Llim, an organism by Lara Fluxà was presented today. The project by the Majorcan artist and curated by Oriol Fontdevila will be available at the Catalonia space in Venice from April to November at the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale Arte, within the programme Eventi Collaterali.
The presentation took place in Palma during the morning, at the headquarters of the Conselleria de Fons Europeus, Universitat i Cultura del Govern de les Illes Balears; and in the afternoon at the Institut Ramon Llull in Barcelona. The councillor of Presidència, Funció Pública i Igualtat, Mercedes Garrido, who presided at the press conference in the morning, stated that the participation of Lara Fluxà at Biennale “is a proof of the great artistic talent of these islands; a talent that the Govern de les Illes Balears supports with several areas and programmes addressed to the visual arts”. On his part, director of the Institut Ramon Llull Pere Alameda highlighted the relevance of the continuous presence of Catalan culture at the Venice Biennale, “a great-scope international context, crucial within contemporary art”. He added: “with Lara Fluxà’s project we are committing to the emerging talent and to this work that dialogues to what Venice represents.”
The intervention by Lara Fluxà is made of an assembly of cisterns, capsules, and glass pipes. In words of the artist: “a group of skinless organisms families in dialogue and transformation with water.” Coming from the Venice canal, the water will circulate continuously through the installation leaving waste, mud, and silt, that is, llim, which names the exhibition. During the seven months of the Biennale, the piece will absorb the subsoil of Venice, integrating it to the pavilion through the pipes. In that sense, Oriol Fontdevila explained: “Lara works with glass and water as essential substances of life, as matters that mutate in a reversible way, generating bonds with other begetter substances.”
On her side, Lara Fluxà explained that her work is “a living organism that leaves much room for experiment and surprise, an open and clear organism that allows us to see its inner part and walking through it”.
The Institut Ramon Llull is producing and arranging Catalonia’s participation at the Eventi Collaterali of the Venice Biennale Arte since 2009. As done every year in order to select the winning proposal, the Institut Ramon Llull created a committee of experts made of a president, three spokespersons, and a secretary from the Institute. The president was Hiuwai Chu (MACBA), and the spokespersons were Mabel Palacín (artist), Anna Pahissa (Hangar), and Carles Guerra, independent curator.
The curator and writer Cecilia Alemani (Milano, 1977) is the director of this year’s edition, named The Milk of Dreams and referring to a book by the British painter and writer Leonora Carrington in which, as Alemani states, “the surrealist artist describes a magic world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination, and where everyone can change, be transformed, become something and someone else.” 213 artists from 58 countries will participate in the 2022 Biennale.
