Una hormiga camina frenéticamente

Álvaro Icaza y Verónica Luyo
An ant walks frantically
21.3—2.5.2024

Motors, rotors, coils, reels, gears, cylinders, tires. The action of turning, returning or circulating is the common thread Álvaro Icaza and Verónica Luyo have used to produce their exhibition.

Icaza and Luyo’s artistic practice usually focus on the idea of movement, both physical phenomena such as light and sound, and their passage through various materials. Supported in part by the fascinating market for recycled or refurbished electronic devices in the city of Lima, the duo redraws and reconfigures pieces, ridding them of their original function. Starting from the concept of concentric movement, its use by the industry and the impossibility –outside of the mathematical field– of generating a perfect circle, the installation, “The chorus of the circulation of things” proposes a journey through mechanical, light and sound pieces, arranged in an environment specially conditioned to focus on the sensory experience.

Circular motion, essential in both locomotion and the development of nature, has permeated the human imagination from its understanding of the divine (e.g., the intangible Being described by Parmenides occupied a perfect spherical shape), to early theories about the movement of celestial bodies, before modern astronomy described their elliptical movement. ‘Circular’ is that which seems perfect or, at least, stable. However, this order can short circuit, an action can challenge it, revealing its meaninglessness. On the other hand, someone who rotates on their own axis, an activity that the exhibition invites to perform, portrays both a cycle, a routine, a mechanical repetition as as a form of alienation or entering a trance. Icaza and Luyo do not propose discovering divinity through gadgets with lithium batteries, but neither do they discount the value of recognizing ourselves in strange alphabets.