LEYLA CÁRDENAS' BIFURCATIONS AT MAX ESTRELLA
Leyla Cárdenas (Bogotá, Colombia, 1975) brings Posibles bifurcaciones (Possible Bifurcations) to Madrid's Max Estrella, a project consisting of various installations that revolve around the meanings and possibilities of the technique of unraveling. The concept for the exhibition originated during the artist's residency last year in Mallorca and her research into the origins of each of the islands that make up the Balearic archipelago.
In this study, Cárdenas advocates linking geological historiography with The Garden of Forking Paths, the short story by Borges that ventured subsequent interpretations of time and mechanics. The exhibition opens with two works featuring the caves of Artá, in Mallorca. Keeping volume in mind, the Colombian artist weaves and unravels a new geographical vision based on photographs taken inside the caves. Imagined mountains take over this new dimension, giving it a different meaning in terms of what is represented.
The use of organic materials also stands out in some of her proposals as a means of channeling the concept of habitability and spatiality. Wood and stone are essential materials in exploring the tension between structure, form, and use.
Fiction of River presents a canvas with the image of a dry riverbed. It covers the space horizontally and seems to want to take possession of the volume where it is located. Thread of River also brings together the idea of the river that ceases to be a river and the need to use organic matter.
The specific project Eterno retorno (Eternal Return) occupies one of the main planes of the gallery. A beam, with the help of unraveled photography, transforms the area into a dimensional surface in constant tension. El origen del mundo (The Origin of the World) starts from a double fabric without a weft that can be observed from any side. This invitation allows the viewer to rethink ideas about human activity.
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Leyla Cárdenas: Posibles bifurcaciones, en Max Estrella
Bellver's installation Trama palimpséstica (Palimpsestic Weave) develops the idea of silence and noise as elements that channel human existence. Varios porvenires (Several Futures), an installation that originally connects the artist with her origins, is based on the symbolism of an abandoned iron mine, whose material was once understood as a symbol of progress.
Reversar el destramo (Reversing the Unraveling) is an allusion to the fraction of tension, where the technique of weaving and unweaving takes on its full meaning. Horizonte que se bifurca (Bifurcating Horizon) closes the exhibition by doubling the landscape.
Possible Bifurcations can be seen until July 18 at Max Estrella, Santo Tomé, 6, Madrid (Spain).
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