DEC 17TH, 2021
Home of TMF/THAT GIRL with The Wild Panthers
featuring work of Nagi Gianni & Sven Kreter
friday 17th december at 21pm - Rue Pellegrino-Rossi 7
Since her breakthrough into the peaceful Geneva contemporary art scene of the 90s, Elena Montesinos has not stopped pursuing her exasperating yet endearing trajectory. The plasticity of the visual arts serves as falsely superficial packaging for bittersweet candies of critical lucidity. The "kawaii manga" filter of a data-siphoning app thus offers the dream playground for THAT GIRL, the artist’s digitally-enhanced alter ego. By passing through the mirror of this interface, the apparent interactivity of this augmented reality relays the narcissistic passivity which this dangerously harmless devices impose upon us.
Maud Pollien
Full text / themontesinosfoundation.org / @hellohellothatgirl
Elena Montesinos is a cultural agitator, nightlife icon and hedonistic provocateur. She has regularly explored the possibilities of including music in her artistic endeavours, often in a collaborative manner, notably under the moniker The Montesinos Foundation. Her approach to interactive art is exemplified by events such as the Bûcher des Endettés(The Bonfire of the Indebted), an annual event that began in 2016 where local Genevans are invited to burn their bills, fines and unwanted payments in a great cathartic fire in a public square.
Since 2019, she is also the instigator of Get A Nerve! – a project for an alternative, non-commercial side event that would run alongside the Art Geneva fair. She was co-director of the Forde gallery at L'Usine between 2012 and 2014 before opening her own experimental space devoted to happenings and artistic production. Finally, she regularly collaborates with different associations (Amnesty International, Greenpeace) as a volunteer in the hopes of developing a better world. As a politically active artist, she defines her work as “a raised fist in a velvet glove".
©Xavier Ripolles Arasa
©Isabelle Meister (portrait)
©Diego Sanchez
showcase has been provided by coopérative B22
Elena Montesinos