This article was made by our partner MUPAPY: Voices of Museums and Cultural Heritage. This week, the article is about the Reactivo 2025. Click here for the previous article about the Central Railway Station in Asunción.
Reactivo is a collective exhibition, now open for selection of 18 national and 2 international artists to present interactive works. It is an independent project that brings together artists in Paraguay who want to approach art through interactivity. Reactivo 2025, to be held in Asunción in August, transforms the traditional nature of exhibitions from passive displays to experiences that actively involve the audience, making the public an essential agent in each artwork. Artis applications are open until June 30.
Interactive art is not defined by the medium it uses or the message it conveys, but by its intention: to create an essential dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. When an artist creates a painting, performance, or sculpture, it exists in its own universe. It is complete in itself and only requires the viewer’s attention, perception, and abstract engagement.
But an interactive artwork is never complete without the audience. Its very existence demands participation – an unpredictable variable that only an external agent can provide, allowing the piece to reach its full potential.
Previous editions of the collective exhibition
In previous editions of Reactivo, artists from both Paraguay and abroad explored interactivity in a wide variety of ways. In 2022, participating artists included Dulce, Aharon Emery, Esedele, Jonatan Fernández, Natasha Gougeon, Paule, Hazel Rbbts, Nico Mierda (then working under the name Lampirida Vision), and, remotely from England, Olivia Bryant.
The works ranged widely – like Dulce’s intimate, digital universe featuring a computer surrounded by pink fabrics that allowed visitors to explore her inner world like a captured memory. And Emery’s musical performance where the making of hummus and the crunch of the spectators’ bites formed a symphony. And PAUL3’s interconnected triptychs offering a playful yet precise exploration of gender expectations and societal categorisation.
By 2023, participation had doubled. Local artists included Alienated Entity, Manu Alviso, Aharon Emery, Natasha Gougeon, Menta Peperina, Nico Mierda, SòL, Aimar Almirón, Cecilia Avatí, Maximiliano Cueto, Esedele, Hazel Rbbts, Mauge Molina, and PAUL3. International participants ZEEL and Sonia Cabrera joined remotely from England.
The works featured virtual reality, wearable art, readymades, karaoke, grass growing inside the exhibition space, a cardboard tree inviting visitors to design fantastical birds, breakable ceramics, a symbolic gallows in national colors, and a moral compass in which the objects to distribute had nothing to do with morality itself.
Reactivo’s expansion
Now, in 2025, Reactivo aims to expand its reach even further. With support from the Cultural Funds of the National Secretariat of Culture (SNC) and MUPA: Voices of Museums and Heritage, Reactivo 2025 is launching an open call to select 18 national and 2 international artists to present interactive works.
The exhibition will take place in Asunción on August 29, 30, and 31. Applications are open until June 30 and can be submitted through MUPA’s website. Five spots are reserved for artists from outside the capital, and another five for artists from the LGBTQI+ community.
For updates, follow Recreativo 2025 on Instagram. To apply for the open call, visit the Recreativo 2025 website.
