Reflections on the Pigmental

The material memory of pictorial art over time is revealed through inscriptions made with pigments on sedimentation and imprint supports. During her time in residency as part of The Lab Program Art-Research & Mobility Network, Berenice Vargas Bravo had re- searched and adapted both pre-hispanic and contemporary techniques in the production of pigment paintings, reviving the technique now best known as fresco. 'Throughout the production process of this piece, several questions have emerged. How can painting transcend the barrier of the wall and become a tangible repository of contemporary memory? How can the creation of pictorial images dismantle the rigidity, verticality, and two-dimensional linearity of a wall? What issues arise when painting intersects ancient and contemporary techniques, and how does this intersection affect its three-dimensional dimension?

Painting with pigment influences the political materialism of fresco as a Western technique. By layering paint and reclaiming certain temporalities and material demands of this method, the practice may serve as a vehicle for the recovery of memory.

Valeria Montoya