Ana Alenso

ANA ALENSO (Caracas, Venezuela, 1982).
"Tropical Dutch disease".
Mirror and painted metal.
Measurements: 60 x 30 x 30 cm.

This conceptual and metaphorical work by Ana Alenso alludes in its title to the so-called "Dutch disease", an economic locution linked to the negative effects that dependence on a natural resource can have on an economy as a whole. In a tropical key, the piece situates this problem in the Latin American context and, especially, in the territories crossed by oil, mining and the exploitation of raw materials.

The work combines mirror and painted metal, cold and industrial materials that the artist articulates in a composition of unstable equilibrium, where the forms recall tools, propellers or fragments of machinery. The mirror introduces a particularly effective critical dimension, by incorporating the viewer into its field of vision. Thus, the object becomes a sort of symbolic device, where formal beauty coexists with an uncomfortable reading about progress, dependence and deterioration.

Ana Alenso is a Venezuelan artist based in Berlin. Trained in visual arts at the Instituto Universitario Armando Reverón, she completed studies in Media Art at the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He has presented projects in spaces such as Kunstverein Arnsberg, Centro de Arte La Regenta, La Casa Encendida, Färgfärben Stockholm and Brücke-Museum Berlin. He has also participated in international biennials and residencies, consolidating a critical trajectory linked to debates on matter, territory and extractive economy.