Politics of Visibility, Form & Diffractive Temporalities
Politics of Visibility, Form & Diffractive Temporalities
Lorena Articardi (b. 1992, Italian-Uruguayan) is an artist, researcher, and curator based in Helsinki, working with a research-based image practice –primarily photography and film. She describes her studio work as a material-discursive study on light, approaching light as both her medium and subject. Light compels her to work with mediums that engage the dimensionalities of time and space; it intersects with linearity and foregrounds a genealogy –an altered temporality and a situated positionality –a dis-position. The sampling gesture of capturing in frames is defined as much by what is light-inscribed as by the gaps that have been intently left unexposed. It makes the sampling gesture, the construction of meaning –visible; and with it, the political nature of form itself.
Her curatorial work turns to photography and film as sites where the ordinal in form is contested, where legibility must reckon with the erasures, the histories effaced by displacement –a process developed through experimental and expanded approaches that often take shape in montage and essayistic form. Her practice attends to the structures that regulate how images circulate and accrue meaning –the institutional, historical, and material devices that mediate what is possible to know or recognise. Through her approach, these structures can be reworked through accountable, non-extractive modes of inquiry, allowing epistemic margins, temporal dissonances, and other genealogies to be encountered through relational co-constitution.
She holds a Licentiate Degree in Image and Sound Engineering from Universidad Católica del Uruguay (2011–2017) and an MA in Photography from Aalto University, Finland (2021–2023), and has undertaken MFA studies at Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, NTNU, Norway (2020–2021). Lorena has taught as an assistant professor at Universidad Católica del Uruguay (2017–2021). Since then, her practice has focused on archival research –preservation, restoration and contextual re-evaluation of film and photographic materials– developed through work with institutional and artist-run frameworks. She has carried out curatorial and archival work across Uruguay, Norway, Germany, and Finland –from developing film archives to working with private collections and artist-run initiatives. She is board member at Filmverkstaden (FI) and, also, a member of LaboratorioFAC (UY), part of the Contemporary Art Foundation (FAC). Her work is held in private collections in Finland and Germany, and has been exhibited in institutions such as the Finnish Museum of Photography FI, Tsinghua University Art Museum CN, and Museo Juan Manuel Blanes UY, and in ‘Jojaha-Paridad’, the 3rd International Art Biennale PY, among others.
/
(Of Sunburns and Sunspots, Notebook Entry.). Even the brightest of stars bears dark spots –wears them as scars. All surfaces have an inscribed memory, and yet we’re squinting. The ground, the acrimony, the burn. The kiss, your touch, the burn. The sun, the tan, the burn. The salt will help you heal, it’ll wash the sand off your skin.
Publications
[Current]
2025-6, ‘Visualidades Expandidas’, as part of the ‘Panorama of Experimental Film Referents’ programme. Laboratorio FAC, Contemporary Art Foundation. Curated by Carolina Sobrino and Guillermo Zabaleta, together with Ángela López Ruiz, Sofía Martínez Frenkel, Ángel Pajares and Joel Pachas. Group Exhibition. Museo Juan Manuel Blanes. Montevideo UY.
/
2025, 'Discourse at 16 fps', Gallery Week Finland. Fringe Gallery, Filmverkstaden. Vaasa FI.
2025, Guest Room: Felix Hoffmann, Mona Schubert & Marit Lena Herrmann. Der Grief, Organisation for Contemporary Photography. Munich DE.
2025, 'Discourse at 16 fps'. Curated by Julian Ross. Fringe Gallery, Filmverkstaden. Solo Exhibition. Vaasa FI.
2025, ‘Binding Structures’. Invited by Rebecca Sandelin. Razobill Gallery and Books. Solo Exhibition. Ekenäs FI.
2025, Spazio MAGMA, NABA –Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti. Group Exhibition. Rome IT.
2024, ‘Technophilia and the “New” Society’. Kulttuuritila Merirasti. Group Exhibition. Helsinki FI.
2024, ‘“Du tvingas reagera.”’. Föreningen Luckan. Solo Exhibition. Helsinki FI.
2023, Guest Room: Simon Baker & Aden Vincendeau. Der Grief, Organisation for Contemporary Photography. Munich DE.
2023, 'Dialogues: An Ode to Textile Stories'. Oodi Helsinki Central Library. Group exhibition. Helsinki FI.
2023, ‘Tides’. Espoo Cultural Centre. Group exhibition. Espoo FI.
2023, ‘Softcore’. V1 Gallery, Aalto University. Solo exhibition. Espoo FI.
2023, ‘MoA 23’. Finnish Museum of Photography. Group exhibition. Helsinki FI.
2022, ‘Panorámica Experimental’. Laboratorio FAC, Contemporary Art Foundation. Centro Cultural de España. Group Exhibition. Montevideo UY.
2022, ‘Anthology’. V1 Gallery, Aalto University. Solo exhibition. Espoo FI.
2022, ‘Daughter of Chaos’. V1 Gallery, Aalto University. Joint exhibition with artist Yujie Zhou. Espoo FI.
2021, ‘Material Thinking’. Tsinghua University Art Museum. Group Exhibition. Beijing CN.
2021, Shed. SALT, Nyhavna, Trondheim Kommune. Group Exhibition. Trondheim NO.
2020, Open Academy. Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, Gallery KiT. Group Exhibition. Trondheim NO.
2020, ‘Rom’, collective zine published by Røyne Forlag. Trondheim Art Book Fair X. Litteraturhuset i Trondheim, and Trondheim Kunstmuseum Gråmølna. Trondheim NO.
2020, Trondheim Open. Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, Gallery KiT. Group Exhibition. Trondheim NO.
2020, ‘Jojaha-Paridad’, 3rd International Art Biennale: Asunción PY. Laboratorio FAC, Contemporary Art Foundation. Group Exhibition.
2019, ‘JAM’. Laboratorio FAC, Contemporary Art Foundation. Group Exhibition. Centro Cultural de España. Montevideo UY.
{Upcoming, 2026-7}
‘Liminal Cartographies’. Curated by Salla Sorri and Lorena Articardi. Film Programme.
{Upcoming, 2026}
‘Enquiry for Ancestral Memory’. Curated by Ramiro Camelo (Myymälä2) and Julija Pociūtė (Pamenkalnio Gallery). Assistant Curator: Lorena Articardi. Group Exhibition.
Myymälä2. Helsinki FI; Pamenkalnio Gallery. Vilnius LT.
{Upcoming, 2026}
‘Frames’. Artist: Rebecca Sandelin. Razobill Gallery and Books. Solo Exhibition. Ekenäs FI.
/
2022, 16th Issue (Co-Edited/Curated) –Uncertain States of Scandinavia, an artist-led quarterly broadsheet newspaper showcasing lens-based art. NW Gallery, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen DK; and Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm SE.
2019, ‘JAM’. Curated by: Ángela López Ruiz, Gonzalo Rodríguez Novellino, Guillermo Zabaleta, Lorena Articardi, and Martin Kroch. Group Exhibition. Laboratorio FAC, Contemporary Art Foundation. Group Exhibition. Centro Cultural de España. Montevideo UY.
2025, Invited by Rebecca Sandelin. Razobill Gallery and Books. Ekenäs FI.
2025, International Curatorial Residency: ’Enquiry for Ancestral Memory’. Invited by Myymälä2. Helsinki FI.
‘Softcore’
‘Softcore’ portrays light in a seemingly cartographic manner, in the form of structural jacquard tapestries, constituting a sort of flesh that is only real in its constructedness –that is true in its own accord as a single reading. Here, I move beyond the photographic and explore a different means of recording light. ‘Softcore’ can only account for wave behaviour; it looks at the sun through the processing of radio frequency signals, retrieved from the Metsähovi Radio Observatory’s repository of solar activity. Records of solar activity capture a de-phased, distorted and out-of-sync plurality of events –indexed as single instances. ‘Softcore’ approaches the notions of interference and patterns of difference, as to unfold their implications for an understanding of diffractive time and –subsequently– a convergence of timelines, distinct temporal scales and simultaneity.
This notion of interference concerns both the apparatus and the object, the nature of light and the apparatus itself. The retrieved signals are readings, and so is my processing. The instruments we use to collect solar activity data are engineered to filter out the vast and predominant noise that would otherwise significantly obstruct a –theorised– pure and isolated access to the sun. In their obscured and concealed constitution, these instruments are tailored to predict error so as to cancel it out. In ‘Softcore’, my processing of these signals deliberately amplifies the resolute noise that, despite the efforts of science, still managed to permeate our records.
‘Midtsommer’ from ‘Softcore‘
‘Midtsommer’ elaborates on the notion of cycles by drawing a parallel between solar cycles and the fundamental principle of a full cycle; –as is represented by pure sinusoidal waveforms. A pure sinusoidal waveform is a fundamental type of oscillatory signal –it is characterised by its regular and repetitive oscillations. It follows a mathematical sine or cosine function, typically represented on a graphic form where the y-axis represents amplitude and the x-axis represents time. The duration it takes for the waveform to complete one full cycle is termed period, which encompasses both the positive and negative arches of the oscillation. The positive arch represents the ascending portion of the wave, while the negative arch represents the descending portion. When referring to the entire oscillation we term it a full cycle, a complete repetition of the waveform’s shape and behaviour, a fundamental notion when studying periodic signals. The term pure is employed to emphasise the absence of added noise or distortion within the waveform, highlighting the clear and undisturbed nature of the oscillatory pattern –it echoes the theorised idea of studying objects in isolation or under controlled conditions, disposed of the interference of external factors.
The tapestry is double sided. It produces a negative image on the back, and a positive image on face. The 12 meters are to represent a simplified day/night cycle, the positive and negative arches of the oscillation.
‘Midtsommer’ was woven using 100% mercerised black cotton and 100% –relatively warm– white virgin wool. It was meticulously crafted using a double weave structure, strategically combining tightly stitched areas with open segments –where the face and back cloth remain as separate entities. This approach aimed to further explore this structural duality and bring attention to the contrasting behaviour of the fabric once steamed. –In particular, the differentiated shrinking rates of the materials used and distressed sculptural features of the finishing treatments. The intricate crêpe binding structure employed is that of a rotating crêpe design, thoughtfully adapted to include stitching in designated areas of the visual composition. This specific choice seeks to be read as visual noise, incorporated as the sole underlying pattern –the binding pattern–, a purposeful conceptual detail within the overall textile structure.
A black and white palette stands to represent the most fundamentally simple in digital representation; it eliminates all nuances in grayscale, reducing images to a graphic interplay of binary output values. At 1-bit depth filtering, each pixel is restricted to two possibilities –a duality–: pure black –amplitude value: 1– or pure white –amplitude value: 0–. In this context, these values represent the presence –amplitude value: 1– or absence –amplitude value: 0– of amplitude information in the processed signal. At 1-bit depth filtering, our processing gesture cannot differentiate between fine details or accurately accommodate the subtle transitions and soft gradients present in the original signal. Quite the opposite, what this filtering ultimately does is it exacerbates noise and imperfections in the image. –In failing to preserve image fidelity, it makes artefacts glaringly evident.