Zurich-based artist Zilla Leutenegger’s (b. 1968) work fuses drawing, sculpture and video into a full harmonious piece that pushes the boundaries of each of these media, exploring their intersections, their mutual operation, and the interrelations between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional. Her works transpire in the elusive intermediate realms between realism and fantasy, fiction and reality, playfulness and melancholy, dream and memory.
In her current project, part of which was specifically created for the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Leutenegger leads the viewers into a four-room apartment consisting of a kitchen, a corridor, a bathroom (the only room inaccessible to viewers, into which they may only peek) and a library – showed for the first time in Tel Aviv.
The classical drawing medium acquires new movement qualities in Leutenegger’s works. Via what she terms “video drawings,” she challenges the boundaries of the projected figure, which transpires within a delimited and defined space, as well as the qualities of light, which acquires material traits. We are left astonished vis-à-vis the live drawing, like Pygmalion marveling at the sight of the sculpture he created, which the mere power of his passion transformed from a cold material entity into a flesh and blood woman.
Leutenegger, on her part, characterizes her works as addressing success attempts, as well as failures and dreams. “The times I particularly try to succeed are precisely those where I fail,” she says.
Curator: Neta Gal-Azmon