Days are where we live, 2021
Gina Proenza’s exhibition space is blocked by a catastrophic abacus. If one were to pause and think about its commercial connotations, this one would be as functional as an empty shop window. The irony is a little biting for a window located in the building that houses the Geneva Stock Exchange. However, the title of the work shifts the question away from a commentary on the failures of capitalism. The artist has associated this abacus with a line by English poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985), relating it to the calendar: “Days are where we live.” It’s therefore less about rehashing the old refrain about “time and money” than on insisting on inhabiting the moment rather than space.
David Lemaire
Full text / #ginaproenza
Born in 1994 in Bogotá (Colombia), Gina Proenza lives and works between Lausanne and Geneva. She lived in Colombia, France and Belgium before settling in Switzerland in 2013, where she graduated from ECAL in 2017 with a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts. Proenza's work is a collection of micro and macro narratives woven together. Her research combines literature, science, folklore and anthropology, allowing for links to be made between Amerindian references and popular European myths, while also evoking minimalist sculpture through theatrical installations. Her sculptural works – plaster mouldings, wooden constructions, ceramic anatomies or motorised objects – explore both the history of forms and their scenic and narrative dramaturgies. In addition to this, Proenza is also an exhibition curator. After having founded and directed the artist-run-space Pazioli (2015-2017) with Iseult Perrault, she is currently one of the programmers for Forde in Geneva, which she co-directs with Varun Kumar and Tristan Lavoyer.
©Isabelle Meister (portrait)
©Thomas Maisonnasse
showcase has been provided by Livit
Gina Proenza
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