Introduction Celina Eceiza

Celina Eceiza
Ofrenda

In cooperation with the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark the first solo exhibition in Europe of Argentinian artist Celina Eceiza (*1988 Tandil, lives in Buenos Aires) is on view. Ofrenda [Offering] presents a way of inhabiting a space as if the architecture were a body, changing states as you pass from one room to the next. The rigidity of the building collapses as the walls are draped in thousands of metres of fabric joined together through the collective and timeless action of sewing, until they form a single smooth surface, sensitive to the slightest change.

For the yellow entrance of the installation, Eceiza delved into an investigation of the Museo Moderno’s collection. She then reinterpreted selected paintings in new pieces, using delicately interwoven textiles in resplendent collaged forms to showcase her own, alternative reading of Argentinian modern art history. Ofrenda​’s red room is filled with numerous gigantic chalk drawings on canvas and hand-dyed fabrics and carpets. The compositions are highly symbolic, depicting different beings and bodies undergoing transformations. This painterly ​“skin” with its metaphorical wrinkles and folds feels organic; it is resilient and yet delicate.

Eceiza constructs a ​“soft,” welcoming museum through elaborate and detailed handicraft in which seeing is no longer the only or most important sense to be engaged. This intimate and collective experience displays its political power by presenting art as a living form, which opens up rooms for social gatherings. In Ofrenda, the artist presents a rare gift that offers hope and a joy for life in difficult times. We enter Eceiza’s fantastic world, filled with impulsive inhabitants, and leave transformed, having experienced a freer vision of our own bodies and their social power.
 

Coproduction
HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires

Curated by Sandro Droschl in collaboration with Agustina Vizcarra