Leonor Antunes

Through her sculptures Leonor Antunes (Lisbon, 1972) reinterprets the history of art, design, and architecture of the twentieth century, and in particular the Modernist tradition, in its most radical and experimental instances. Thanks to a meticulous research into several projects and works, Antunes, after selecting specific details and fragments, transforms them into new forms and elegant artworks. For her sculptures Antunes prefers to use natural and organic materials on which the traces of time passing remain visible – rope, wood, leather, brass, rubber, and cork, among others – employing artisanal and vernacular techniques in clear opposition to mass production, in an ongoing attempt to preserve and hand down knowledge and traditional skills. Within her practice she engages with the history of 20th century architecture, design and art, and creates complex but fragile installations and sculptures out of metal, leather, finest woods, and nets.

By inquiring into the meaning of everyday life objects and the social role of art and design as means of emancipation and improvement of quality of life, Leonor Antunes creates within the Pirelli HangarBicocca exhibition space a complex and stratified visual tale that leads the visitor through an unedited choreography.