Gina Proenza at CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel

Artist: Gina Proenza

Exhibition title: Agarra-diablo

Venue: CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Date: February 14 – March 29, 2020

Photography: Sebastian Verdon / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel

The expression Agarra-diablo is used to name a tropical plant whose stem has the particularity of being sharp and raspy, with the ability to cling, grip, connect bodies that have not paid attention to it. Between obstacle and protection, the agarra-diablo becomes the thread of an exhibition constructed in the image of a chase: pots are as much linked to jaguar tongues as melodies to unstable floors, producing an accumulation of depraved perspectives that are not fully grasped by our humanized senses.

Based on the configuration of the Darién, an almost impassable region located at the North/South junction of the American continent, Gina Proenza’s personal exhibition is made up of spaces that hide from each other. How do we cross indomitable places of transit? Which direction to choose between the jaguar’s path or the crossroads? Can we still call nature a biological ecosystem that is no longer under the influence of the myth of culture?

Gina Proenza echoes the story of some of the underground actors of this place – natives, pirates, drug traffickers, streams or burnt woods – to produce sketches that punctuate the wandering. The circulation of objects, sounds or bodies is produced by dissemination and leads us into a heady loop: are we in the place of a burglar, on the lookout for the slightest noise? Or a detective looking for evidence?

Thanks to Laurent Güdel, Claudine Guthmann, Andreas Hochuli, Tristan Lavoyer, Christian Jaggi, Charly Mirambeau, Anne Proenza, Carlos Proenza, Mathieu Rivier, Clarisa Ruiz, Ruben Valdez, Renato Zülli and the Chœur de Biu.

Gina Proenza, Agarra-diablo, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2020

Gina Proenza, Nostalgie en pantoufles, 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Allen Smithee, 2020

Gina Proenza, Agarra-diablo, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2020

Gina Proenza, Agarra-diablo, 2020

Gina Proenza, Agarra-diablo, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2020

Gina Proenza, Traductrice cleptomane, 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Agarra-diablo, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2020

Gina Proenza, L’ami naturel III, 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, L’ami naturel III, (detail), 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Nostalgie en pantoufles, 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Nostalgie en pantoufles, (detail), 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Presto digiti, 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Presto digiti, 2020, (detail), installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Robert et Willy, 2020, installation view at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel

Gina Proenza, Robert et Willy, 2020, (detail)