28.4-26.6.2021

Formas de habitar, the two-person exhibition by the artists Nani Cárdenas and Micaela Aljovín, opens a series of reflections on memory, identity, occupied spaces, the structures that sustain us, along with the possibility of building a common project; be it a house, be it a country.

Nani Cárdenas

Nani presents many layers of skin that —as symbols— become excuses to initiate a diatribe of needs, fears, emptiness and possibility. The artist uses painting and sculpture to weave pieces that emulate portals that refer back to the house. In this game of representation, she establishes a series of codes given by shapes and colors with which she prompts the visitors to recognize doors, windows and bodies, which hang floating in the gallery space. Fabric — like skin — exposes areas where materials contract and stretch, allowing light to pass through pore spaces. Thus, the shadows of the sculptural bodies arranged in series are projected in the exhibition space, remembering that it is light and darkness.

Micaela Aljovín

Engaging dialogue with reproduction, Micaela Aljovín presents a matrix piece —in the form of a scaffold— that will be the basis for the construction of a discourse that reveals fragility and puts the apparently solid in crisis. In a staging that reminisces modules one played with in childhood, five columns arranged symmetrically in the exhibition space simulate emerging from the floor through the ceiling. Without losing its playful character, she uses a module —which is none other than the reproduction of the matrix piece on a smaller scale— to record the projection of its moving shadow. The result is a series of 30 serigraphs that highlight the impossibility of building from individuality; at the same time that they invite the visitor to build a possibility.

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FORMAS DE HABITAR
Nani Cárdenas | Micaela Aljovín

The house ceases to be a concept. One must inhabit it in any possible way, co-existing day and night with all the beings it shelters. If it does not exist, it must be built —even precariously— in order to survive. The work is suspended for days, weeks, months. Fear paralyzes. Rituals are invented for the purpose of persisting. There are those who force themselves to acquire new practices and routines. Some people learn to make bread, others - hopefully - to eat only once a day. Quarantine is mandatory for everyone, but not everyone has the same obligations. Inequality is the protagonist of this pandemic.

When in February of 2020 Nani Cárdenas and Micaela Aljovín invited me to curate the two-person exhibition of Andamio, they were both eager to address the concept of ‘home’. No one imagined that a month later the WHO would declare the pandemic for covid-19 and Peru would declare itself in a state of national emergency and mandatory social isolation. The uncertainty lodged in all the corners. The interests of the artists mutated according to the needs and impulses that arose in the confinement, in the reencounter both with the space and with themselves. There were more questions than answers, they still remain.

Formas de habitar is the result of a continuous dialogue that was carried out for months, with theaim of answering some of the questions that arose along the way. The possible answers became material in the hands of the artists.

Nani Cárdenas presents many layers of skin that —as symbols— become excuses to initiate a diatribe of needs, fears, emptiness and possibility. The artist uses painting and sculpture to weave pieces that emulate portals that refer back to the house. In this game of representation, she establishes a series of codes given by shapes and colours with which she prompts the visitors to recognize doors, windows and bodies, which hang floating in the gallery space. The serial reproduction of these elements evokes a return to the origin - even if the original is non-existent - in an effort to (re) meet the primitive that nests within oneself and that is projected outside. Cárdenas will name them: “Doors”, “Windows” and “Plasters”. The result will be a display of lighted doors that open and close; dark windows that project to infinity; and bodies in motion. Since plaster is one of the primary materials for sculpture -as it refers to antiquity- and with which molds or pieces are created through the casting technique, it is not by chance that the artist endows with this name what she conceives as a body. Thus, she exhibits three woven pieces in which the white raffia forms a weft with the warp made up of copper and bronze threads, and in which the black raffia interferes - as subtexts, until occupying certain areas that could even be a hint at the human form.

Through the fabric with raffia, copper and bronze, Nani Cárdenas tries to immerse the viewer in the intensity of the color (red, black and white) and in the original line that is knotted in the desire to be body, mass, depth. Fabric — like skin — exposes areas where materials contract and stretch, allowing light to pass through pore spaces. Thus, the shadows of the sculptural bodies arranged in series are projected in the exhibition space, remembering that it is light and darkness.

Engaging dialogue with reproduction, Micaela Aljovín presents a matrix piece —in the form of a scaffold— that becomes the basis for the construction of a discourse that reveals fragility and puts the apparently solid in crisis. In a sta- ging that reminisces modules one played with in childhood, five columns arranged symmetrically in the exhibition space simulate emerging from the floor through the ceiling. Their appearance generates the optical illusion of being safe and resistant structures, which support both the gallery and the building that stands above it. However, the volume, consistency and flexibility of the material that makes up each of the pieces that are set to raise the columns shows its fragility, exposing the artifice and the possibility of fracture.

Contemplating these probable fissures, Aljovín intends to study the object from all its angles in search of assurances. Without losing its playful character, she uses a module —which is none other than the reproduction of the matrix piece on a smaller scale— to record the projection of its moving shadow. The result is a series of 30 serigraphs that expose, on one hand, the impossibility of building a superior structure from individualism; and on the other, how a movement - however simple it may seem - can change the perspective of both the object and the observer. For this reason, the linear arrangement of the serigraphic series on the wall demands, in turn, the movement of the viewer as a metaphor for the construction of space.

Finally, the artist sets out a table where she presents 18 modules to be manipulated by the public, the purpose of the game being to imagine and build different forms. Thus, “Columns”, “Modules” and “Shadows” make up a manifesto, through which Micaela Aljovín questions not only the structures inherited, learned, acquired and / or imposed over the years, but also the possibilities of generating links.

The constant repetition in both proposals drives us to think of the simulation, as a need to restate the body-work-of-art that inhabits the exhibition space: it is a body and occupies a place in the space. At the same time, the simulation leads us to think about the simile, since the exhibited objects appear to be something that they are not, but which, due to their forms, become recognizable upon the viewer’s gaze. Thus, the simulation mechanism ends up configuring the meeting point for the proposals of Nani Cárdenas and Micaela Aljovín. While one reproduces portals that refer to the house —in the attempt to build memory and identity—, the other reproduces serial pieces that show the difficulties that society faces in building a collective project given the fragility of the structures that support it.

Formas de habitar opens a series of reflections around memory, identity, occupied spaces, the structures that support us, as well as the possibility of building a common project; be it a house, or a country. In this way, it brings together two opposing and complementary glances that suggest seeing through, sensing questions or answers between shadows, perhaps a path, a new space, or ways of living.

Luisa Fernanda Lindo – Curadora
Abril, 2021

12.-18.4.2019

Is Peru an integrated society? Can we construct a unified project as a country? Are we really capable of empathizing and picturing ourselves in someone else’s position? Creating a series of collective and individual pieces, Nani Cárdenas and Micaela Aljovín reflect and channel these inquiries through their project Andamio.

Their collective work is woven in “rafia”, a material used to make practical objects such as nets and bags. Nevertheless, the material inevitably acquires a unique and wholesome beauty. The pieces also allude to an ancestral practice in Peru: textile making. The embroidery itself resembles a large feathered blanket. Moreover, it portrays the idea of construction - the process of interweaving fibers as an image of a social body in its way to achieve a common goal. The technique strengthens the concept behind the pieces: construction, union and support.

Overall, the artworks picture the possibility of a country that has been able to build, construct and create in such ragged conditions but is yet still fragmented and has many unresolved issues. Furthermore, their work calls upon the reflection of the spectator, regarding the links and values that we construct in order to contribute to an integrated Peru as it is seen in cartographies.

Gabriela Germaná
Art historian and curator

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