BILLBOARD 208 /
Urban Territories
Andrea Alkalay
May 19–July 31, 2020
Exhibition Description /
memory
The appearance of gated and walled communities on the outskirts of Buenos Aires constitutes an urban phenomenon of great social relevance. I photograph these walls as geopolitical landforms; frontiers that separate private properties and rank neighbourhoods, harshly altering the urban landscape. Though these walls express distinct traces of what they hide or expose, patterns emerge in the uniformity, where everything becomes alike in their differences. From whichever side I stand, the way of perceiving the world changes through a play of realities.
Walking through the outside, I feel the quiet friction of these inflicted boundaries, considering causes and consequences in terms of our social fabric, and I wonder how we are prisoners of our own beliefs.
I remark on the interaction between the wall and its situated context through a mirror that reflects what remains outside, searching for an interpretation that goes beyond what we behold. The mirror contains the other dimension which the wall conceals.
Biography /
Andrea Alkalay is an Argentinian conceptual photographer living and working out of Buenos Aires. She has participated in lens-based workshops and residency programs, and in 2020 received the SM Pro Art Circle Funding grant. In 2016, Alkalay published Uncertain Nature, a photo book of her journeys while travelling. Her work has been exhibited at: Fine Arts Museum Franklin Rawson (Argentina), Cultural Center San Martin (Argentina), Mundo Nuevo Gallery Art (Argentina), OdA Arte (Argentina), BAphoto 2019 (Argentina), National Museum of RAK (UAE), ArtFest Garzon and Espacio Foto Arte (Uruguay), Cultural Station Mapocho (Chile), ArtMonaco 2015, and Galerie Etienne de Causans (France).
TNG gratefully acknowledges its home on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region, including the Blackfoot Confederacy (Kainai, Piikani and Siksika), Métis Nation of Alberta Region III, Stoney Nakoda First Nation (Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley), and Tsuu T’ina First Nation. TNG would also like to acknowledge the many other First Nations, Métis and Inuit who have crossed this land for generations.
The creation of Billboard 208 and the first year of programming is generously funded by the Rozsa Foundation.