Mandy El-Sayegh New Museum Triennial: The Outside Expands

The New Museum will present the sixth edition of its signature Triennial, the only recurring international exhibition in New York City devoted to early-career artists from around the world, co-curated by Vivian Crockett, Allen and Lola Goldring Curator at the New Museum, and Isabella Rjeille, Curator at MASP–Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand.

The Triennial’s title, The Outside Expands, takes partial inspiration from a July 1979 urban intervention by the Brazilian collective 3NÓS3 (3Us3), X Galeria (X Gallery), in which they branded the entrances of several São Paulo galleries with duct-taped “X”s accompanied by a message: “O que está dentro fica, o que está fora se expande” (What is inside remains, what is outside expands). Taking place amidst the civil-military dictatorship in Brazil, the action invited artists and cultural workers to think beyond institutions during a period of extreme repression. The exhibition considers the present moment as an inflection point—in which the ‘x’ symbolizes a crossroad—allowing for critical reflection on the past and carving out space for envisioning other futures. Forty-seven years later, the ‘x’ continues to resonate as both a symbol of refusal and generative potential: what can grow when one moves away from preexisting structures—institutional, systemic, and conceptual. The Outside Expands turns towards artists that destabilize fixed notions of territory, identity, gender, and sexuality and who foster alternate ways of forging relationships, kinships, and collaborations.