Leila Tschopp
Exhibition & Residency:
March 8 – April 30, 2011

Since 2006 Leila Tschopp has been developing several projects that relate painting with real space on an attempt to rethink the practice as a more global experience, in dialogue with other disciplines, such as architecture or scenography. One of the aims of her investigation is to build a pictorial and fictitious space that arises from the close relationship with the physical space in which it is installed. As a consequence, Leila is interested in working in each project not only with the architectonic aspects but also with her personal experiences, with her subjective wondering and with the collective memories of each place. This working method is like working on a collage, superposing at once reflection, formal research, memories, intuition, references and citations.

Many of the canvases and installations that arise from this procedure are inspired by modern art and architecture. Leila is specially interested in constructions from the 1920’s to 1970’s. Her initial working method proceeds from observation and photography of architecture during city walks and later on, from her interpretations of it through canvas paintings. These representations ask about vernacular and modern, perception, structure, functionality, collective and personal culture of Buenos Aires as a metropolis, national history in relation to immigration and foreign influences.

She also is interested in the vanguards in Argentina, the first national examples of abstraction and modernism in painting (Emilio Pettorutti, Lino Spilimbergo, Juan del Prete) and Concrete Art Movement, that established a landmark within the panorama of esthetics in Latin America.