Paisaje de Cristal, 2018

Silent as Glass, 2018
Madhaus, Santiago, Chile
Text: Alejandra Wolff
7 channel sound piece: Anselmo Ugarte
Photos: Jorge Brantmayer

Our story is always a tale that is retold, a flow of borrowings, images narrated by others, hopes and experiences. Birth documents, photographs affirming our pose, letters received, our far-reaching pursuit of testimonies through questions put to witnesses of a shared existence. Story and Memory meet in their narrative forms: the many, the others, mine and ours, allow themselves to be seen or are bold enough to recognize the similarity, a common collection of gestures, poses, bodies, signs, marks, imprints, a familiar pattern, and a sense of belonging.

Between word and image, Lería’s work revolves around mnemonic records and systems, developing as one would develop a photograph; her task is to focus on the ghost surrounding the image, to capture its elusive form and sooth its powerful appearance. Through a practice that redefines both media and materials, Andrea builds the family tree, writes her diary, draws her album, arranges her archive. What is significant is neither the story nor the particular and individual accuracy of the facts, but rather the recognizable Memory that we share; that Memory whose invention is swayed by affections, bringing us back to a future that will be everything we have not yet experienced.