5/5/2011
Lara Almarcegui
Tent, Rotterdam
Construction materials, excavations, wastelands. The guides and slide projections on derelict plots in metropolises such as London, New York and Sao Paolo are shown for the first time as a coherent whole in the exhibition. Pictorial accounts of the excavation of floors in Secession in Vienna and the RAI Building in Amsterdam, among others, are presented in mutual correlation.
TENT presents the first major solo exhibition in the Netherlands by Lara Almarcegui. Since the
mid-nineties, Almarcegui (Zaragoza, 1972, lives and works in Rotterdam) has developed an
impressive body of works, which receives much international acclaim. In TENT, for the first
time an attempt is made to reveal the great consistency of the work of Lara Almarcegui. The
exhibition is also accompanied by a publication, with an overview of her work from the past
fifteen years.
The guides and slide projections on derelict plots in metropolises such as London, New York and
São Paolo are shown for the first time as a coherent whole in the exhibition. Pictorial accounts
of the excavation of floors in Secession in Vienna and the RAI Building in Amsterdam, among
others, are presented in mutual correlation. A new installation will be unveiled at the opening.
Rotterdam-based artist Lara Almarcegui stands out with a radical combination of social
engagement and conceptual methods. In the work of Almarcegui, we see both a critique of the
modernist notion of progress and a reflection on the unforeseen consequences of urban
development. Her research of wastelands, ruins and construction materials is linked to themes
such as attention for the environment, the consequences of economic growth, the effects of
how space is utilized, the slipping by of time in space, the potential of decay.
When Almarcegui attended De Ateliers Amsterdam in 1996 she immediately moved out of the
studio she was assigned in order to dig a hole on a derelict plot of land. After a few days, a
building crew filled the hole and all that remained were the photographs she made of her
intervention. An apparently simple action of a young artist, and yet the nucleus of her artistic
position is implicit in this act. She operates between political activism and sculpture. Her work
barely exists as a work of art, an object, more as evidence of a previous action, as the reporting
of an investigative process, recorded in guides, maps, in a calculation, slide projections,
photography.
Since the mid nineteen-nineties, her research-oriented practice has concentrated on
excavations, ruins and derelict plots. She has worked in places as diverse as Taipei, São Paulo,
Amsterdam and Vienna. Metropolises caught up in a process of rapid urbanization, cities that
transform large swathes of their urban landscape in search of better economic conditions and to
become more attractive places to live. In her guides, Almarcegui documents the vacated,
overlooked or left-behind places on the verge of being swallowed up by the processes of urban
renewal, but which almost seem unwilling to keep pace with the functional development. The
guides offer an alternative interpretation of the cityscape and encourage readers to participate
in an unusual form of tourism by actually visiting these remote and undesignated landmarks.
Ultimately, the guides also function as testimonies to the passing of time.
In 2004 Almarcegui calculated the amount and sorts of construction materials used to build the
art space for which she was then preparing an exhibition. The exhibition consisted of the
presentation of all the building materials necessary to construct the building. She had to
perform lengthy and precise calculations, in which specific gravity, stability factors and all kinds
of scientific formulas yielded the exact quantities of materials. The neatly stacked sacks of raw
materials formed a monumental volume that did bear some resemblance to an abstract
sculpture. Over the years the materials have gradually emerged from their packaging and been
returned to their origins: a heap of raw material, ready to be (re)worked. When seen as such, it
makes the architecture of the building seem humble, nothing more than a temporary
coagulation within the flow of time. The act of assembling the materials simultaneously
embodies a form of institutional critique and a form of ecological consciousness.
And yet, sometimes a notion of beauty also sneaks into the work. The dumped pile of cement
has a velvet surface, the calculation of the weight for São Paolo becomes a magical formula and
the photographs of derelict areas in the city call attention to the aesthetics of decay.
A comprehensive monograph on the work of Lara Almarcegui, edited by Latitudes (Max
Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna) and published by Archive Books will be launched with a
discussion between the artist and the editors at TENT on the evening of Thursday 19 May. The
publication includes essays by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Lars Bang Larsen. ISBN 978-88-95702-
05-6
With thanks to: Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Fonds BKVB, Drentse Recycling Maatschappij B.V.,
Maltha Glasrecycling, Calduran Kalkzandsteen, J. Luyt B.V., A.V.S. Engineering, ExPoSchuim
Nijmegen B.V., P. van der Kooij Schiedam, REKO Recycling Kombinatie, Heros Sluiskil
Exhibition concept: Lara Almarcegui, Mariette Dölle
Technical production: Roel Meelkop
Graphic identity: Laura d’Ors
Image: Lara Almarcegui, Guide to the Wastelands of São Paulo, 2006
Opening exhibition: Friday 6 May, 20.00hrs
Thursday 19 May, 20.00hrs: Book launch Lara Almarcegui: Projects 1995–2010
Tent
Witte de Withstraat 50 - Rotterdam
Tue - Sun, 11 - 18.00
Admission:
€ 4 - TENT
€ 2 - (<18 years, CJP, student, 65 +, groups of 10)
€ 7 - combined ticket Witte de With & TENT
Free: <12 years, Museum, Rotterdampas