Mano Penalva

Mano Penalva (Bahía, BR – 1987) Mano Penalva’s process involves his interest in Anthropology and Material Culture, which occurs in this urgency to appropriate common articles found and purchased on the street, popular markets and domestic spaces. Thus, one can recognize a breakdown of frontiers into a globalized language proposed by the meeting of the materials used in the works, either in the appropriation of a national family iconography, or in the juxtaposition of it to other iconographies in different parts of the world. Often subvert the values and meanings and stitching social and philosophical discourses that are evidenced by the forms of created objects. As an artist he explores the poetry obtained by the displacement of materials and objects from his everyday context, working with different media such as painting, video, photography, sculpture and installation. His work brings reflections on the character of objects, how they transit the world, exchange relationships and trade agreements between countries. They acquire different layers of meanings when used by different cultures, impacting on the formation of the customs of a society. Mano emphasizes with his works the idea that the exponential proliferation of objects and images are not intended to train perception or consciousness, but insist on merging with them. ...

LLANO is a Mexican platform focused on artists whose production is the result of long-term research. Their body of work is often related to science, history, technology as well as forgotten wisdom and unforeseen communities. LLANO highlights thought processes and thorough research, creating crosspoints and strong bonds with the work from an immersive standpoint. It aims to take the spectator beyond traditional exhibition formats and deeper into the original source of the work. LLANO is an all-around project where exhibition space evolves into many shapes: from an open field in the top of a former textile factory in Mexico City to volcanos, jungles, deserts, oceans, mountains, as well as urban landscapes and historical landmarks. The diverse projects it presents begin as expeditions that go directly into the context that sourced inspiration and information for the artist and are the natural niches to where the work belongs. LLANO’s intention is to build bridges between the spectator and the profound reasons that hold artworks together, in order to experiment art from a new and different standpoint, both literally and symbolically. ...