Zilla Leutenegger

The title of Zila Leutenegger’s piece to be shown at Vacío 9 is “The Smokers”. It is based around four real people: Mia, from Sweden, Olesya, from Russia, Kathleen from the United States and Annelise, from France (the woman who appears in the drawing on the invitation). They are all smoking. Although they are all different types of woman, each of them is working class and they are all “very trash”. The piece consists of four drawing-format installations, parts of which are animated using video projections that are then continued into drawings done on wallpaper, and two further pieces than can be viewed in TV monitors. The piece is rounded off with nine framed drawings. During the exhibition a dry-ice machine fills the gallery with a realistic smoke / fog.

In her work, ZIlla constantly strives to include the intimacy of the drawing and then juxtapose it against the media provided by the new technologies. The upshot is a creative process that reflects on the external I and its relationships with the private, interior I, on the loneliness that exists within the continuous action carried out in a world of circumstances, on the real and the virtual, on the self-affirmation of a feminine existence confronting a demystification of those feminine values that are normally taken for granted. Zilla always speaks in secret languages that are disconcerting because although they are apparently diaphanous they are impossible to completely decipher. In her work virtual reality takes on new meanings. She makes drawings of herself and these become animated cartoons that live in and move through lineal, familiar and static universes. Her work would appear to be incredibly simple, but the concept behind it and the draughtsmanship employed is impeccable, as is the way in which her videos are made. The Vacío exhibition will be a follow-on to the show the artist is putting on at the Sala Montcada in Barcelona, which is, in turn, a continuation of the work exhibited at the Frieze Art Fair, the Peter Kilchmann Gallery in Zurich and the Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris.

Pressetext

Zilla Leutenegger
The smokers