Ana Lucia Garcia Hoefken




b | 1994. Lima, Perú

Currently working and living between Barcelona and Lima.

With interests in materials, form, texture and science my work centers on making research on the composition and transformation of matter, centering on sculptures and installations whilst also invoking video and performance.

My research is based on the concept that inert matter shapes human experience. I approach this subject with diverse multidisciplinary scientific methodologies such as ecology, geology, chemistry and physics. In practice I stimulate the discourse of matter by manipulating its own materiality and decontextualizing its symbolic value. I investigate its properties and qualities to create new dialogues between units of matter, understand its relationship with the environment and dismantle various imposed cultural representations. 

I am interested in creating a language about the nature of external and internal forces exerted on the material and articulating a narrative of its development. To represent this, I focus on studying the media I choose to work with, learning and relearning about their adaptability and limitations. This is how I break through the predetermined perception, provoking new meanings and thus exposing a perpetual change in the categorization of the elements. Through this process I began to question the ephemeral nature of the material and the object in relation to its environment, challenging its entropic character and observing its transformation.


Education
2022 Escola Massana                                                                                             Barcelona, Spain
                  -Postgraduate in Contemporary Applied Arts
2021 Escola Massana                                                                                              Barcelona, Spain
                    - Sound Art: concept, edition & recording
                    - Experimental video art
2018 Central Saint Martins                                                                                     London, United Kingdom
                    - Foundation in Art and Design 
2017-2018 Ceramic Studio “Polen Construcciones”                                                 Lima, Perú
2016 University of Groningen                                                                                 Groningen, The Netherlands
                     - Exchange Program                                  
2011-2017 Universidad de Lima                                                                               Lima, Perú
                    - BA Industrial Engineering          



Exhibitions and Publications
Solo Shows
2022 Lo Estático en Movimiento                                                                             Galería Incitatus, Perú
2020 Común Denominador                                                                                      Casa Fugaz, Perú

Group Shows
2022  Centro Internazionale di Scultura                                                                   Peccia, Suiza
         “ De Memoria a la Materia”                                                                            Centre d’Artesania de Catalunya, España
            St.Art.Galleries, Londres, Reino Unido

2021 Remembranza Colectiva                                                                                    Flux Club, España
         Sonido Disperso                                                                                              Escola Massana, España
         You better keep them creative!                                                                         Casa Fugaz, Perú

2018 Central Saint Martins Foundation Show                                                           Lethaby Gallery, London, UK
         Waterlow Art Park Exhibition                                                                          Waterlow Park, London, UK

Interview: https://bit.ly/2uKKDkK
https://bit.ly/2UrG90X
https://lux.org.uk/event/waterlow-art-park

2017 Collaborative installation “El Camarin” for Myopia                                           P.ar.C. Art Fair, Lima, Perú


Residencies and other
2022 Artist in Residence, Centro Internazionale di Scultura                                      Peccia, Switzerland
2021 Art co-curator “You better keep them creative!”                                                Casa Fugaz, Perú
2019 Mold Making and Slip Casting Workshop                                                         Cotto Designs, Perú
2019 Art curator for exhibition “Madres del Callao”                                                   Lima, Perú
-                 Foto Monumental 2019      
2019 Investigation in situ on traditional Peruvian ceramics techniques                       Cusco, Perú                                     
2018 High House Residency with Antony Gormley                                                   Norfolk, UK
2017 Investigation in situ on traditional Peruvian ceramics techniques                        San Martin, Perú
                                                



Contact

algarciahoefken@gmail.com








A year ago I was living and working in Peccia, a village in southern Switzerland located in the Lavizzara Valley. The region is full of lush mountains and converging rivers, full of geological history through the ages, and with marked seasonal changes that I was able to observe over a period of half a year.  I began to reflect on the historical transitions of the landscape, our perception of time and its tangible representation in nature. I investigated the topographical traces caused in part by human intervention, from tracks to quarries, as well as by geomorphic processes, small and large scale, such as alluvium and plate movements. 

This is how I begin to represent the landscape image as a link between the terrain and the culture in which it is inscribed. Lavizzara is a region where different types of extraction take place, producing a marked transformation of the environment, which is not only perceived in the sphere of the physical and what we can see, but also in the change of the sound environment and the intimate exchange subject to the experience of each being. Within the raw material they extract is marble, a preeminent material that is widely recognized and prestigious. I had the opportunity to visit a quarry of this material that was located near the town. Upon entering I was amazed by the magnitude of the space and then overwhelmed by the immense transgression that it implied. I could observe with a feeling of anguish and discomfort as huge blocks are extracted, torn out by rumbling machines, in a process that takes a lot of time and effort, it was as if the mountain itself did not want to give them up.

With this concern to investigate the process of mineral extraction and to understand the changing space, I begin to question the present link between the territory and culture and to relate to all kinds of stones that I find in the valley: scraps of these processes or collecting stones in the Fiume river. Thus I begin a process of exploration on the commonly perceived characteristics: hardness, resistance and permanence; and I sought to stretch and question these conceptions through experimentation. This obsessed and constant interaction led me to rediscover stone and see it as a fluid, light and fragile material. Qualities of movement and change that are characteristic of stone, but are not evident.

During this process, the human elements that attempt to delimit the terrain - putting up fences, chains, signs indicating the outline of private property or the demarcation of roads and trails - begin to become evident. Researching on the domestication of landscape I make a connection between the present link between territory and culture. It is us who for reasons, have delineated and marked out a private property that does not belong to us, that changes. Although we try to control it, it persists and takes its own path.

The result of this study and experimentation were works that reencounter the landscape, a lost and imaginary landscape. An insistent search for ways to provide access to what is not there. This is how I begin to recreate from memory and intuition. Thus I find hidden topologies and return to what was once that same stone, dismantling the impermanence of the body. Experience in the world is subject to our interpretations and perceptions, where the landscape should not be seen only as a physical space, but as a multi-layered phenomenological environment that relates to our experience of life. The terrain is not simply an unsociable landscape, but a space of interaction and development in constant movement and questioning about the reality that each one of us perceives, to achieve a deeper understanding of the meaning of our existence.

- Ana Lucia Garcia Hoefken