Lara Fluxà: LLIM

A fusible stone at the same time as a solid juice. Glass is the very manifestation of ambiguity, according to the words the first traveler used to describe the industry in Venice. The same can be said of the city; it has been cradled throughout the centuries in a precarious balance between a solid state and a liquid one. Venice emerges from the sediments supplied by the rivers that flow into the lagoon, although it is under perpetual threat of disappearing into the waters of the Adriatic.

LLIM (silt) discreetly adheres to the canals and the glass tubes, connecting them, and, as it circulates, it progressively assimilates the layers that make up the place. Without being able to distinguish cause from effect, or interior from exterior, in Venice LLIM conducts itself like a Klein bottle: it is a situated manifestation of the viscous behavior of matter.

That a city surrounded by water became the glass-making center of the western world in the 13th century is a circumstance that is entirely due to viscosity: the ability of glass and water to reversibly mutate between states of matter keeps them open to collaboration and facilitates their coexistence.

Water has fertile power because it becomes silt when in contact with the earth. From the black mud of the Nile, the fertile land, comes the Arabic word khemia, alchemy, which has historically found a source of inspiration in glass, and its practitioners used it for the transmutation of base metals. LLIM does not aspire, in any case, to the obtaining of gold nor of the quintessence: it moves the foundation of Venice with the same calm that it metabolizes and returns the materials to their origin.

The installation
LLIM consists of a group of glass cisterns, capsules and tubes that create a landscape of organic shapes. Water permanently circulates in the installation, where it interacts with oil and milk as if it were a performance whose protagonists are the materials. Force of gravity and pumps contiunously supply the glass tubes with water from Canale di San Pietro. Inside, as it circulates, the water scatters remnants of mud and returns to the flow of the Venice network. Gradually, over the period of the Biennial, the installation will assimilate the subsoil of Venice.

LLIM will be accompanied by a courtesy publication distributed from the exhibition space including different visual and textual documents that have all been necessary in the creation process.

The artist: Lara Fluxà
Lara Fluxà (Palma, 1985) usually works with elements with their own poetic qualities that are close to us, like water or glass. The physical qualities of water and glass have led her to be interested in concepts such as fragility, stability and also scientific experimentation. Her works question the weakness of the balance of ecosystems. She has collaborated with institutions such as Lo Pati, Fundació Joan Miró, Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani Es Baluard, Casal Solleric de Palma, Museu Marítim de Barcelona and Arts Santa Mònica, among others.

The curator: Oriol Fontdevila
Oriol Fontdevila (Manresa, 1978) is a curator, writer and researcher focused on artistic practices and education. A doctoral candidate in Humanities and Communication at UOC, he has curated projects at many modern art centres and museums, such as Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Fundació Joan Miró, Centre d’Arts La Virreina, Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica, Centre de Cultura Contemporània El Carme de València and Vojvodina Contemporary Art Museum in Novi Sad, Serbia. His essay El arte de la mediación (The Art of Mediation) was published in 2018 by consonni, written thanks to a grant from MNCARS. He has collaborated on many books and modern art catalogues. He is currently an associate professor at EINA.

Commissioned and produced by the Institut Ramon Llull, public institution that promotes Catalan Language and Culture abroad.