Art Basel Cities Week

‘Hopscotch (Rayuela)’ Catalog

Alfabeto lunar / Lunar Alphabet, 2018<style> p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 22.4px; font: 24.0px Arial; color: #444749} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} </style>Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno

Leandro Katz

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		Alfabeto lunar / Lunar Alphabet, 2018
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		Polished cement and bronze 
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		27 tiles, each 80 cm x 120 cm
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The writer, conceptual artist, and filmmaker Leandro Katz has created a new version of his 1978 work Alfabeto lunar, originally a series of photographs capturing the changing light on the surface of the moon. The work was a document of the 27 phases of the lunar cycle, each paired with a letter of the alphabet – enough entries to include the Spanish letter Ñ. This new version is installed as 27 tiles on the entryway patio to the National Library, where excavators during its construction discovered the fossils of prehistoric glyptodons (giant armadillos), known in mythology as ‘eggs of the moon.’ (The discovery was especially uncanny, as the building’s form, standing on four legs and enclosed by a shell, resembles that of a glyptodon.) Each tile has been created using three tones of cement that are separated by bronze outlines, mimicking certain sidewalk designs in the city. With its unique location and fabrication, Alfabeto lunar / Lunar Alphabet is both a direct homage to the famed collection of astronomy books within the library’s stacks and a nod to the sidewalk tiles of Buenos Aires, which occasionally carry poems and instructions for how to dance the tango. A small exhibition of related works is on view in the library’s Sala Leopoldo Lugones on the lower level.Special thanks to Natalia Garnero and Ezequiel Martínez for their support, and to Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno for hosting this ‘Hopscotch (Rayuela)’ work. The exhibition would not have been possible without the support of Henrique Faria Fine Arts and its Director, Paz Lucero, and Mauro Herlitza.

<ul><li><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/7504/Art-Basel-Cities-Artist-Talk-Leandro-Katz?openTime=3854 " target="_blank">Artist Talk</a>&nbsp; |&nbsp; Thursday, September 6, Biblioteca Nacional, 5pm-5:45pm </li><li><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/7407/Art-Basel-Cities-Week-Lunar-Party?openTime=3758" target="_blank">Art Basel Cities Week Lunar Party</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp; Saturday, September 8, Biblioteca Nacional, 10pm-2am&nbsp;</li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Biblioteca+Nacional+Mariano+Moreno/@-34.5844438,-58.4002178,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x95bcca9ef8c792ff:0x7cc6d5125f3e2685!8m2!3d-34.5844482!4d-58.3980291 " target="_blank">Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno</a>, Agüero 2502, Recoleta </li><li>Thursday, September 6 - ongoing</li><li>Free entry, no ticket required</li><li>Visit recommended during daylight hours</li></ul>

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		Born 1938 in Buenos Aires, Argentina&nbsp;
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		Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina and&nbsp; Los Angeles, USA
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Leandro Katz is a writer, filmmaker, and artist who has been working between Latin America and the United States for over four decades. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1979) and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992, 1995), the New York State Council for the Arts (1990), the Jerome Foundation (1982, 1992), and the Rockefeller Foundation (1993). Selected recent exhibitions include ‘Encuentros de Pamplona 72: fin de fiesta del arte experimental’ at the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2009); ‘Imán-New York’ at Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2010); ‘10000 Lives’ at the 8th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2010); ‘Leandro Katz: Arrebatos, Diagonales y Rupturas’ at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires (2013); ‘Intersections (after Lautréamont)’ at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami (2015); ‘Borges: Ficciones de un tiempo infinito’ at the Centro Cultural Kirchner, Buenos Aires (2016); ‘El rastro de la gaviota’ at Tabacalera, Madrid (2017); and ‘Proyecto para el día que me quiera y otros fantasmas’, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, and Proa21, Buenos Aires (2018).<style> p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} </style>The artist is represented by Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York and Buenos Aires.

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