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.
‘TK001–004’ from ‘Softcore’
Link to watch TK001–004. (Currently linked as silent due to ongoing work on the sound design.).
These single-channel videos capture the mesmerising process of making Midtsommer, as detail shots of an operating industrial weaving machine. Each take has a deliberate duration of 8 minutes and 20 seconds, echoing the time it takes for sunlight to reach the earth. These videos are composed of still sequences, offering viewers a unique space to immerse themselves in the unfolding of time. As the video progresses, it morphs into a flowing tale, resembling the steady beat of a timekeeping mechanism, serving as a poignant reminder of the light that left the sun when our viewing began, straining out perception of time’s passage. This series pays homage to the deliberate, meditative performance inherent in manual labor, particularly the rhythmic artistry involved in textile work. It is a tribute to the healing, slow-paced transformation etched onto my body through what was for me a profound engagement with this beautiful craft.