Project 20
Aixopluc Suspès - Liliana Díaz
Curated by Tsering Frykman-Glen
March 5th - April 16th 2021, Tangent Projects gallery.
"I have never used Catalan to title a work before, but in this case, it was hard to resist. Not only is it appropriate for this work which metaphorises the nest I have been weaving since I arrived in Catalunya, but also because the harmonious phonetics of the word Aixopluc, continues to vibrate between my teeth and tongue."
For this project, Liliana has chosen to work with organic materials that she has collected and gathered together. During her search for these elements - because it became precisely that, a search - she reflected on those pertinent natural spaces. There is an irony in wanting to share with an audience the shelter that nature provides, when finding that "sigh" in the city is not so easy to find. In creating this nest, Liliana is offering us a personal representation of her research and those encounters.
"Once I found myself immersed in the site, I began to dig the earth with my bare hands as if I was chasing my place in that furrow - seeking to satisfy the need to be rooted in the soil. When knowing the heart is well-placed, immovable, you are able to stay where you please and grow in all your dimensions. That addictive sensation of belonging everywhere and nowhere at the same time." This portion of Liliana's collected earth rests on the floor of the installation, like a welcome mat. A record of the movement, or lack of it, is drawn under the feet of the viewer.
An installation made up of many components that create an immersive experience, Aixopluc Suspès takes on ritualistic characteristics and appeals to sacred practices of communing with nature - such as the bond created when choosing the land where you plan to grow.
In order to enter the centre of the installation, it is necessary for the viewer to break through the immaculate golden halo that acts as a temple within the room. It allegorizes the stillness and temper of a shelter, with the search for an untouched space to put place our roots, which is only possible if we stay still for a few seconds while the disintegrated halo returns to its place, resumes its form and embraces us.
This piece is and is not at the same time. It allows for the possibility of looking at that which is hidden but only when it is ready to reveal itself - we just need to pause our lives for a moment. If we give ourselves time to stop, we are able to enjoy how things naturally fall into place, revealing for an instant the beauty of suspension.
Liliana Díaz is a Mexican artist living and working in Barcelona.
Through her work, Liliana seeks different reproduction strategies to dismantle the relationship between conqueror and conquered, container and content, disease and healing. A multi-disciplinary artist, she performs interventions in the landscape, creates installations, does photography, paintings, performance and sculpture. By proposing her mutated pieces, Liliana is exploring and addressing the boundaries of working with living materials that decay and decompose.
Liliana firmly believes the result of a communion between Mother Earth and human ingenuity can lead to sublime work and often works within the landscape. Saying that she allows nature to intervene in her work is an understatement, she actively encourages it and makes work that stems from a collaborative process with her environment under the lens of ecofeminism.
Her work has been exhibited in Mexico City, Barcelona, Oaxaca and Tarragona among others. She has completed artistic residencies to complement her artistic formation in New York, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
In 2018 Liliana spent a year living in Oaxaca, investigating natural dyes, local material and artisanal production methods.