Lecco 1991

Lives in Zurich

Lorenza Longhi replaces mechanical reproducibility with craftsmanship by using a precise screen-printing method that ‘hacks’ the traditional technique to obtain unique pieces. The results of this inefficient and uncomfortable process from a productive point of view is a DIY aesthetic in which smudgings and imperfections are the main features.

The silkscreens on the walls include objects trouvés – cocktail napkins bought in a tailor’s shop in Rome – pretending to be ready-made to illustrate tired bourgeois practices. The sofas are partly covered with fabrics printed using the single silk-screen printing technique, while the temporary ceiling in thick nylon imitates the skylights of 19th-century exhibition galleries, spreading a cold light inside the room. By disguising, dirtying and partially concealing the exhibition venue, Longhi comments on its magniloquence and the legacy of the power systems it contains.