Galeria Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present its first solo show by the Peruvian artist, Armando Andrade Tudela. A large wooden sculpture cuts longitudinally through the gallery space and is accompanied by another group of works in copper, fabric and stones, along with a film on the second floor.

The artwork Sedimento [Sediment] makes reference to the chairs designed for children by Lina Bo Bardi for the lounge area at SESC Pompéia, São Paulo. Tudela has rescale the original design, transforming it into a 1 x 1 meter half cube. These oblique halves evidence both the malleability of Lina’s original concept and it’s minimalist features. The artist has also played with the heights of the seats by placing them in different levels, a gesture that alludes to the geological process of sedimentation.

Tudela’s interest in notions of translation, displacement and overlapping are developed in the second body of work. These sculptures are made with bags for djembes (African drums), clothes, copper sheets and stones. The bags carry patterns, handles and finishing details from different origins. What was considered culturally specific becomes the sign of a latent hybridism of the new global culture. By interfering on the bags with copper sheets, clothes and stones, the artist creates, by contrast, a sculptural space that frames and evidences the object’s transcultural characteristics.

The film Mano Sosteniendo [Hand Holding] shows a hand holding various stones as if trying to evaluate their weight, shape and size. As the hand registers the stones the camera registers the hand in action. This act of reflection reveals something important about the artist’s modus operandi: the constant reevaluation of objects and their context.

Armando Andrade Tudela was born in Lima, Peru, in 1975, and lives in Berlin. He participated in the Panorama de Arte Brasileira in 2009 and in the Bienal de São Paulo in 2006, and held a solo show at the Museu d’ Art Contemporani de Barcelona. His work figures in a number of prominent collections, including those of Tate London and MoMA, New York.