Argentinian-born artist Leandro Erlich represented Argentina at the 49th Venice Biennale. His installations play with mirrors, double bottoms and trompe l’oeil effects to create puzzling illusions. His works modify our perception of reality by creating unusual architectural spaces.
In 2015, he inaugurated in Paris on the occasion of Nuit Blanche, his “Maison Fond” is a work installed on the forecourt of the Gare du Nord in Paris which invites us to question the climate change. “The extreme weather events associated with climate change show us that even the most iconic landmarks, left untouched for centuries, can be vulnerable to changes in the planet . ” If the evolution of the climate threatens the human existence, the architecture, symbol of our civilizations, is also in danger.
Erlich is also famous for his works such as “La Piscine”, presented at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and since then permanently installed at the Kanazawa Museum in Japan. Another his famous work is “The Building”, a facade of a life-size Haussmann building on which children and adults can hang without fear of vertigo. An ingenious installation based on a set of mirrors, it gives the effect of hanging on the facade similar to Spider-Man. The artist thus diverts the familiar elements of the urban setting to act on the public’s unconscious and snap up visitors.
The Argentinean artist does not create a space but a situation with the audience, who is often confronted with the strange experience of its own presence.
