Special project: Cecilia Lenardón

Curated by Irene Gelfman

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Pinta BAphoto, Cecilia Lenardón was invited to create Four Key Pieces, a site-specific installation that focuses on the boundaries of photography.
The artist places four images of her two arms and two legs, each nearly ten meters long, on the floor of the room. The pieces do not correspond to real scale; instead, they are hyper-extended, as if some external force had grabbed and stretched them beyond normal limits but still within the bounds of possibility. Simultaneously, they are dented, constantly contracting and expanding in a performative action carried out by the artist, inviting the viewer to rethink the division of tasks within a system: What role does each part of a chain play? What recognition does motor labor receive? How much can a body endure?
To explore these questions, Lenardón takes the still, fixed photographic image and transforms it into something alive. As a result, wear and fatigue appear in every fold of the work, as well as in the image itself, portraying worn and torn clothing. The whole speaks of survival, of the elemental actions that these four limbs enable; of the primary and basic, but also of their countless possibilities.

Cecilia Lenardón is represented by the Subsuelo gallery, in the section NEXT | Out of focus.

   

Cecilia Lenardón (Rosario, 1979)

Artist, teacher, psychoanalyst. Her work is primarily linked to photography, but she also ventures into writing, performance, and experimental music. She studied Psychology, Art Psychology, and a Master's in Psychoanalysis at UNR. Since 2012, she has taught at the Musto School, where she develops and coordinates contemporary art programs and photography workshops. From 2009 to 2017, she was part of the working team at the Castagnino+macro Museum.
She has received creative grants from FNA and BPSF.
In 2014, she published her first book, thanks to the EMR award. She participated twice in the Petrobrás Prize (arteBA 2010/2012), both times with group and experimental projects.
In 2019, she received the First Prize at the National Salon of the Rosa Galisteo de Rodríguez Museum.
She exhibits individually and collectively, participating in various fairs and salons. Her work is part of private and public collections.
She lives and works in Rosario, Argentina.

Artist's Statement

I almost always work with images or start from them. These images acquire a different meaning depending on their destination: installation, publication, space, movement.
Lately, I’ve started to incorporate ideas related to the fluctuation of mood, to the unstable as a way in which things are sustained.

When I think about a work, its meaning is defined by the way someone approaches it. Scale is a variable I am particularly interested in. I sometimes think of works as being the same size as the viewer, so the viewer and the object are on equal footing, like a mirror. But sometimes, I present miniatures so the viewer has to make an effort to get closer, and the works speak to them in secret. Other times, the scale enlarges so the viewer feels smaller. The work changes size so the viewer changes with it.