LUCIA MONGE
News
Current | Upcoming
• Mientras una Hoja Respira (While a Leaf Breathes) at Hampshire College Art Gallery, Feb 15 — March 22
• Artist talk, SAIC- School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mar 19
• FIBRA Colectivo at "Habitar Futuros Posibles" Museum of Contemporary Art in Lima, Mar 21 — Apr 23
• ARHA Faculty and Staff Show Amherst College, Feb 21 — Apr 29
• FIBRA Colectivo solo show at NOW Gallery, Lima, Aug 1
• ARTEONICA: Art, Science, and Technology in Latin America Today MOLAA - Museum of Latin American Art, Sep 7 — Feb 2 2025
Reciente
• Mientras una Hoja Respira (While a Leaf Breathes) solo show at ArtYard, Oct 28 — Jan 28
• Lucia Monge Collaborates With Living Organisms for While a Leaf Breathes Hyperallergic, Nov 8
• FIBRA Colectivo in The Work of Art in the Age of Planetary Destruction edited by David Osrin and Aarathi Prasad.
• Plantón Móvil on the archival issue of CSPA Quarterly from the Centre for Sustainable Arts, edited by Jaime Morra and Evelyn O'Malley
• FIBRA's work featured in Yasmine Ostendorf's book "Let's Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts"
Works
Desbosque: desenterrando señales
FIBRA Colectivo
2021-ongoing
“Desbosque” es una bioinstalación que transmite el ritmo de la deforestación en Ucayali, Perú.
Desbosque is a fungi broadcast of deforestation in Ucayali, Peru.
TEXT
Ucayali es una de las cinco regiones con la mayor cantidad de bosques en el Perú y a su vez, es la región con más denuncias relacionadas a la tala de bosques. Solamente en el 2019, se estimó una pérdida forestal equivalente a 67,360 canchas de fútbol. En esta zona, las principales causas de pérdida de bosques o "desbosque", son el comercio ilegal de madera, el tráfico de tierras y el cultivo a gran escala de palma aceitera.
"Desbosque" toma como punto de partida a las redes de comunicación e intercambio que se forman entre las raíces de las plantas y las hifas de los hongos. Estas redes, llamadas micorrizas, permiten un flujo de información e intercambio en el bosque. De la misma manera, proponemos una bio-instalación compuesta de esculturas co-creadas con hongos que transmiten una sonificación de data reciente sobre deforestación en la zona. Los hongos comunican la realidad de los árboles convirtiendo a la sala de exposición en un organismo que pulsa en la misma frecuencia del desbosque.
Ucayali is located in the Amazon rainforest and is one of the five regions with the largest amount of forests in Peru. At the same time it is the region with the most complaints related to logging. In 2019 alone, a forest loss equivalent to 67,360 soccer fields was estimated. The main causes of forest loss in this region are illegal logging, land trafficking, and palm oil plantations.
Under the forest ground, plants, trees, and fungi join their roots and hyphae to form vast communication and exchange networks. Mycorrhizal networks inform and inspire this project. "Desbosque" is an installation of sculptures co-created with fungi that broadcast recent deforestation data and turn the urban exhibition space into an organism that pulses on the same frequency as tree loss.
Fotos: Juan Pablo Murrugarra / MAC Lima
https://fibracolectivo.com
Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros
2020-ongoing
Unearthing Futures is a collaboration with Xin Liu that asks who gets to go to space? Who even gets to imagine themselves going to space?
TEXT
The dominant narrative of the future and space exploration follows western aesthetics and politics that are really just a continuation of colonialism. The search for new territories and even the idea of “discovery” are really motivated by extraction and supported by exploitation.
As a response, we sent 150 Peruvian potatoes seeds to space. Upon their return from a month-long stay at the International Space Station we planted them alongside their earthbound siblings in our backyards.
We chose potatoes because they are a symbol of diversity. In Peru, where they are indigenous, there are more than 4,500 varieties. Furthermore, we see them not only as food source or biological specimens but also as fellow travelers or even co-pilots. Their journey to space is the beginning of a series of conversations and re-imaginations of future space travel.
Tools for many kinds of selves / Herramientas para distintas formas de ser
Mixed media // 2017-ongoing
"Ways of being are emergent effects of encounters" Anna Tsing
TEXT
I believe sculpture can be a sort of walking cane; a tool that becomes a physical manifestation of the distance between ourselves and everything around us. It represents the space in-between and, at the same time, may transfer touch serving as a conductor for contact.
I have been making sculptures that take on the form of speculative/prosthetic/por qué no/what-if tools meant to be used by small groups of people. These tools and the accompanying scores are influenced by mycelial thinking and invite to observe and record the thinking and action that emerge from attention to other ways of being (to each other).
Plantón Móvil
Plants, trees and people // 2010-ongoing
http://www.plantonmovil.org
TEXT
¿Cómo sería encontrarse un bosque móvil circulando entre el tráfico, los edificios y la gente apurada?
Todos los días crece el cemento y disminuye el verde. Los árboles, arbustos, flores y demás plantas de nuestra ciudad quedan irremediablemente en algún rincón de la ciudad: casi invisibles y totalmente inmóviles. Son arrimados, asfixiados y hasta convertidos en basurero. Es entonces como un pequeño grupo de plantas se junta y sale a circular entre los micros y combis de Lima. Un pequeño bosque que sale pacíficamente a marchar por su lugar en la ciudad.
Al final de cada recorrido un grupo de las plantas recorridas sirven para crear una área verde en el espacio público.
“Plantón” is the word in Spanish for a sapling. It is also the word for a sit-in. This project takes on both: the green to be planted and the peaceful protest. It is about giving plants and trees the opportunity to walk down the streets of their city. At the end of each walk, we co-create community public green areas.
I have organized “walking forest” performances annually since 2010. Plantón Móvil is about moving-with as a form of solidarity. I began thinking humans were lending their mobility to plants—now I understand that we gain much from borrowing their slowness as well. We learn in our attempt to find common speed.
More on Plantón Móvil on the project’s website: http://www.plantonmovil.org
Fotos: Rob Harris, Tatiana Guerrero, Brian House, Josip Curich, Eugenia Ivanissevich, Jorge Ochoa
Fruiting Bodies / Cuerpos Fructíferos
2019-ongoing
TEXT
Fruiting Bodies: Creative Experiments in Fungal Inoculation & Mycoremediation is a collaborative and ongoing project with Chris Kennedy and Chloe Zimmerman. Fruiting Bodies is an ongoing experiment in fungal sociality, that explores the possibilities of mushroom cloning, mycoremediation, and social exchange through community science, sculpture, and collective ritual. The project launched in 2019 with a workshop at Genspace, inviting participants to create agar-based sculptures modeled from a chosen body part and inoculated with oyster mushrooms. After a week of incubation, the sculptures (fruiting bodies) were buried in a disturbed site in Sunset Park, Brooklyn exploring community-based approaches to bioremediation. Chris and Chloe held a second workshop at Governor's Island during the summer as part of the Jie Jin's Curiouseed program. Now we are planning our future plans.
Re-Performeando a Darwin / Re-Performing Darwin
2018-ongoing
TEXT
Este proyecto comienza estudiando el libro de Charles Darwin "Movimientos y Hábitos de Plantas Trepadoras" y replicando algunos de sus experimentos para observar y registrar el movimiento de las plantas. Mis experimentos no son completamente idénticos a los suyos pero comparten a la observación como método y herramienta base. Este proyecto se enfoca en dos escalas y contextos distintos. Por un lado anota el crecimiento y revoluciones de tallos y zarcillos en plantas adentro de mi taller y por otro registra el movimiento de plantas enrrolladas con la infraestructura urbana. El primer escenario reduce variables ambientales y permite un enfoque en el movimiento espontáneo de distintas especies y de partes específicas de la planta. El segundo escenario se concentra justamente en la interacción entre el movimiento de la planta y su contexto y representa la negociación entre la planta, la ciudad y los otros seres vivos que por ahí se mueven.
Las rejas y paredes por las que estas plantas trepan son particularmente relevantes pues este movimiento de las plantas que las trepa, enrrolla y cruza en varias direcciones vuelve a estas supuestas fronteras permeables.
This project starts with Charles Darwin's text The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants and replicates some of his experiments for observing and notating plant movement. Although my experiments are translations of his methods, tools, and techniques they share a base in observation. My project notes two different scales and contexts. One of my experiments marks the growth of particular shoots and tendrils in plants inside my studio and the other records the movement of plants intertwined with the urban infrastructure. The first scenario allows for a focus on the movement of specific plant parts and of the individuals themselves by reducing the amount of environmental variables. The second scenario focuses on precisely the movement that results from the changing environment and represents the negotiation between the plants, the built environment, and the other many living beings bustling on the streets.
The fences that these climbers creep on have a key role in this work as well. It is this specific type of movement that weaves permeability into the border.
Mi niño, your dryspell, their waterfall
2018-ongoing
TEXT
Este es un proyecto de largo plazo que investiga las estrategias de plantas desérticas para recolectar y guardar agua. Las adaptaciones morfológicas de estas plantas informan exploraciones en escultura para re-imaginar herramientas humanas con funciones similares. Observar la manera en la que las plantas enfrentan la falta de agua es un filtro para repensar la manera en la que lidiamos con el recurso en nuestra vida cotidiana. El diseño de nuestras herramientas y sistemas habla de nuestra relación con el agua.
Mi investigación ha comenzado con especies endémicas de Sudáfrica y Perú. Con el tiempo incorporará a otras especies de plantas y regiones.
Mi niño, your dry spell, their waterfall is a long-term project that looks into the ways in which desert plants collect and conserve water to re-think and re-shape human tools designed for similar tasks. It begins with plant species endemic to deserts in South Africa and Peru and will later expand to other parts of the world. These plant's morphological adaptations inform sculptural explorations that produce natural-cultural artifacts and speculative water systems. To observe how plants face the challenge of water scarcity serves as a lens to revisit the way humans handle water and organize its distribution on an everyday basis.
[Nos]Otros / [Our]Others
Found tree limbs + second hand shoes // 2015, 2016
TEXT
El título de esta pieza alude al reconocimiento de otros seres vivos como parte de nuestra comunidad. La palabra nosotros incluye a 'otros' en la unidad del 'yo'. Sugiere la presencia de lo 'otro' en los límites del 'uno' mismo y de esta manera la extensión de los bordes que comprenden lo que yo soy y de cuál es mi comunidad. Sin embargo la noción del 'nosotros' no es fija. Encontrar un balance en y con otros seres vivos y nuestro medio ambiente es una negociación constante, una práctica diaria. Buscar que este grupo de ramas recogidas por la ciudad alcancen el equilibrio suficiente para pararse alude a esa práctica.
Nosotros is the word in Spanish for us or we. If broken down into nos + otros, it reads something similar to our + others. [Nos]otros then stands for our others; as an extended community that recognizes other living forms as part of our own kin[d]. Finding balance in and with our environment is a continuous negotiation, an everyday practice. Helping this group of limbs stand alludes to that practice.
This project was exhibited in 2015 at RISD’s graduation thesis show in Providence, and at Flux Factory, NY. In 2016 it was recreated with participants at a workshop at Bosse & Baum Gallery for the exhibition Arcadia Artificial, London.
Fotos: Forrest Kelley, Damian Griffiths and Eugenia Ivanissevich
Body partes
Primer Contacto
Installation of plants connected to the human organ system, a drawing table with speakers and a pen attached to a contact microphone // 2013
TEXT
This installation invited participants to spend some time drawing a plant in detail. Drawing requires observation and close attention. In this way the experience aimed to function as an initial contact with the chosen plant. The pen with which the drawings were made had a piezo-electric connected to it so each trace created a specific sound. The contact sounds between the pen, the paper, the observer's eye, and the plant were reproduced through speakers, recorded and later displayed next to the participants' drawings.
Arcadia Artificial
escultura / sculpture
drawing / dibujo
Pañuelos de Despedida / Farewell Handkerchiefs
Fabric, water-soluble and permanent markers, thread, appliqués, ribbons // 2008-2009
TEXT
A goodbye necessarily establishes an ending and therefore usually implies a “letting go” that is not always easy. The same way handkerchiefs were carried in-hand during goodbyes at ports, I propose this ritualization of a farewell on a personalized handkerchief. Using water as a means of transport participants disssolve images of the past they have inscribed on their piece of cloth. Color stains and patterns emerge as a vestige of what was lived, a sort of shroud marked with the presence it held. Whether this is a happy, sad, calm or furious goodbye, we also celebrated what is carried for the future with indeleble markers and embroidery.
This project was carried out as a workshop/shared ritual in Mexico and Peru. These were held at different locations such as a museum, plazas, a home, a cultural centre and a women’s penitentiary.
Mitin Gap
[experimental] Conversations between people speaking in foreign languages // 2013-2015
TEXT
Participants were invited to engage in conversation with another person while each speaking in their mother tongue. They had to practice/attempt communication even thought they did not speak each other's language. Conversations were carried out in Mandarin, Spanish, French, Corean, Tibetan, and Arabic in different combinations. The dialog was revealed afterwards when the content was transcribed from the sound recordings into what was then the common ground; English. Video and sound recordings document these encounters. The frame however reveals very little of the speakers and rather centers in the space in between them.
Bio
Lucia Monge is a Peruvian artist whose work explores the ways humans position ourselves within the natural world and relate to other living beings, especially plants. For the past 13 years she has organized Plantón Móvil, a yearly “walking forest” performance that has led to the creation of green spaces in Lima, London, Minneapolis, Providence, New York, and Paris. Other recent projects include exploring vulnerability through plant respiration, a "fungi broadcast" about deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon, and sending potato seeds to space as messengers for non-colonial visions of space travel.
Monge has shown her work internationally, including at the Queens Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art in Lima, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Ars Electronica, and the Havana and OCAT (Shenzhen) biennales. Her work has been featured in publications such as MoMA’s Uneven Growth, Global Performance Studies, and with FIBRA in Eco-Lógicas Latinas, among other. She holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from Universidad Católica del Perú, she is a founding member of FIBRA collective, and an Assistant Professor of Art at Amherst College.
Curriculum Vitae
Contacto
lucia@plantonmovil.org
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