Leandro Erlich at MALBA...

3:10 p.m.

04/07/19 - "Liminal" is the name of the exhibition Leandro Erlich is currently presenting at MALBA and it means something like "the place before another space". The exhibition takes place in the second and ground floors of the museum, with a total of 18 installations. All the artworks invite us to interact: you have to lean close, bend down, sit, look through a peephole or even dare be in a pool with your clothes on. The security staff needs to be extra vigilant. For example, in "Hair Parlor", there's a series of mirrored objects which are hard not to touch. To make things worst, every artwork offers a selfie-opportunity.

Swimming Pool, by Leandro Erlich (1999)

MALBA

Shattering door, by Leandro Erlich (2009)

MALBA

In "Neighbors", we find ourselves in front of a door in the middle of the gallery, but when we look through the peephole, we discover a corridor with all the other doors of our neighbors in the same floor. With the help of mirrors, the installation is repeated in the museum's hallway.

Neighbors, by Leandro Erlich (1996)

MALBA

"Classroom", "Lifted Lift" and "Six Cycles" are almost hypnotic, you can not stop observing them. "Six Cycles", placed as in a Laundry room, is displayed on a corridor. When we discover the slow circular movement, we change to relax mode. It's what Erlich was looking for when he conceived it, explains Dan Cameron, the curator.

Lifted lift, by Leandro Erlich (2019)

MALBA

Classroom, by Leandro Erlich (2017)

MALBA

Six Cycles, by Leandro Erlich (2018)

MALBA

There are no signs or banners explaining the materials used for each artwork, maybe as a way to preserve the mystery and secrets that make them happen. However, with the clouds enclosed in cabinets, Erlich gives us hints of how his magic works. Next to the clouds, a series of prints show us how they were made.

Liminal, de Leandro Erlich

MALBA

The installation that best defines 'Liminal" is the window with plastic blinds, which allows us to spy on the neighbors living in front: in the middle, that area between our space and theirs.

The view, by Leandro Erlich (1997)

MALBA

In the time of fake news, with Erlich, nothing is what it seems. This is not a tale of uncertainties, but a series of objects that lie about their real origins. A game of false images that becomes rather amusing.