Art Taaalkssss: Lara Almarcegui

Lara Almarcegui, Stopped Quarry, 2021, Sorigué Fondation, one day performance, produced by Art Centre La Panera, Lleida, photo: Jordi V. Pou

Lara Almarcegui (born in Zaragoza, lives and works in Rotterdam) has built up an artistic practice around exploring the material aspects of land and urban space. For over twenty years, she has worked in different cities, identifying abandoned, unused, or forgotten sites and examining the contemporary transformation processes brought about by social, political, and economic change. At a time of widespread urban renewal in Europe, Almarcegui has created guides to wastelands in the cities she has worked in, sometimes even instigating their legal protection. Since 2015 looking to construction sites, in particular the composite materials used in the construction of new buildings and the cyclical relationship between land and architecture, the artist has been acquiring Mineral Rights on iron ore deposits in order to prevent extraction.

Almarcegui has completed commissions for numerous international biennials, including the Rabat Biennale (2019), the Cuenca Biennale (2018), the Lyon Biennale (2017), and represented Spain at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). Recent solo exhibitions include FRAC PACA Marseille; CAIRN, Digne; Museum IVAM, Valencia; Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; Casino Luxembourg; and Kunsthaus Baselland. Lara Almarcegui is currently a resident at La Becque | Artist Residency, La Tour-de-Peilz