“Occasionally, during moments of clarity, one takes a decision to make radical changes. One naturally begins to recognize, without pomposity or heroism, that the time has come to cease being an accomplice. When I made this animation I wanted to describe the time that passes until this moment arrives – if it does”. Gabriel Acevedo Velarde
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Born in 1976 in Lima (Peru), lives and works in Berlin (Germany). + information Born in 1976 in Lima (Peru), lives and works in Berlin (Germany).
Gabriel Acevedo Velarde received his BA in fine arts from Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, Mexico, and also studied at the photography department at the Instituto Gaudí in Lima.
His work is not easily summarized: originally know for his drawings and animations he is now focused on researching social fictions throughout video. The impact of Acevedos Velarde’s first animations was due to the sort of virtuosic social caricature that they conveyed, documenting with chilling humor scenes in the life of comic characters.
Recent exhibitions:
Colección contemporánea del Museu de Arte de Lima, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo, 2011;
Cone Flow, Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, 2010;
Runway Dance, Maribel López Gallery, Berlin, 2009;
Quorum Power, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, 2009.
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With just a sheet of paper, a pencil and a few diagrams, Zbynek Baladrán turns the exhibition into an experimental field and potential model for the creation of various hypotheses about what reality actually is. The work embodies the paradoxical impossibility of its goal: the artist offers models, ranging from the extremely simple to the highly complex, which might be used to come to some kind of understanding of reality (of the exhibition, of the world).
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Born in Prague (Czech Republic), 1973, where he works and lives. + information Born in Prague (Czech Republic), 1973, where he works and lives.
Zbynek Baladrán studied art history at the Charles University Philosophical Faculty in Prague from 1992-1996, and from 1997-2003 at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of visual communication. He is known for various solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe.
Artist, writer and curator Zbynek Baladrán is an archaeologist of knowledge. His videos make use of found images and footage, narrative fragments and animated material, interlinked by a system of maps or diagrams that allows him to repeat concepts, ideas and relationships in a more personal and structured way.
Recent exhibitions:
Sharjah Biennial, 2011;
Gallery by Night, Studio Gallery, Budapest, 2011;
Mutující medium, Rudolfinum, Prague, 2011;
No ifs, no buts, Depo, Istanbul, 2010;
Cognitive Maps, Hunt Kastner Artworks, Prague, 2009.
http://www.zbynekbaladran.com
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Ernesto Ballesteros’s practice moves beyond the realm of art to incorporate notions from astronomy, mathematics, engineering and other sciences. His quest is to render the invisible visible: movement, time, the fragility of the present moment. For the Biennale de Lyon, he has been invited to relocate one of his ongoing projects for the entire duration of the show: his indoor flights (which entail the building of ultra light airplanes, flying them, and the organization of competitions). Fundación Proa presents recordings of this experience, some airplanes and related documents. Referring to his work, he says: “The application of lines to create atmospheres, the projects with self-propelled cars and the indoor flights generate other invisible lines: the path of the plane flying in circles, the predetermined routes and the different intensities – revealing time as the principal object of study.”
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Born in 1963 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he lives and works. + information Born in 1963 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he lives and works.
He studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón and the Escuela Superior de Publicidad. He is known for exhibitions in Latin America and Europe.
Ernesto Ballesteros’s practice moves beyond the realm of art to incorporate notions from astronomy, mathematics, engineering and other sciences. But despite their often scientific approach his works develop an undeniable delicate beauty, which requires the patient contemplation by the spectator.
Recent exhibitions:
Instalación fotográfica, Mundo Dios, Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2010;
Extracto - contemporary drawings by South American artists, Galerie Catherine Putman, Paris, 2010; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009;
Interior Astronomy, Ghost, Universidad Di Tella, Buenos Aires, 2008.
http://www.ernestoballesteros.com/
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On his work, the artist says: “Salvation is hidden behind a name. The name is hidden in the alphabet. Guess is impossible. The only way is naming one by one, each and every word in universe. Alamo, slurp, flag, fixation…”
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Born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lives and works. + information Born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lives and works.
Eduardo Basualdo creates installations and sculptures that combine nature and technique. In almost all of his works he uses nature phenomena like water, wind, fire or light as basic material and topic at the same time. For him these forces of nature are representing the physical part of men while electricity is representing rationality.
Based on these elements Basualdo’s space filling installations and three-dimensional objects develop a unique poetic aesthetic. The use of materials makes associations to arte povera artists possible while the delicate use of technique resembles the playful machines of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely. Basualdo’s installations can be seen as narrative about nature and their connection to humankind.
Recent exhibitions:
Todo lo Contrario, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, 2009;
Southern Exposure, Dumbo Art Center, New-York, 2008;
Azotado por el viento, Galería Isidro Miranda, Buenos Aires, 2007.
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Erick Beltrán explores the concept of the encyclopedia: its structure and use and its factual and potential applications. For the Biennale de Lyon 2011 he has constructed a sphere reminiscent of the 17C apparatuses that enabled kings to conceive of the world as an object and geographers to create an iconic map of knowledge, in both their exterior and interior. In his Perikhórein Knot – Greek for the concept of dwelling within – Beltrán presents the viewer with a multilayered notion that involves “the circular rotatory movement which turned matter in the cosmos, the impossibility of a precise localization and the relationship between multiple elements inhabiting each other simultaneously.” While on the exterior we are presented with a map documenting (and critiquing) the political and social forces involved in the presentation of the world as a measurable historical image (the acquisition of “objective” knowledge), on the inside Beltrán offers an approximation to its opposite; a “subjective” struggle between forces striving to form an image of the world.
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Born in 1974 in Mexico City, Mexico, where he lives and works. + information Born in 1974 in Mexico City, Mexico, where he lives and works.
Erick Beltrán had solo exhibitions in important museums all over the world and was taking part in many art biennales.
Erick Beltrán analyzes and reflects about edition concepts and discourse constructions. He is fascinated by the idea of exploring how concepts like order and categories of importance are organizing modern societies. Therefore he defines his own position more as a researcher than a creator of art works. His investigations could result in drawings, sculptures, books or maps. One example is his research about the power that the different graphic means exert in their information distribution, as well as explicit treatment on different conducts and values.  The archive, the museum and the library are tools and subject of Beltrán’s investigations process. A process in which the edition concept focuses all the work, understanding it as the mechanism with which communication through images creates political, economic and cultural discourses in contemporary societies that are defined, evaluated and classified. For Beltrán it is important that this communication process depicted and generated by his art works is open and demanding – he wants to challenge and invite the visitor to reflections about power mechanisms of society.
Recent exhibitions:
São Paulo Biennial, 2010;
Malmö Konsthall, Sweden, 2008;
Biennale de Lyon, 2007;
Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, 2005.
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Born in Frankfurt (Germany) 1976, lives and works in Paris and Berlin. . + information Born in Frankfurt (Germany) 1976, lives and works in Paris and Berlin.
Bock graduated at the art college of Berlin-Weissensee and at the Ecole nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon. She already had several solo exhibitions in museums and galleries for example at the Museum of Contemporary art Detroit (MOCAD), and the Art Museum Stuttgart.
Katinka Bock’s sculptures and installations describe space by defining it as part of their materiality: her works formed out of stone, clay, sand, metal or fabrics allow for a narration that originates from the individual object as well as from the reference between the works and the so described structure of space. Bock’s work is more than a formalistic play when she explores the architecture of her exhibition spaces to develop site-specific references in her works. The artist’s aim is to open up the spectator’s eyes for his surrounding space. Another important subject for Bock is the description of time: In her delicate installations she combines pieces of different materials to a fragile equilibrium, which anticipates changes in state. Their delicacy can be seen as metaphor for the passing of time among other possible associations. Bock’s interest for different media is driven by the history and the sensory qualities of materials. In her latest works she often uses ceramics, fascinated by this material, which is so “neutral” at first as it has no shape when the working process begins. But, when it comes into contact with the present it has to be shaped and conditioned, showing that the neutral, as such, doesn’t exist.
Recent exhibitions:
Köln Skulptur 6, Skulpturenpark Köln, 2011 ; 
Neue Alchemie, Landesmuseum, Münster, 2010 ; 
Spatial City, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, 2010 ; 
Frischzelle_12, Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, 2010 ; 
A sculpture for two different ways of doing two different things, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, 2009 ;
The Sound of Distance, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, 2009
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Born in 1972 in Cali, Colombia, lives and works in Berlin. + information Born in 1972 in Cali, Colombia, lives and works in Berlin.
Bucher received a master in sculpture at the Universidad de Los  Andes, Bogotá and a master in film studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is known for exhibitions throughout Europe.
Francois Bucher’s oeuvre combines various film sources in a celebration of the political potential of the everyday. His films and videos are based on historical and political events that have taken place in his home country of Colombia and the rest of the world.
Recent exhibitions:
Stills – Scotland Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, 2011;
Rational/Irrational, House of World Cultures, Berlin, 2009;
Politics of Vision, Forde, Geneva, 2008;
Documentary Film Festival, Kassel, 2008;
Cinema Paradise Festival, Honolulu, 2008.
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For Virginia Chihota, the doll is the subject of a series of impossibilities: the impossibility of speaking, reacting, hitting and hitting back if necessary. Universally associated with women, the doll can be seen as a symbol of surrender, of submission, of a no-way-out situation. “You can do anything to a doll”, says Chihota, speaking quietly in her hometown of Harare. She further reveals that the dolls, depicted in a series of spontaneous drawings in her notebook, were used in fertility rituals.
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Born in 1983 in Chitungwiza (Zimbabwe). Lives and works in Libya. + information Born in 1983 in Chitungwiza (Zimbabwe). Lives and works in Libya.
Known for exhibitions in Africa and Europe. She studied at Harare and in Cape Town (South Africa).
African artist Chihota creates her paper works with a wide range of materials. She is painting and drawing, in other works she is using alien material creating collages and sometimes she is even painting bags. Chihota knows the traditional modern art movements but thanks to her creativity and sensibility as a drawer she develops unique art works.
Recent exhibitions:
Fruit of the dark womb, 2011
Facet, Zimbabwe Now, Gallery Delta, Harare, 2010;
Another Perspective, Gallery 23, Amsterdam, 2009;
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, 2008.
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In 1952, Augusto de Campos, his elder brother Haroldo de Campos, and Décio Pignatari, launched the literary magazine Noigandres and so introduced the international movement of Concrete Poetry to Brazil. These were years dedicated to the study of works that had been marginalized by the critics of the time, such as Un Coup de Dés (Mallarmé), The Cantos (Pound), Finnegans Wake (Joyce) or the poetry of E.E. Cummings. Invoking Apollinaire, the young poets searched for a "verbivocovisual” poetry, a radical fusion of the most advanced experimental techniques so as to enable a “poetry of invention,” in which conventional syntax and versification would be abandoned and the materiality of poetry accentuated. In this exhibition, several poems written at different times by Augusto de Campos are exhibited in dialogue with the diverse artists in the exhibition. In his extensive poem Bestiario (1955), translated by Gonzalo Aguilar, from which we present two fragments in this space, De Campos poignantly refers to the solitude underlying the poet’s artistic practice.
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Born in São Paulo (Brazil) 1931, where he works and lives. + information Born in São Paulo (Brazil) 1931, where he works and lives.
In 1952, Augusto de Campos, his elder brother Haroldo de Campos and Décio Pignatari launched the literary magazine Noigandres and so introduced the international movement of Concrete Poetry to Brazil. In 1956 a Brazilian concrete poetry manifesto was published and in December of 1956 the movement of concrete poetry was officially launched as part of the National Exposition of Concrete Art at the Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo. Poster poems were exhibited alongside paintings and pieces of sculpture. The young poets searched for a “verbivocovisual” poetry, a radical fusion of the most advanced techniques so as to enable a “poetry of invention”. The group absorbed influences from poets like Ezra Pound or James Joyce as well as from artists groups like Dada or Futurism that experienced with montage techniques.  In de Campo’s poems verse and conventional syntax are abandoned and the words are rearranged in graphic patterns, sometimes printed in six different colors, under inspiration of Webern's Klangfarbenmelodie. The concrete poetry manifesto’s principal message is that using words as part of a specifically visual work allows for the words themselves to become part of the poetry, rather than just unseen vehicles for ideas. “Concrete poetry begins by assuming a total responsibility before language: accepting the premise of the historical idiom as the indispensable nucleus of communication, it refuses to absorb words as mere indifferent vehicles, without life, without personality without history … the concrete poet does not turn away from words, he does not glance at them obliquely: he goes directly to their center, in order to live and vivify their facticity.” In contrast to conventional literature the concrete poem "deals with a communication of forms, of a structure-content, not with the usual message communication." But although it seems very formalistic Brazilian concrete poetry is directly concerned with sociological-political content. In "sem um numero" ("without a number''), Augusto de Campos protests against the situation of the Brazilian peasant by making an ideogram in which the phrase "sem um numero" is reduced to its last letter "o" ("nothing") which becomes a "zero," the number that is no number at all. In "LUXOLIXO" ("luxury-garbage") the ideogram exists in the juxtaposition of the two words, which are the same except for one letter.
 From the 1980s onwards de Campos began working as a visual artist as well using electronic media like videotext and computer graphics besides developing poetic wall paintings. At PROA, several poems written at different times by Augusto de Campos are exhibited in dialogue with the diverse artists in the exhibition.
http://www2.uol.com.br/augustodecampos/home.htm
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On the sculpture Hombre semilla o el mito de lo possible, the artist said: “For reasons related more to chance and intuition than design, I found myself confronted with these plaster structures resembling gigantic seeds from which people, or beings with a human quality, were born. I thought at the time that they were man seeds – a metaphor for a new man in a state of rebirth, who can reappear with a new way of doing things. Everything begins with a birth. Our world needs new forms for new beginnings: political, economic, social and emotional. We need the rebirth of a new kind of subjectivity. It is a myth of the possible: a new way of seeing things which, I believe, will enable new utopias, or at least make the creation of new projects possible. The man seed is inherently involved in and connected to the natural world. And that’s a good (and necessary) point of departure.” On the series of drawings, De Caro stated: “There’s always something you never knew existed until you actually see it, like a whisper that becomes an incredible song or as if our silence sheltered many different voices.”
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Born in 1961 in Mar del Plata (Argentina), lives and works in Buenos Aires. + information Born in 1961 in Mar del Plata (Argentina), lives and works in Buenos Aires.
She studied art history at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires. She is known for exhibitions in Latin America and Europe.
Marina de Caro’s work consists of both drawings and installations. Her installations often contain the human body – as sculptures or in real – but so her drawings are full of organic forms. Both drawings and installations evoke different feelings. Bodies and forms often appear to be cruel and suffering but on the other hand they are combined with bright and cheerful colors. The sculpture "Hombre semilla o el mito de lo posible (Man Seed or the Myth of the Possible)" - shown at PROA – discusses different ideas of nature and birth by creating plastic structures resembling gigantic seeds. At the same time they are metaphors for new forms of new beginnings: political, economic, social and emotional. In conclusion de Caro’s work expresses the desire for a new kind of subjectivity.
Recent exhibitions:
My Head Wants To Create A World, Galerie Vanessa Quang, Paris, 2011 ;
Who are you, Peter?, Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2010 ;
Biennale de Mercosul, 2009 ;
Domus/casa - Fundación Federico Jorge Klemm, Buenos Aires, 2008
http://marina-decaro.blogspot.com/
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The Day Trip Project depicts a strange machine, a combination of mobile sculpture and unidentified prototype. Throughout the film, this geometrical shape, built from mirrors, which reflect only the sky and the ground, advances through a tree-filled landscape from sunrise to sunset. Employing very limited resources, Julien Discrit conjures up the symbolic motif of the speculum, a Latin term, which refers to both the mirror, and the image it reflects. The result is a hypnotic vision in which space and time are captured by the concerted movement of the sculpture and the camera recording its progress.
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Born in 1978 in Épernay (France), lives and works in Paris. + information Born in 1978 in Épernay (France), lives and works in Paris.
He received a master degree at the Art and design school of Reims. He is known for exhibitions in France and Latin America. In his highly aesthetic works – both films and sculptures – Julien Discrit creates metaphors, which reflect everyday problems on a philosophical level.
Recent exhibitions:
Diagrammes, Galerie Martine Aboucaya, Paris, 2010;
America Deserta, Parc Saint-Léger, France, 2010;
Entre-Temps, OI Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, 2009 ;
Faux-semblants, CAB, Grenoble, 2009
http://www.juliendiscrit.org/
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Nothing is more abstract or innocent than a line on paper, anyone might think. But let the same line be traced on the ground, and everything is changed. This becomes inescapably clear when viewing Marlene Dumas’s recent Territory Paintings on the wall diving Israel and Palestine. At the Biennale de Lyon 2011, we presented one hundred drawings created by Dumas between 1979 and 2004, in regards to which these other lines in her poem Contra o Muro (2010) might prove fitting

   “The first mark is the worst.
   The drawing of a line cuts the paper in two.
   The drawing of maps and borders turns neighbors into foreigners.
   Within military cultures whole generations of children
    have grown up, thinking only in enemy-images.
   Art is a way of sleeping with the enemy.”

(Marlene Dumas, Contra o Muro, May 2010 ; originally published in Contra o Muro.
Marlene Dumas 2010, exh. cat., Porto: Museu Serralves, 2010, p. 57)
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Born in Cape Town (South Africa) 1953, lives and works in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). + information Born in Cape Town (South Africa) 1953, lives and works in Amsterdam (The Netherlands).
She studied painting at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Arts. Marlene Dumas is known for exhibitions in the most important museums of the Western world.
Marlene Dumas’ great sensibility of gesture as well as her knowledge of Western traditions of art add up to a great personal gift for painting and drawing. Combining traditional subjects of art like portrait and nude painting with comments on modern topics like sexism or racism Dumas’ work always possess an idea of darkness, brutalism, tristesse. In her paintings and drawings she stresses both the physical reality of the human body and its psychological value by depicting it in a direct and often brute way, ignoring conventional concepts of beauty. Nevertheless her works gain a unique beauty by Dumas’ concentration on the portrayed person and her great technical skills.
Recent exhibitions:
Tronies - Marlene Dumas and the Old Masters, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2011;
Marlene Dumas, Museu Serralves, Porto, 2010,
Measuring Your Own Grave, The Menil Collection, Houston and MoMA, New-York, 2009
Intimate Relations, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, 2008.
http://www.marlenedumas.nl/
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This film by Aurélien Froment documents an exhibition built on the same scale as its open-air setting. The two main characters traverse the countryside as though they were touring an exhibition: the universe has effectively become their gallery. Aurélien Froment’s fictional approach highlights behaviors, which are common in our reactions to both art works and landscapes, our tendency towards labeling the things we see and the time it takes us to properly appreciate them.
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Born in 1976 in Angers (France), Lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. + information Born in 1976 in Angers (France), Lives and works in Dublin, Ireland.
He studied at the École Régionale des Beaux Arts, Nantes (France) and at Manchester Metropolitan University (United Kingdom). He is known for exhibitions throughout Europe.
Aurélien Froment is part of a new generation of artists whose work embraces a variety of methods and media, yet the themes of reality-versus-fiction and magic are consistently negotiated.
Recent exhibitions:
Paysages, marines, scènes de genre, Musée de Rochechouart, 2011 ;
Une exposition comme les autres, Crédac, Ivry, 2011 ;
Les articles indéfinis, galerie Marcelle Alix, Paris, 2011 ;
Forme della belleza, forme della natura, forme della conoscenza, Centre culturel français, Milan, 2011 ;
Langue étrangère, langue maternelle, seconde langue, Motive Gallery, Amsterdam, 2010 ;
8th Gwangju Biennial, 2010 ;
Froebel Suite, Gasworks, London, 2009 ;
Performa 09, New-York, 2009
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Michel Huisman’s universe of mechanically-based dreamlike sculptures is continually unfolding. Each work draws the viewer’s attention towards a specific scene that proposes a reflection on universal feelings: love, understanding, solitude, pain… No. 84 (Document 2000 Hiroshima) is more exception than rule in that here, the artist is addressing a very precise reference: it was created for the exhibition Document 2000 Hiroshima in Japan.

On No. 46 (The Secret Garden), the artist says: “The soap in the bucket is only a few centimeters deep; a watertight glass bottom is fitted two thirds of the way up the bucket. Hidden underneath is a garden. A berth can be created by pulling the cloth draped under you smooth. Here, lying on your back, you can slide your head into the hollow space underneath the bucket and rest it on a pillow. The head is hidden from view by a second, smaller cloth.”
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Born in 1957 in Heerlen, Netherlands, where he lives and works. + information Born in 1957 in Heerlen, Netherlands, where he lives and works.
Although sometimes with long intervals of silence, Michel Huisman participated in many exhibitions throughout Europe. Michel Huisman is thinking about fundamental questions of humanity: for him our existing world is too much focused on rationality ignoring our sensual abilities. In his art works Huisman discusses this conflicts by depicting creatures that seem to suffer from this world. His universe of his mechanically-based dreamlike sculptures is continually unfolding. Each work draws the viewer’s attention towards a specific scene that proposes a reflection on universal feelings: love, understanding, solitude, pain. Besides his peculiar objects – often birds or other animals – evoke sentiments of beauty and fear at the same time.
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Born in 1983 in Buenos Aires, where she lives and works. + information Born in 1983 in Buenos Aires, where she lives and works.
She graduated in Sculpture and Visual Arts from the Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte (IUNA). She is known for several exhibitions in Argentina, Latin America and Europe.

Irina Kirchuk is interested in architectonic structures she finds strolling around Buenos Aires or even in objects of everyday life. Working with a wide range of materials – mostly building materials made out of plastic – she changes the use of objects turning them into art. Many of her installations are site specific: their structure and material responds to the architecture of the exhibition space. Therefore she develops works with delicate architectonical structures for one place, powerful and firm sculptures for the next one. All interventions and sculptures are united by the richness of colors that is applied by Kirchuk. Her interventions open up a wide range of possibilities to understand Kirchuk’s work but their main aim is always to open the eyes of spectators for the special structures that surround him. For PROA she will develop a new installation adapted to the architecture of the space.
Recent exhibitions:
Défense passive, 2011
Sabotaje, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario, 2011 ;
Petrobras, ArteBa, Buenos Aires, 2010 ;
Nora Fisch Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, 2010 ;
Alternos Internos, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, 2009
http://irinakirchuk.tumblr.com/
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Eva Kotátkova’s imaginary Re-education Machine continues her ongoing exploration into restrictive and manipulative regimes and the ways in which they affect individuals. She is particularly interested in education’s role in social control and abuse. In her installations and drawings, the body is subjected to mechanisms that, according to the artist, “serve only to unify communication patterns and force opinions; allocating specific social norms to people.” The individual is “trapped in the net of mutually repressive dependencies which are no longer invisible – they become wooden cages, metal scaffolding, isolated rooms, and rope shackles.”
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Born in Prague 1982 where she lives and works. + information Born in Prague 1982 where she lives and works.
She is known for exhibitions throughout Europe including the Liverpool Biennale 2010. She studied in Prague Academy of Fine Arts and San Francisco Art Institute.
Eva Kotatkova sketches the concept of self as a model-like hull in her surrealistic, machine-like objects, spatial complexes and drawings. To understand the present she constructs and revaluates the past using an archaeological approach. This method is often becoming a kind of examination of her own past and psyche when she is collecting materials such as clothes or school bags from her childhood and using them for her installations. These are often combined with drawings of various formats and types of paper, where the artist portrays bodies, body segments or faces of children, animals and old people in surrealistic situations. The portraits evoke a dark atmosphere as the depicted characters are often tortured and caved when Kotatkova binds the human bodies to objects like books or furniture, or incorporates them within architectural constructions. In the last years the artist has slightly moved from works based on her personal experience to the exploration of more general themes. Her latest works examines the role of the individual in relation to certain social structures with their customs, rules, rituals and communication strategies.
Recent exhibitions:
The Re-education Machine, 2011 
Dum umení, House of Art, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, 2011;
Educational Model, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Holland;
City of Old, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2010;
Reading Room, Space for One Work, Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic.
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Robert Kuśmirowksi’s oeuvre is haunted by the weight of memory. The respect tinged with mistrust, which the artist feels for history, leads to the creation of a solemn, critical space for discussion.
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Born in Lodz (Poland) 1973, lives and works in Lublin (Poland). + information Born in Lodz (Poland) 1973, lives and works in Lublin (Poland).
Graduated at universities in Lublin (Poland) and Rennes (France). His work was exhibited at several international art shows like the 4th Berlin Biennale 2006 or important museums like the Migros Museum in Zurich or in Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven.
Although his work – comprising sculpture, drawing, architecture and performance in roughly equal measure – keeps pace with contemporary art, it comes with a knowingly antiquated sense of work ethic (in 2003 he rode from Paris to Leipzig on a 19th-century bicycle, dressed in period garb) and craftsmanship (from an early age he painstakingly forged bus passes and postage stamps for his entire family). In his installations Kusmirowski showcases this uncanny ability to craft replicas for illusionist effects of decay and ageing creating highly atmospheric exhibition rooms. Attempting, as he puts it, to ‘build an aura from scratch’, he insinuates his own constructions into existing ones, using accumulations of found objects and faux replicas, creating an amalgamated, indeterminate patchwork of history and its simulation. That means that beside their sensual effect the installation discuss the artist’s personal memories as well as historical topics by echoing worlds now lost. In 2005 he made a life-size replica of his former studio inspired by minimalist functionality of Soviet-era architecture. For the Berlin Biennale Kusmirowski created a copy of a Polish railway car from the 1920s that together with its exhibition place – a former Jewish girl’s school – evoked dark thoughts about German history. In London’s Barbican’s Curve Gallery a life-size second-world war bunker - complete with chicken wire, tin cans, typewriters, rotting wooden cabinets full of files - evoked memories of war times. Recent exhibitions:
Cosmorama / P.A.P.O.P Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trente, 2010 ;
Shelf Life - Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel, 2010 ;
Barbican Centre, London, 2009 ;
T2 Torino Triennale, Turin, 2008
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Born in 1975 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where she lives and works. . + information Born in 1975 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where she lives and works.
She was participating in exhibitions in Latin America and Europe including the 6th Berlin Biennale 2010. She studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón.
Luciana Lamothe finds inspiration for her sculptures and installations on the street. For her exhibitions she puts together various objects like garbage cans, doors of public toilets, bicycle locks and other material all connected by the idea of revive anarchistic performances to reoccupy public spaces in the city. But she also develops further ideas to work with the found material. In the last years the artist has begun to create architectural sculptures with material from building sites. Some of these “archi sculptures” are used in performances other discuss architecture in different variations. While their design is inspired by modern architecture the sculpture’s function express their basic idea: the boards and bars are delicately stick together making clear the idea of supporting and carrying forces constructing the sculptures as well as every architecture. Combining these fragile structures with their rough materials Lamothe’s sculptures develop their own very special aesthetic.
Recent exhibitions:
Plan, 2011
Sabotaje, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario, 2011;
Galería Oscar Cruz. San Pablo, 2010;
Paraconstrucion, Banco Itáu Cultural, Buenos Aires, 2010;
Argentina Hoy, Banco Do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 2009.
http://lucianalamotheesculturas.blogspot.com/
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Guillaume Leblon´s work presentations are constructed as an arrangement of abstract, self-contained and open forms. Materials are, to the artist, vehicles for ideas. His universe is heterogeneous, he creates site-specific installations, sculptures, films or works on paper. With minimal interventions he succeeds in constructing a space of multiple readings, he charges the objects of his presentations with metaphorical meanings, introducing a certain uneasiness that affects and stimulates our perception. In his video Notes (2007), the camera moves around an experimental space, the artist’s studio, that after being overrun with clay and water, is metamorphosed into a scenario where landscape and interior space blend, while a set of objects and fragmented actions are sketched.
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Born in Lille (France) 1971, works and lives in Paris. + information Born in Lille (France) 1971, works and lives in Paris.
Known for several recent solo shows in important public exhibition spaces in Europe. Guillaume Leblon studied at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France and did his residency (1999-2000) in Rijksakademie, Amsterdam.
Guillaume Leblon’s work has constantly faced up to different cultures without ever adhering to any particular artistic tendency. However, his way of proceeding and the precision of his installations also appear to be shared by certain of his contemporaries in France. Born around 1970-1975, these artists are less concerned with the past generation’s interest in finding new modes of production, in de-routing economic systems, or in social “effectiveness”; instead they turn to references to pictorial abstraction, American sculpture of the 60’s, conceptual art or process art taking an approach which may vary in formal terms but stems from a common concept: the art work is a clue, however slight it may be, that opens on to a spectrum of references, a construction, a story, an entire world. At once monumental and discreet, Leblon’s work uses found materials - such as rubble, and pieces of cut stone - to construct a fragile landscape. The artist uses again and again the same objects and materials and through repetition these elements create a feeling of the uncanny. The often rough aesthetic, along with the object’s careful positioning in time and space, shows a familiarity with forms of arte povera. At the same time the objects, in their warm but distant concreteness – created by the tension between the denial of clarity and a very tangible, straightforward materiality – reappear as an evocation of the world — the “illusion of the real” — and gain an aura.
Recent exhibitions:
Strange Form of Life, Projectesd, Barcelone, 2010 ;
Bild für Bild,  Film und zeitgenössische Kunst , Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund, 2010 ; Sampler #1, Galleria Alessandro de March, Milan, 2010 ;
The Unknown Group - FRAC - Bourgogne, Dijon, 2010 ;
Circuit céramique : la scène française contemporaine - Les Arts Décoratifs , Paris, 2010 ;              
La Carillon de Big Ben , Centre d´art contemporain d´Ivry - le Credac, Ivry sur Seine, 2010
http://guillaumeleblon.com/
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An absurdist caricature of our society, a sharp-edged critique of the human condition masked by apparent lightheartedness: in Christian Lhopital’s drawings contradictory worlds in a state of permanent tension conjure up both the innocence of childhood and the perverseness of nightmares. For the Biennale the artist is presenting, among other works, a series of drawings from his 4 à 5 Gouttes de Sauvagerie (“Drops of Savagery”): a mix of the grotesque and the tragic in family portraits of prancing, dancing hybrid monsters.
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Born in Lyon, 1953, where he lives and works. + information Born in Lyon, 1953, where he lives and works.
Christian Lhopital participó de numerosas exhibiciones en Francia.
Known for several exhibitions in France.
An absurdist caricature of our society, a sharp-edged critique of the human condition masked by apparent light-heartedness: in Christian Lhopital’s drawings contradictory worlds in a state of permanent tension conjure up both the innocence of childhood and the perverseness of nightmares.  Lhopital creates his works by using old drawing techniques: he works with graphite powder, a light, unpredictable material he applies directly with his fingers or a cloth. As a result the works show a delicateness, which seems to be romantic and dark at the same time. At PROA the artist is presenting a series of drawings: a mix of the grotesque and the tragic in family portraits of prancing, dancing hybrid monsters.
Recent exhibitions:
Cosmogonies lunatiques, Galerie Domi Nostrae, Lyon, 2011 ;
Opening night, Galerie Polaris, Paris, 2010 ;
Collection Florence et Daniel Guerlain, Musée des Beaux-arts de Besançon, 2010 ;
Le bizarre, l’étrange et l’incongru, Biennale de Sélestat, 2009;
L’énigme demeure, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon, 2008
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Born in 1971 in Governador Valadares, Brazil, lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. + information Born in 1971 in Governador Valadares, Brazil, lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
She graduated at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). She is known for several exhibitions in Brazil.
Brazilian artist, Laura Lima, is primarily concerned with the human body - often as part of a larger whole, whether connecting to or contradicting other objects.  Her works are a consideration of strangeness, fantasy and sometimes disappointment. With humor and a wealth of imagination she sets up unexpected contrasts, metaphors for triggering action in the exhibition space.
Recent exhibitions:
Gala Chicken and Gala Coop, 2004-2011
Padedéu, Galeria Luisa Strina. São Paulo, 2009 ;
Paisagem Ready Made, Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, 2009 ;
Fuga, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, 2008
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Born in 1963 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he lives and works. + information Born in 1963 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he lives and works.
Known for important solo exhibitions in Europe and Latin America. Jorge Macchi studied at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires.
Although Jorge Macchi installations are based on objects known from daily life or popular culture he always avoids being illustrative or didactic. Macchi’s main artistic tool is his sensibility and an eye for the remarkable within the commonplace he uses to find objects that contain multiple layers of resonance making a various number of interpretations possible. His most successful early works for example, such as Untitled, combined pillows with broken glass or ropes, offering many ways of reading such as comment on political violence or as the agony of a sleepless. The important point here is that no single explanation can exhaust the possibilities contained within the object, and no text can substitute the experience of encountering the object. If the term Post-Conceptual Art exists, it would apply perfectly to Macchi’s work. Although Macchi uses the pure and clear visual language of the conceptualist Macchi keeps an emotional and vulnerable sensibility for the art object as an object.
Recent exhibitions:
Marienbad, 2011
Music stands still, SMAK, Ghent, 2011 ;
All of this and nothing, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2011 ;
Radical shift, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, 2011 ;
Crónicas Eventuales, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, 2010 ;
The end of the world as we know it, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, 2010 ;
Rendez-vous, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy, 2009
http://jorgemacchi.com
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La bruja 1 employs some 6000 kilometers of thread to invade the entire exhibition space. In Cildo Meireles’s own words: “I first exhibited this work at the Sao Paulo Biennal in 1981, using 2500 kilometers of thread which ran through all three floors of the building. It was my take on... a kind of chaos when order is suddenly imposed upon it, giving it meaning, a sort of explanation. The broom is ambiguous, it can be seen as the start; the source of an enormous expansion, or perhaps the final point where everything is contracted and compressed. And there is also another paradox in the fact that, instead of cleaning, the broom produces a chaotic mess. At the Sao Paolo Biennal, the cleaning staff got very frustrated because they couldn’t keep the area properly clean!” For Air de Lyon, Meireles accepted a challenge: to install La bruja 1 in such a way that it would structure an entire exhibition floor in which other artists would also be exhibiting.
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Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1948, where he lives and works. + information Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1948, where he lives and works.
He studied at the District Federal Cultural Foundation in Brasilia and at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro. His works were exhibited at the most important places for contemporary art including the Venice Biennale and the Tate Modern in London. In 2008 he won the Velazquez Plastic Arts Award, presented by the Ministry of Culture of Spain.
Today Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles is worldwide acknowledged for the works he created in the last four decades and which have its roots in the confluence of the politics, philosophy and symbols of our time. The figure of Cildo Meireles is crucial to understanding the postwar Brazilian artistic avant-garde, since he forms a bridge between the Neo-concretism of the late 1950s and Brazilian conceptual art of the end of the 1960s. Neo-concretism, whose main representatives – Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape – are constant references in Meireles's work, rejects the extreme rationalism of geometric abstraction in order to create more sensory and participatory works that appeal not only to the mind but also to the body. The utopian optimism of the movement collapsed following the coup d'état of 1964, which gave way to a military dictatorial regime, and which marked a new generation of artists, including Cildo Meireles, whose work has greater political commitment, as a reflection of the historical context. Meireles's œuvre could be defined as a poetic approach to the study of society, since he sets out to respond to questions relating to all kinds of social concerns: he examines the processes of communication, the figure of the spectator, the value of art and the legacies of history. One of his masterpieces “Cruzeiro do Sul (Southern Cross, 1969–70)” is a good example for Meireles’ working method: a diminutive cube made of oak and pine – two types of wood sacred to the Brazilian Tupi Indians as a source of fire – is exhibited in a large gallery. At first sight the work discusses aesthetic problems of material and form with references to abstract art from the western hemisphere. But by its particular size and material the artist raises political questions about the future of Indian’s myths and the Eurocentric conception of art history at the same time. Therefore “Cruzeiro do Sul” is a good example for Meireles’ method combining a sensory and a political approach in a single art work.
Recent exhibitions:
A Bruxa (1979-1981)
Cildo Meireles, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico, 2010;
53rd Venice Biennial, 2009;
À Contre-Corps, Frac Lorraine, Metz, France, 2009;
Cildo Meireles, Tate Modern, London, 2008
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“Someone asked me recently what I thought of conspiracy theories about 9/11 and I answered: ‘The way I look at things is that I am on a planet, in the middle of the universe, spinning endlessly, at 1000 mph and no one is in charge and I am liberated by that image and belief.’ With my work I want to present my experience of confusion, contemplation, uncertainty, formlessness, the infinite and the meditative. These are the subjects that are important to me and together they become a personalized politics of feeling, rationalization, contradiction and response and inform my reactions to the world outside. They become a ‘Politics of the Self’.”
Garret Phelan
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Born in Dublin 1965, where he lives and works. + information Born in Dublin 1965, where he lives and works.
Known for several exhibitions at important art institutions.
Garrett Phelan often acts as an antagonist or anti-editor, combining disparate information together while refusing to draw distinctions or provide perspective. Phelan uses found objects, wall drawings, sculptural installations and broadcast radio to create expansive works that he titles in series according to both subject and mode of enquiry. Although his works have a conceptual background Phelan enables a sensitive approach by transforming the exhibition rooms with drawings and color. Whether in the gallery, on the radio or in an offsite location, Phelan's obfuscations demand a personal response from the viewer – rather than a reliance on received opinion. For Phellan confusion, contemplation, uncertainty, formlessness, the infinite and the meditative are the most important subjects in his life and he wants to represents them in his work.
Recent exhibitions:
Apertures & Anxieties, RHA, Dublin, Ireland, 2011
Kunst Radio, ORF Radio, Austria, 2011
Context Gallery, Derry Northern Ireland, 2010
4th Auckland Triennial, Auckland New Zealand, 2010
SMART,  Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2010
Getting Even, Kunstverein, Hannover, Germany
The End of the Line: attitudes in Drawing , Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Middles borough Museum of Modern Art, Bluecoat, Liverpool  2009
The Last Broadcast Revelations - Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, 2009
http://www.garrettphelan.com/
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When asked about his thoughts for conceiving the exhibited film, Restrepo signaled to a most eloquent fragment from Montaigne’s Essays: “We use our hands to question, promise, call, say our farewells, make threats, beg supplicate, refuse, reject, question, admire, recount, confess, regret, fear, express shame, doubt, instruct, give orders, incite, encourage, swear, bear witness, accuse, condemn, absolve, insult, disdain, defy, scorn, offer adulation, applaud, bless, humiliate ourselves, mock, reconcile, recommend, exalt, celebrate, rejoice, complain, express sadness, exclaim, reprimand, what do we not do, and with such a wealth of expression that the tongue is made envious?” (Essais, II, 12).
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Born in Bogotá 1959, where he works and lives. + information Born in Bogotá 1959, where he works and lives.
Estudió arte en la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, y en la École des beaux arts de París. Ha participado de numerosas exhibiciones como la Bienal de La Habana (1995 y 2000), la 23ª Bienal de São Paulo (1996) y la 52ª Bienal de Venecia (2007).
El campo de trabajo de Restrepo va de la performance y las videoinstalaciones a la investigación y la docencia. Sus filmes muestran un acercamiento científico en la investigación de los sujetos desde un contexto político, histórico o religioso.
Utiliza para sus producciones materiales de archivo y textos literarios, que reordena para abrir nuevas posibilidades de interpretación. Este rechazo a crear nuevas imágenes puede leerse como una declaración en contra de nuestra era mediática: al utilizar material de archivo audiovisual, se niega a ser parte de la sobredosificación actual de imágenes.
Su obra muestra una segunda característica posmoderna: el cuestionamiento a las estructuras narrativas. Una mirada desde múltiples perspectivas y multicultural debería ayudar a que el espectador desarrolle nuevos pensamientos en torno a los problemas de la historia y la sociedad contemporánea.
Exhibiciones recientes:
- El arte de la retórica manual (2010)
- S’envoler les pieds sur terre, Frac Lorraine, Francia (2010)
- Teofanías, Museo de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia (2008)
- 52ª Bienal de Venecia (2007)
- Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami (2007)
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In 2005 Tracey Rose decided to fly to Jerusalem to address the political situation of which the wall dividing Israel from Palestine is a symbol. As she recalls, “earlier in the day there are fewer patrols. I painted my body and we hired a car and drove up to the wall at sunrise”. Once there, Rose got out of the car and played the Israeli national anthem on a guitar – badly. Simultaneously comic and brave, Rose’s masquerade was undertaken, she says, “to create humor and to provoke a reaction, to point out the absurdity of the situation,” but her outrageous performance might well have landed her in an Israeli jail. Although a guard in a watchtower can be seen in the background of one of Rose’s images, she left the scene without being arrested. Only her engaging video and the photographs taken at the scene live on to bear witness to the moment.

In Lucie’s Fur, Tracey Rose addresses the issue of the archetypal Western version of Genesis that is the Garden of Eden. In her video performance piece, the artist fleshes out a carnivalesque character based on Lucie, the first female African hominid that was discovered in 1974 and was long considered the mother of humankind. With a bright costume, a garden, a donkey, low-tech esthetics and broad swathes of bawdy slapstick humor, Tracey Rose questions the myth of Eden and wonders: was Adam actually a black woman?

In residence in Feyzin as part of the Veduta program, Tracey Rose creates a fictional cast featuring nearly thirty people. In what could be seen as a reality-show, the artist questions the assignment of individuals to compartmentalized cultural representations, according to a willfully xenophobic typology based on a chapter of Franz Fanon’s book Black Skin, white Masks, in which the author is terrorized by a small French boy who exclaimed upon seeing him: “Look, a Negro! Mama, see the Negro! I’m afraid!”.
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Born in 1974 in Durban, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. + information Born in 1974 in Durban, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Known for Group and solo exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the world. Including the 49th Venice Biennale 2001. She received her B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1996, and earned a Masters of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, in 2007.
Tracey Rose belongs to a generation of artists charged with reinventing the artistic gesture in post-Apartheid South Africa. Refusing to simplify reality for the sake of clarity, the artist creates rich characters that inhabit worlds as interrelated as the many facets of one’s personality. Her reference to theatre and the carnival tradition also places her work in the realm of satire. Part of Rose's appeal is her fluid referencing of '60s and '70s performance art. When pushing herself beyond the point of physical exhaustion, parodying racial stereotypes, or overlaying sex with violence and pleasure with pain, Rose locates herself among women who have previously confronted themselves (and others) in their art. But despite any influences editing technology sets Rose's art apart from anything predigital. Things are faster, more intricate, and way more self-consciously constructed. As a result, her feminine subject is flamboyant, fragmented, aggressively personal, and enormously desirous.
Recent exhibitions:
In The Castle Of My Skin, 2011
Waiting For God, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa, 2011;
Raison d’être, Doual’art, Douala, Cameroon, 2009;
Plantation Lullabies, The Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2008;
The Cockpit, MC Kunst, Los Angeles, 2008
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In his drawing practice, Schellow reconstructs from memory specific encounters seen in everyday urban settings several days, or even months, previously. At Air de Lyon, we present one of his most ambitious animation projects. Untitled (Fragment) is a work in progress based on several visits to a 96-year-old woman who lives at a clinic for Alzheimer’s patients in Berlin. In his studio the artist meticulously recreates the subtle movements of her face after-the-fact. Overall, Schellow’s work is the result of a combination of what remains of the seen and an obsessive attempt to recover what the consciousness shields from us, thus challenging the usual process of memory in which specific details sink into oblivion forever.
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Born in 1974 in Hanover (Germany), he lives and works in Berlin (Germany). + information Born in 1974 in Hanover (Germany), he lives and works in Berlin (Germany).
He studied at Universität der Künste (UdK) Berlin and at the Glasgow School of Arts. He is known for several exhibitions all over Europe.

Alexander Schellow’s numerous series of drawings as well as his animated films explore the power and character of memory.
Recent exhibitions:
In The Castle Of My Skin, 2011
Waiting For God, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa, 2011;
Raison d’être, Doual’art, Douala, Cameroon, 2009;
Plantation Lullabies, The Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2008;
The Cockpit, MC Kunst, Los Angeles, 2008
http://alexanderschellow.de
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O Rinoceronte de Dürer was filmed entirely on location at the panopticon of the Miguel Bombarda Hospital in Lisbon and made in collaboration with psychiatric patients of the outpatient’s clinic, who form the main cast of the film. Built in 1896 on the grounds of the largest Psychiatric Hospital in Lisbon, the panopticon was designed as a prison for the criminally insane, following the original plans of Jeremy Bentham.
The fragmentary narrative of O Rinoceronte de Dürer was written by the patients in a series of workshops conducted prior to the shooting of the film, where they imagined themselves as inhabitants of the former insane asylum and acted out fictional scenarios within their assigned cells. This reconstruction of the everyday life of a mental institution is complemented by voice-overs quoting texts such as Jeremy Bentham’s letter presenting the Panopticon, Plato’s Cave, and Kafka’s short story The Burrow.
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Born in 1969 in Valencia (Venezuela), lives and works in New York, United States. + information Born in 1969 in Valencia (Venezuela), lives and works in New York, United States.
He is known for several important solo and group exhibitions.
Video installation artist Javier Téllez’s films combine documentary with fictionalized narratives to question definitions of normality and pathology. Collaborating with institutionalized patients living with mental illness to rewrite classic stories or invent their own, he creates what he calls a cinematic “passport to allow those outside to be inside” by renegotiating socio-cultural barriers. This approach to using art as a voice for the marginalized positions itself within the tradition of art therapy, though Téllez attempts to “cure” viewers of false assumptions, rather than the patients of their disorders. Working intimately with his casts, Téllez blurs distinctions between artist and patient to consider the arbitrary boundaries of reality, reason, and insanity.
Recent exhibitions:
Moca, Cleveland, United States, 2011;
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo, Japan, 2011;
Périfériks, CAN, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2009;
4½, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany, 2009.
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Burro, Neorex and Sao Francisco belong to Erika Verzutti’s series of sculptures entitled Pet Cemetery, in which the pedestals form an integral part of the works. In them, the artist fantasizes about the death and burial of different animals in order to create sculptures in their honor in complete freedom, independent of considerations of style or art history. In exploring these diverse ambiguities, the artist casts a critical eye over different aspects of exhibition dynamics and language, asking the question: Why would anyone propose a pedestal for a gravestone?
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Born in 1971 in São Paulo, Brazil, where she lives and works. + information Born in 1971 in São Paulo, Brazil, where she lives and works.
Known for exhibitions in Brazil, Europe and the USA. She graduated at the Universidade Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil and received a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts at the Goldsmiths College, London, UK.
In drawings, collages, paintings and sculptures, Erika Verzutti freely juxtaposes dissimilar elements and styles. Although she uses classical materials such as clay and bronze, the artist breaks away from formal practices to expose the structure of the work and to incorporate “accidents” such as paint runs, splatters and scratches. Her emphasis on imagination helps her to produce weird shapes, which, paradoxically, always seem familiar and close to us. Many of her sculptures reveal a special attention to nature through the use of fruits and vegetables as molds for the bronze.
Recent exhibitions:
Missionary, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, 2011 ;
Law of the Jungle, Lehmann Maupin, New-York, 2011 ;
Bigminis, Museum of contemporary art of Bordeaux, 2011 ;
Bicho de Sete Cabeças, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, 2010 ;
Chopping Board, Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, 2010
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Kemang Wa Lehulere’s body of work is based on a series on narratives taken from interviews and texts written by the author that approach themes of memory and forgetting, amnesia and/or erasure. When asked about his relationship to such issues, Kemang says: “These works are united by a personal interest in and fear of such matters.”
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Born in 1984 in Cap Town, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. + information Born in 1984 in Cap Town, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Wa Lehulere is currently completing his BA at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
A former member of Gugulective artist collective and current member of the Dead Revolutionaries Club Kemang Wa Lehure is part of the vibrant South African art scene. In the last few years the young artist has worked in a range of media experiencing with video, printing, painting, installation and performance art. Furthermore he works a writer, film maker and curator. Visitors to the blustery opening of Dada South? last December may remember Wa Lehulere’s performance involving a megaphone, cheese grater and school textbooks.
Recent exhibitions:
Hang Katswa Madi 2 (Even if I Bleed 2), 2011
US - Iziko South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town, 2010;
Ubontsi: Sharp Sharp!, AVA, Cape Town, 2009;
Identity: An Imagined State, CCA, Lagos, 2009;
Bring me a leaf of grass from the edge of the image, Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt, 2009.
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“Cosa arrives in Buenos Aires  after an international journey which started in August 2009 and has included sojourns in Stockholm, Banja Luka, Miami, Madrid, Mexico City, Köln, New York, and Lyon. At each exhibition venue, Cosa inhabits its negative space, never displaying its complete form. It was intentionally made in China; it was ordered over the phone, with one very simple instruction: that the weight of the piece should be no larger than FedEx’s maximum package weight.”
Judi Werthein
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Born in Buenos Aires 1967, where she lives and works. + information Born in Buenos Aires 1967, where she lives and works.
She received a MA in Architecture and Urbanism at the Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is known for important museum and gallery exhibitions in Europe and the USA. Werthein makes work that defies categorization. Working in media that challenge notions of national identity, economic justice and human rights. Her work extends the making of contemporary art to engage constituencies outside the art world. She frequently achieves such engagements through vernacular forms such as manicure decals and designer sneakers. Recent exhibitions:
La Tierra de los Libres, Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne, Germany, 2011 ;
Cosa, Y Gallery, New York, 2011 ;
CGEM: apuntes sobre la emancipación, MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, 2010;
Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New-York, 2010 ... ;
Cosa, 2009.
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