La Luz Proviene de Ahí: Alicia Ayanegui
Julieta Gil
Darinka Lamas
Berenice Olmedo
Paloma Rosenzweig
Astrid Terrazas

“What happens when that which is supposed to protect us, conditions our existence?” is a question at the core of Darinka Lamas’ practice. The artist reflects on the politics of space and comments on architecture as a heavily politically charged structure. Through a performative process that requires her to source found materials and debris from construction sites, Lamas creates cinder blocks by pulverizing and mixing such materials into brand-new blocks that can be reused to make a new home. They were born from questioning the life of old buildings that were once used for a single-family living, and due to gentrification and the verticalization of the cities, are now overpopulated. Like ruins forgotten in contemporary cities, these structures narrate the story of a city that has been renovating and rebuilding itself for centuries. “I have always been interested in the history embedded in the materials. They amass together hundreds of stories from past tenants and past lives,” the artist states. “I am constantly trying to amalgam all these stories together through my process and in my own time.”

Analyzing the space she inhabits, Alicia Ayanegui paints vignettes of light and darkness within the household to reflect on the meaning of stillness and emptiness. Her work is the result of the extended observation and deep analysis of her living space, which she reconstructs into seemingly uncomplicated compositions. They act as testimony to the dialogues that unfold between Ayanegui and her surroundings. Her works tend to poetically depict and often abstract commonplace objects, such as chairs, pillows, and house plants, which inadvertently evidence the person who owns them and softly reveal their personal history. “These are my things and my experiences: what I feel when I’m there, immersed in a space.”