“John Doe is here, can he come in?”
The question sounds in the megaphone of the apartment that we rented by airbnb in the San Rafael neighborhood, a neutral and depersonalized space, assembled as if it were a hotel, at the entrance guards surrounded a lobby that nobody will ever inhabit. Security measures are a filter that allows only “your friends” to access your space. Like Facebook, the guardhouse watches so that you are not bothered by strangers.
Comfort zone raises the idea of a connected home that understands social networks as spaces that house our spectacularized intimacies, lonely synergies, unhappy monologues and shared polarizations. Our affections and moods are mediated by an interface that encourages our ego with every “like” or that unnerves our anger with mostly absurd discussions. Facebook is the room, instagram the hall, on the table some sexting is happening …
Luciana Ponte, an Argentine artist based in Mexico, plays with our sense of humor, posing personal situations that become collective and in which we can see ourselves identified not only by the use of codes that we recognize in our connected daily life (posts, likes, emojis or the two blue arrows) but for those emotions that are manifested when we look at those images on the screen.
Luciana’s work makes us empathize with the shared anxieties and we recognize ourselves in that affectionate violence that emerges from a shower curtain turned into a meme stating the lack of solid friendships or the blanket that materializes the instagram storie that emerges from hatred for the “idiocy” of the contemporary world. In the living room the two main pieces consist of two paintings of emails, which have been sent to the artist by her haters, or her fans; a love message that is more scary than the hateful one. The paintings-emails that decorate the room are accompanied by a series of selfies taken from other “Lucianas Pontes” ‘s instagrams, an army of homonyms that the artist follows through social networks and captures by posing the game of personalities that we created for the digital world. The Brazilian Luciana ready for the carnival, the Luciana who replicates the rehearsed pose or the one who posts the failed selfie.
As a centerpiece, the “Postcoit still life” composed of emojis that are used for sexting, eggplant and peach are framed in the phrase “This could be us… but you will never mature”, again the complaint and dissatisfaction are shown in an object that moves from virtual to painting and from painting to ready made.
Luciana’s work translates her life in social networks materializing superficial and unbearable passions in paintings and objects of what she calls #interiordesign and from the comfort of the sofa she gives a “seen” sign to the well-being.
The Casa Entera format, being a fleeting and furtive project in which airbnb departments are rented and intervened, operates under a different logic from the typical mass exhibition opening. The show ends up being visited by small select groups of people, generating an intimate and pleasant atmosphere, where homy conversations took place, people took pictures and generated new stories that went back to the social networks perpetuating the vicious circle, because this show was made for that, and to receive many “likes”.
Casa Entera
November 2019
México city
Casa Entera does not have a specific physical space, it is an ephemeral event that is determined jointly with a guest artist; an itinerant project that occurs from time to time in an apartment rented by airbnb. Casa Entera has been presented so far in Barcelona, Madrid, Cali, Medellin, Athens and Monterrey. On this occasion, the Argentine artist Luciana Ponte presents her work for the first time in Mexico City, intervening in an apartment located in the San Rafael neighborhood.
More information about Casa Entera: https://www.instagram.com/casa_entera/
Gris García (México, 1986)
Studied Visual Arts at UANL. Studied the Master of Production and Artistic Research (UB) with the support of FONCA CONACULTA. Completed the Independent Studies Program at MACBA, Barcelona. Has curated projects such as the Oral Museum of the Revolution led by Paul B. Prized for MACBA. She was Curator of Lugar a Dudas in Cali, Colombia. Project mediator in the Young Art Hall of Barcelona. Was part of the Capacete residency in the framework of Documenta 14 between Kassel and Athens. This year she obtained the Sponsorship for Curatorial Research of Fundación Jumex. She is currently Coordinator of the SOMA Educational Program.
