Gina Proenza. Moving Jealousy

Gina Proenza
Moving Jealousy
January 14–March 19, 2023

The Franco-Colombian artist Gina Proenza (b. 1994, lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland) presents a broad spectrum of new works in her solo exhibition. The young artist's works tell stories of tropical creepers and remote villages of Central America, they combine the poetic with the sculptural and in the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen focus on the fate of the white grub in Switzerland during the early modern period.

In her exhibitions, Proenza combines numerous cultural and temporal influences but refrains from classifying them. Instead, the artist is interested in the resulting gray areas as well as the mutual influences, revealing a personal view towards the ambiguity of things. By mixing different media such as image, text, and installation, she thus succeeds in creating a sophisticated and at the same time sensual visual language, where unstable backgrounds, lettering on advertising light boxes, and animal faces with outstretched tongues collide.

The exhibition Moving Jealousy at the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen takes as its starting point archives of the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud dating back to the 15th and 16th century, in which white grubs were blamed for a widespread crop shortfall. Subsequently, the vermin were expelled from the fields in a verbal indictment by the authorities. Whether they complied with this demand remains unknown. However, at the time, this was considered a standard procedure by the authorities.

Through the works produced for Moving Jealousy Gina Proenza explores this historical event, as well as the nature of such standardized processes. Do these sequences remain only absurdities from the past? In which ways are we affected by them today? How do we communicate? Do we understand each other at all? In addition to site-specific installations and new works, existing series are continued, referring to the working process and the (visual) language of the artist. Ambiguity is expressed in the exhibited works through subtle changes in both expression and narration, as established meanings give way to new interpretations. The role of the visitors is no less complex: through the playful component of Proenza's works, as well as the interaction between them, they themselves become temporarily part of the exhibition. Based on the recorded historical dialogue between humans and animals, Moving Jealousy creates a space for fundamental questions of comprehension, external influences, and interpersonal relationships.

Gina Proenza (b. 1994 in Bogotà) lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland. Solo exhibitions: Agarra-diablo, CAN, Centre d’art Neuchâtel, Switzerland (2020); Passe Passe, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2018); L’ami naturel, Tunnel Tunnel, Lausanne, Switzerland (2018). Group exhibitions: The Gina Show, SALTS, Birsfelden, Switzerland (2022); Licht, Galerie Lange + Pult, Zurich, Switzerland (2022); Jardin d’Hiver, MCBA, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (2021); Kiefer Hablitzel Kunstpreis, Basel, Switzerland (2021); Was erzählt die Romandie?, Häusler Contemporary, Zurich, Switzerland (2019); Protect me from what I want: 15+1 Jahre Helvetia Kunstpreis, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St.Gallen, Switzerland (2019); Crack a Cold One, Galerie Derouillon, Paris (2018); LISTE Art Fair Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2018); Plattform18, Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal, Switzerland (2018).