By Semíramis González
Forty Years IIIA (Hand, Over Horizontal Line, 1973). 2013. Chromogenic printing and graphite. Courtesy of the artist and Espacio Mínimo Gallery, Madrid. Photo Courtesy of Museo Casa de la Moneda.
The Royal Spanish Academy defines vestige as “the sign or remnant that remains of something material or immaterial”; therefore, it would be a trace that makes present what is no longer there or cannot be perceived at first glance. Perhaps that is why the title of Liliana Porter’s exhibition (Liliana Porter: The Subtlety of the Everyday) makes more sense, one that can be visited at the Museo Casa de la Moneda, Madrid, after she was awarded the 2023 Tomás Francisco Prieto Medal of the National Mint and Stamp Factory.
Liliana Porter: Traces and Vestiges is an exhibition curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio, which is not an irrelevant detail, as the harmony and respect for both the artist’s and curator’s work are reflected in the careful presentation of the exhibition. A well-curated exhibition is often one in which the curator’s presence is not immediately noticeable. However, I would argue that without the closeness between the two, it would be challenging to approach Porter’s work in the way it is presented in this exhibition. Porter is one of the most internationally renowned Latin American artists, with over four decades of work spanning multiple formats. This show focuses on her graphic work, a technique she began experimenting with early on, in 1964, when she settled in New York. She subsequently came into contact with the vanguard of Latin American artists who were rethinking the technique, concept, politics, and poetics of printmaking. Along with Luis Camnitzer and José Guillermo Castillo, Porter co-founded The New York Graphic Workshop, a collective from 1964 to 1970. The collective’s goal was to break with the classical notions of printmaking, propose a new medium definition, and highlight its multiple natures.
To Clean Up Sphere. 2023. Acrylic, figurine and wooden sphere.Courtesy of the artist and Espacio Mínimo Gallery, Madrid. Photo courtesy of Museo Casa de la Moneda.
Building on this initial interest in the technique, Traces and Vestiges explores decades of work that have expanded into sculptures, drawings, paintings, and video while drawing from these early ideas. Similarly, this exhibition moves away from the Western construction of linear time, favoring an anthology-style presentation of a body of work that circles back and forth, reconsidering forms and themes while breaking from the chronological order. More successfully, the exhibition is organized around five thematic chapters: (1) “Leaving a Trace: The Potential of an Action,” (2) “Timelines,” (3) “Still Lives: Between Disorder, Collapse, and the Return to Normalcy,” (4) “Weaving in Perspective,” and (5) “Destabilizing Representation: Crease from Paper to White Cube.” The layout of the museum’s rooms creates a circular route, inviting visitors to break from the usual path and start from the end to the beginning. This structure is also intentional in the curatorial approach. Once again, this highlights Pérez Rubio’s deep understanding of Porter’s work and career; only through this knowledge is it possible to break from the traditional exhibition model and allow for a more complex, global view. Here, Porter’s entire career is virtually presented without falling into clichés, staying away from repetitive elements and offering a deep, thorough exhibition.
Forty Years. (Self Portrait with Square, 1973). 2013. Chromogenic Printing . Courtesy of the artist and Espacio Mínimo Gallery, Madrid. Photo courtesy of Museo Casa de la Moneda.
The themes that have shaped her work over the decades are all present here, such as her interest in the strangeness of the everyday, the trace of actions and their potential, history and time (how to eliminate their linearity), the relationship between the real and the represented, as well as glimpses of humor and a reflection marked by irony. This exhibition brings us closer to Porter’s work in a way that strays from the usual interpretations, offering us a facet of her that has always been present, where gestures, small scenes of everyday life, and mundane matters take center stage. Everything we find in her other works also draws from this space.
Among the works on display, I would highlight the artist’s self-portrait next to a photograph of herself from forty years ago or the parallelism with a photo from the 1970s of her hand drawing a line on the wall, which continued in 2013 and is still expanding today. That trace of that vestige is part of what has shaped her as an artist, that temporal continuum that continues to expand horizons, lines, and geometric shapes four decades later.
To Fix It (Slava). 2019. Figurine and broken clock. Courtesy of the artist and Espacio Mínimo Gallery, Madrid. Photo courtesy of Museo Casa de la Moneda.
The final room (or the first, depending on where we start the visit) is a recreation of the 1969 installation Crease, which she presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile that same year. The photogravure takes on a monumental dimension here, occupying the entire space and unfolding across the walls. The installation is based on reproducing an image of a crumpled piece of paper that, in turn, crumples and detaches from the walls, breaking the boundary between image and representation, between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional, while also playing with the concept of the white cube and the connotations it holds. The everyday gesture takes center stage here, inviting the viewer to take the paper, crumple it, and leave it on the room floor. This room conceptually condenses everything presented throughout the exhibition: the possibility of breaking the established frame, whether through technique, themes, Western linearity, or the viewer’s position as a mere spectator who now becomes part of the intervention.
Finally, I would like to refer to Porter’s constant interest in time, even in its strangeness. In the exhibition catalog, a dialogue between the curator, Agustín Pérez Rubio, and the artist is reproduced, allowing us to gain more direct insight into her processes while subverting the chronological order imposed by the West. Both have dedicated their dialogue to José Martínez Calvo (1955–2023), co-founder with Luis Valverde of the Galería Espacio Mínimo, who always supported Porter’s work. “Pepe would have been thrilled to see this exhibition and hold this publication in his hands,” says the dedication. It is a golden touch to an entire artistic career that has never stopped focusing on the everyday. Another gesture in that delicate line Porter has been drawing for forty years. The trace of the invisible hand of affection for those who have accompanied her all these years. An indelible trace, a vestige of what we cannot see but which is always there.
Arruga (Wrinkle Enviroment). 1969 -2024. Installation of three walls covered with offset sheets and objects. Courtesy of the artist and Espacio Mínimo Gallery, Madrid. Photo courtesy of Museo Casa de la Moneda.
Exhibition Traces and Vestiges, Liliana Porter. Curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio. November 7, 2024, to March 9, 2025, at the Museo Casa de la Moneda, Madrid.
