periferia

Exploration: Media as a Method
Alicia Paz and Daniela Prost

26th-29th April, 2023 showcasing artists Daniela Prost and Alicia Paz

Vernissage and artist talk by Alicia Paz: 26 April, 6.30pm.
Opening hours: 5:00 – 9:00pm.

Finnisage and Performance by the collective Convergenge: 29 April, 5:00 & 6:00pm.
Opening hours: 5:00 – 8:00pm.

1 Cité Griset, 75011 Paris, France

Exploration: Media as a Method reviews the work of Alicia Paz and Daniela Prost in dialogue for the first time. This exhibition reflects upon the different ways in which these artists are thinking critically about materials, while analysing the role of experimentation through different media. The showcase includes a set of textiles, sculpture installations and photograms by Alicia Paz; and a set of large and small scale drawings by Daniela Prost, as well as a performance in which she participates as part of her of the collective Convergence.

Alicia Paz in the series “Labyrinth of Images –Reflections on Chatsworth House” has been researching the historic collections of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, to inspire a new body of work using the technique of photograms. During a residency at Centre for Print Research at UWE Bristol, she has explored translations of these photographic images into printed fabrics and other supports, to be displayed as wall-based pieces, hung from the ceiling. The aim is to create a labyrinth of interrelated images, physically and conceptually, as a rich dialogue between painting, photography, print and sculpture. Alicia has also explored wall painting and the creation of decorative patterns via block printing, and a sculptural installation referencing both jewellery and the history of the Derbyshire landscape.

 During Alicia Paz’s residency program at Chatsworth House (UK) and CFPR (Centre For Print Research, Bristol), she often combined elements of applied and decorative arts, presenting a dramatic tension between labyrinthine images by combining photography and painting on textiles, constantly shifting the artistic medium between two-dimensional planes and three-dimensional expressions to convey a uniquely complex range of work.

In the series “From the Ashes” inspired by the theory of Friedrich Nietzche, Daniela Prost expresses the capacity and the will to survive of every living being. She is interested in the deep irrational force that exists in individuals and in nature; the artist creates her own landscapes using ink, pigments and water.

 Daniela Prost uses different mediums like a skin, like a body that keeps the traces of life and time, but also it transforms to be reborn and take on new forms. Her practice is not only about her gestures or intentions, but also letting the materials take over and flow. The human and the nature elements in her work merge in harmony. Daniela Prost crafts a spiritual world within a dynamic practice. She uses her body to translate different languages and paces: practice and reflection, pause and motion, cultural and natural. She uses these dualities as a creative force. Daniela conveys her unique artistic concept of "Power of will" through abstract painting and performance art. In the series From the Ashes,

Although both artists have their own research interests and their work take different directions, their practice reveals the fragility and toughness of translucent and opaque materials, as well as the contradictory beauty of combining rationality and sensibility, showing us a multi-layered and multi-dimensional space of thoughts.

<< Credits / Team >>

Exhibition Design, Logistics & Production / Pietro Izzo

Curatorial Texts & Parallel Events / Lea Kexiu

Finance, Mediation & Production / Ekaterina Krylova

Registrar & Parallel Events / Rong Liu

Exhibition Design & Press / Pauline Michels

Artist Liaison, Mediation & Digital Catalogue/ Andia Modeen

Visual Identity & Project Manager / Beatrice Tenderini

Lights set up / Jean-Pierre Prost

Curatorial Advisor / Lassla Esquivel

We are greatly thankful to our sponsor Itacate (94 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001) for their wonderful contribution on the frame of our events.

On the frame of the show, there was also the launch of the documentary exhibition Be AWARE / IESA, a partnership between IESA arts&culture and the platform AWARE that Alicia Paz and Daniela Prost are part of.

Be AWARE aims to highlight women artists of the 20th century based on research around four themes, carried out by the students. These themes address the idea of the body as a vector of emancipation and resistance, as well as the representation of women’s bodies in the contemporary world. The texts will focus on twelve women artists who raise political, identity and cultural issues in contemporary art: Ulla von Brandenburg, Kubra Khademi, Kapwani Kiwanga, Iva Lulashi, Ntombephi Ntobela, Alicia Paz, Daniela Prost, Duaa Qishta, Karine Rougier, Chui Mui Tan, Hideka Tonomura and Chloe Wise.

This project conveyed the work of women artists selected by students of the IESA Master of Contemporary Art, accompanied by the teachers and curators Carolina Ariza and Agnès Violeau. The exhibition is based on a device created by matali crasset and AWARE, with a multimedia approach combining texts, images and video.