Lena Becerra is an Argentinian/Italian interdisciplinary artist, born in Mendoza and now based in Melbourne. Her work explores feminism and cultural decolonisation and intends to address a dialogue between personal and collective memory and trauma, as well as the reconstruction exploration of a space of absence. In this interview, Lena discusses the importance of community within the creative industries, social activism, and her current project which is influenced by her father’s poetry written while he was a political prisoner in Argentina. Lena is a Junction Footscray participating artist in the video and light program curated by Trocadero Projects.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your creative practice.
I am an Argentinian/ Italian interdisciplinary artist. My work is focused on the exploration of the sensible layers of feminism and cultural decolonisation through personal experiences of collective awareness. I try to reflect on the complexities of the world I inhabit with the intention of addressing a dialogue between personal and collective memory and trauma, as well as the reconstruction exploration of a space of absence. Currently based in Melbourne, I continue to explore themes from an intersectional feminist, decolonial practice perspective and my own experience as a migrant.
How did you start your creative practice and why?
I feel like I have always been exploring in some kind of practice, I can remember this at least from the age of 5. As a teenager I was introduced to printmaking and was doing a bachelor in art and literature at school. I always enjoyed reading and writing as well as painting, drawing, printing, building things and everything related. After school I followed a bachelor in fine arts (printmaking) which I stopped after 3 years because I got selected to do an art residency in Florence, Italy. Ever since I have been travelling and continued my practice and my education with all kinds of courses such as curatorial, groups of analysis, workshop techniques and/ or self-taught myself pretty much any technique I wanted to use in my projects.
Where did you grow up and has it influenced what you create?
work and I constantly continue to build in relationship with my experiences there. The power of collective organization of my country is something that I deeply admire and that inspires me on everything I do. I have participated in political organizations since the age of 14, where we built the students union in my high school and where we would participate in spaces to help kids of marginal areas to finish their homework/ play games/ eat merienda. Particularly, I also have felt a huge change on myself after taking part of the latest feminist wave in Argentina.
Tell us about your past creative projects. What has been a highlight so far?
I think that “Frunce” which is the project I started with Trocadero, has been one of the most important and deep projects I have worked on so far. It allowed me to dig into places on my memory and to build connections with things that I could not see before. It has given me so much information, and it is a project that I continue to work on.
Who or what inspires your practice?
I feel inspired by many things, but probably the most obvious one would be the relationships between fragility and tension that I perceive in certain “social webs”. I tend to push these elements and to play with them to address social issues that are visceral to me, and that I find necessary to talk about, but also to create spaces of reflection and to open more questions – to myself and others. I am interested in exploring things that are not fitting within a certain language or given structure, and also to play with familiar elements to deconstruct them onto what in words of Mark Fisher feels like “weird” or “eerie”. I believe there is a lot of beauty to explore in those darker places.
Where do you feel most creative?
I am always feeling creative, everywhere and at any time. Nor so productive as much, at least not in the way society defines productivity. I am always lost in my thoughts and reflections and drawing/ writing little things in my many notebooks, or on my phone, or literally on anything. I think the real challenge is to put myself to work on those ideas, although that also comes with having a space to work on my stuff.
What gets you through challenging creative/ industry times?
Community. I found myself in a very dark place at the start of 2021, like many people at that time I was struggling personally and with my practice. The only thing that kept me motivated and wanting to keep pushing myself to focus all those feelings into my practice was the possibility to connect with others. For me the community is everything, I find a huge need to discuss with others, to know where they are at and how they are feeling. I did an online seminar with Argentina and planned my first solo show at Blak Dot Gallery, followed by a short residency at Trocadero. These projects, motivated by these peoples, got me through a very challenging time and I will be forever grateful.
What future projects are you looking forward to?
I am currently finishing a residency at And Also Presents at Siteworks (Brunswick) where I started exploring imaginary narratives of reconstruction of a memory. I guided myself following a personal reconstruction of memories from my childhood, collective memories and my father’s legacy with his poem book written while he was a political prisoner and then from the exile, during the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983).
I am now on the process of starting a new video piece based on this project, and the idea of pleats and fragmented memory. I look forward to see where this takes me, I am already enjoying building it with other artists!
What can we expect to see in terms of your involvement in Junction Footscray & what are you looking forward to?
I will be sharing a video piece from my project “Frunce”, where I explore narratives around everything that does not end up being defined or fit into the imposed structures
“The pleat (Frunce) grows irregular and fissures and folds converge on it. It allows to generate certain gathers and inscriptions on the surface. Hollows from which to inhabit the void and the collapse. For this project I am attracted to the idea of a possible montage, through essays of fragility and tension, of the ephemeral and temporary emerging structures.
For its assembly I resort to the meticulous analysis of the plots to which I feel attached. The vertebrae of a dominant and patriarchal system, gears that sublimate on me as I inhabit this striated territory…”
I am always looking forward to see how different audiences interact with the piece, and in which ways they might relate to it.
Where can we find and follow you online?
Some of my projects are in my website www.lenabecerra.com and I sometimes share WIP and projects on my IG account @lena.bcrra
Junction Footscray is a free community event in the heart of Footscray, Saturday 9th July, 4-10pm. The Junction Footscray video program is curated by Trocadero Projects. Register your attendance via Eventbrite