Redundant and Irrecoverable Landscape
Guillermo Mena

The work carried out by Guillermo Mena during his micro-Residency was presented both at the December 2018 Open Studio and in the first ´aceNITE of 2019.

Mena intervened the Transversal Space by wearing out different pieces of coal that he accumulated during 2017 and 2018; pieces from different sources and woods. This action manifested in a drawing on the wall made during the first 3 days of the residency, inhabiting and acting on the space. In the second stage of the process, he extracted stains and prints on paper that, when being dragged over the wall’s surface, captured part of the volatile material present in the drawing. The mural remained on display until the end of May 2019

REDUNDANT AND UNRECOVERABLE LANDSCAPE  STATEMENT

During the years 2017/2018 I carried out a project called Return/Erosion, which consisted of a return to the different places that I lived in my life, including the town of Los Cóndores where I was born. On these tours, I made audio-visual recordings and collected pieces of wood from each place, which was then carbonized. This material was then processed in different drawing actions, recording and destructing actions.

I am interested in this process of material transformation as an analogy to the nostalgic gesture and the functioning of memories. The degradation of images, materials and drawing as a possibility of the appearance of a catastrophic landscape or scenario that concludes in an instance that reflects an identity; identity that starts from the remains, debris and traces of an ephemeral moment.