Gina Folly and Lorenzo Sandoval at Swimming Pool

Artists: Gina Folly, Lorenzo Sandoval

Exhibition title: In Her Place

Curated by: Viktoria Draganova

Venue: Swimming Pool, Sofia, Bulgaria

Date: June 6 – 9, 2019

Photography: © E.M.M.A. in collaboration with Swimming Pool, Sofia. Photo: Yana Lozeva

E.M.M.A., in collaboration with Swimming Pool, is pleased to present solo projects by Lorenzo Sandoval and Gina Folly realized in the context of the annual roaming program of artistic research In Her Place. This year the program started in Tangier with a four-days communal gathering of various artists, researchers, curators and citizens to study collectively notions of displacement and the unknown аs we face them in everyday life. The gathering aims to generate a common climate of knowledge derived from different perspectives and practices, to develop connections and networks between the people and the territory where the encounter takes place, and to imagine collectively beforehand what will be done after.

During their residencies in Sofia, Folly and Sandoval worked around merchandising and souvenirs as those objects that articulate intrinsic values of past and present societies. Interested in how our social behavior is being determined through both intimate and public exposure, Gina Folly transforms objects and symbols of this culture. At the entrance of the space, one love song is transmitted by the lamp through the intermittency of the light with no sound. Inside, the TRAP series encompasses five fruit boxes that carry desires, beauty, fortune and other rubbish from capitalism while becoming furniture that shapes our daily environment.

Shadow Writing (Taking a Fragment of A Mountain) n.II by Lorenzo Sandoval is a group of textile compositions based on fragmentary elements of Peruvian textiles. Using abstract components, it questions his own position – reflecting on the avant-garde tradition as well – by introducing the difficulties to fully access to the Peruvian cosmogony. In such way, Sandoval discusses souvenirs as both archaeological carriers and commodification of culture in the artist’s hands. The pieces are presented within a sculptural display that also incorporates elements related to digital cultures, which follows the artist’s recent research on the relationship between the histories of textiles and computation.

The exhibition was preceded by a dinner and conversation with artists Gina Folly and Lorenzo Sandoval as well as curators Veronica Valentini (E.M.M.A.) and Viktoria Draganova (Swimming Pool, Sofia) at Swimming Pool. The dinner served as a conceptual, spacial and relational arrangement as well as a vehicle to introduce the artistic and curatorial practices of the invited, focusing on the question how we create, organize and relate to collective space. Both artists participate in artistic collectives and run project spaces. Since 2013, Gina co-organizes Taylor Macklin in Zurich. Lorenzo co-founded The Institute for Endotic Research – TIER, which is now located in Berlin. He is also part of the Miracle Workers Collective representing Finland in the Venice Biennale 2019. Also, “In Her Space”, a roaming program run by E.M.M.A. and curator Veronica Valentini, and the reason why Lorenzo and Gina are in Sofia, is moved by the idea to create free-learning moments through encountering new contexts and contents.

Installation view from “In Her Place: Lorenzo Sandoval and Gina Folly” at Swimming Pool, 2019

Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing (Taking a Fragment of A Mountain) n.I, 2019. Detai

Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing (Taking a Fragment of A Mountain) n. II., 2019. Mixed technique

Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing (Taking a Fragment of A Mountain) n. II, 2019. Detail

Installation view from “In Her Place: Lorenzo Sandoval and Gina Folly” at Swimming Pool, 2019

Gina Folly, TRAP I, 2019. Fruit plastic basket, wheels, artificial orchids, specified cardboard

Gina Folly, TRAP IV, 2019. Fruit plastic basket, printed fabric, specified cardboard, plug, night light, lock

Gina Folly, TRAP II, 2019. Fruit plastic basket, wheels, mirror, dice, specified cardboard, metal angle

Gina Folly, TRAP III, 2019. Fruit plastic basket, wheels, various coins, specified cardboard, cable ties, lock

Gina Folly, TRAP V, 2019. Fruit plastic basket, Bulgarian horoscope newspaper, light, specified cardboard, metal angle

Lorenzo Sandoval, Shadow Writing (Taking a Fragment of A Mountain) n. II, 2019. Mixed technique

Lorenzo Sandoval, Display for Edible Scultures, 2019. Mixed technique

Gina Folly, I cry (Night After Night), 2019. Transmitter, cable, bulb, 5:05 a love song Egyptian Lover translated in morse code