2025? It is one of the underlying questions in Romeo Gómez López’ new exhibition 2025: A Space Algodicy at Galerie Eric Mouchet. 
 
It might be good to start off with a definition of this rather new term, ‘algodicy’, first coined by the Spanish philosopher Enrique Ocaña in 1993 and further explored by Paula Arizmendi Mar in her book Lógicas del dolor. Introducción a una algodicea contemporánea. Following Ocaña’s definition ‘The endowment of human pain and suffering with meaning…’, she adds: ‘…algodicy seeks to give meaning to suffering without invoking a divine or supernatural justification.’ 
 
This definition emphasizes the contrast with suffering in a Christian context, where God has punished humanity for its sins. Therefore, our suffering is justified and we should live a life of piety and compliance, so as to redeem ourselves. As Walter Benjamin pointed out in his essay Kapitalismus als Religion, modern western society might be more secular, but the system of capitalism builds on very similar mechanisms: physical pain and mental suffering, and especially the cures for them, have been capitalized. Feeling better costs money. In the more contemporary literary (and filmic) genre of science-fiction, imagining new and undiscovered worlds in outer space, can spark creative and critical thinking towards our own societies. One of the first authors to introduce philosophy and social commentary into science-fiction, was Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018). She was quite heavily influenced by anarchism, which she doesn’t present as a utopian model, but as a lens through which she emphasizes solidarity and mutuality
 
Absorbing influences ranging from philosophy and history to science fiction novels, Romeo Gómez López creates a fascinating and unique visual language exploring the relation between humans and machines, science, technology, and socio-political struggles. Throughout works in a range of media – from photography to sculpture, from found images to kinetic installations – the artistic method is often the same. Something that might seem disturbing, dark or threatening is assembled with something lighter, maybe even cute, adding to the mystery but also to the attraction.
 
Suffering can also be the source of compassion, empathy and resistance. We learn to empathize with even the most alien species, when through the pages of a novel, we get to know them and recognize certain behaviours and patterns, or, more importantly, emotions (this is also an underlying theme in the novel The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin). When we see ‘The Other’ is capable of love, pleasure, or commitment, we can also learn to respect and love ‘Them.’ The lightheartedness which is present in Romeo Gómez López’ works, opens a safe gateway to question the struggles that surround us, adopting a critical perspective, founded on concern, solidarity and equality. 
 
The cuteness of a kinetic flower sculpture (Do Androids Dream?, 2025), for example, attracts and endears us, but also begs the question: in a world where natural resources such as water are scarce, is caring for a live flower a morally dubious decadence? Or what about a small size mushroom cloud (The Event, 2025), in attractive bright red which, seen from far away, might look as delicate as a flower? Is the suspended character (Survival of the Richest, 2025) in a ‘cabinet of queeriosities’ on a space mission, or floating through an infinite dark void? Is the metaphorical ‘bird’ in the cuckoo’s clock (Cucu Bunker, 2025) living in a prison of its own making, or coming out to release evils upon the world, more like Pandora’s box? 
 
And so, what is there to say about 2025? Contrary to Kubrick’s film, which was released in 1968, the title of the exhibition does not refer to the future, but to our present. The world is plagued by many crises. Both planet Earth and humanity face many challenges. The question whether capitalism is really the system we want to continue living with, is louder than ever. The exhibition takes place in Brussels, an assembly point or transit city for countless international communities, and the backdrop for many protests and strikes; the heart of Belgium and of a Europe, struggling to unite while facing challenges from different sides; the city where voted representatives come together to take decisions that are not always in the best interest of every group or community. 
 
The idea that humans can travel to outer space, as in science fiction novels and films, is a root for dreams of progress, change and better worlds. It is also, however, a dream now colonized by billionaires, eager to ‘occupy Mars’ while ignoring all that needs fixing on our own planet. This escapist mentality is exactly what the theory of algodicy contradicts. By facing our suffering, we can grow for the better. 
 
Algodicy does not seek to justify but to empower suffering. The injustice of inequality, for example, can turn into anger, into dreams, into action, maybe even into change. “I have dream…” – the powerful statement of Martin Luther King still resonates today. The sword of inequality cuts both ways: there invariably come times when being a victim turns into a reason to rise and envision a different world. 
 
As a Mexican and queer artist, Romeo Gómez López has experienced and witnessed sufferings at geopolitical and communal levels. The context and community in which he was born inevitably came with certain conventions and norms. Exploring what is beyond the boundaries that are set by those who raise us, creates freedom to express and think for oneself. As we come of age, we unlearn or discard rules and regulations that turn out to be unnecessary. We replace them with new things to learn, ideas and insights that resonate with us. This might come with growing pains, but nonetheless the result is the development of a more authentic identity – shaping the individual self is a creative and continuous process. Romeo Gómez López succeeds in this on the level of his artistic language, carried by his chosen paths of influence. He thereby allows himself and the viewer to take a critical stance towards the world and its mechanisms, and to grow by dreaming of what might be better. When we feel powerless with the state of the world, art is where we might find space for a compassionate and hopeful resistance. 
 
Tamara Beheydt, March 2025
 
 
MORE INFORMATIONS:
 
// Romeo Gómez López
// Press kit
// 2025: A Space Algodicy (23/04-12/07/2025 | Brussels, BE)