Helena Fernández-Cavada
Helena Fernández-Cavada (*1979, Madrid) is a visual artist who lives and works in Malmö. Helena tries to draw every day, to pose questions and to play with them – a process that oscillates between conceptual nomadism, the questioning of the established relationships, experimentation with different materials and curiosity as an attitude towards life.
The scope of her work is very broad because it is in permanent dialogue with the changing social rhythms and political landscapes. Her practice moves between form and politics (how this affects each other), exploring how to tie the act of daily drawing to functions and dialogue in the world, with the intent to open a public debate on the issues that matter. Her work manifest in a variety of materials and media in order to avoid exportable recipes working globally, indeed she pays attention to specific contexts, localities and conditions of reception that compromises the different modes of research and manifestation: drawing, editing, exhibition-making, printed matter, workshops-performance and diverse forms of collaborations.
Each project is an opportunity to begin a learning process focused on observing local contexts and raising questions to create a network of critical perspectives on a concrete situation, often related with time appropriation and the possible meanings of time sharing. For twenty years she has been working constantly with questions around time, politics and drawing, questions taken from different perspectives and that were reconfigured along the years. Since she moved to Sweden she invests her time in the studio to propose other narrations of recent Spanish history, the relations with the workers movement in Sweden and the international solidarity. In the last year, after a severe accident her work embraces new directions, looking to the field of health and art, and exploring more existential questions.
Helena Fernández-Cavada has recently participated in collective and solo shows at Marabouparken Konsthalle (SE); Centro de Arte de Alcoy (ES); Ystads Konstmuseum (SE); Krognoshuset (SE); Matadero Madrid (ES); Galeria Arroniz (MX); Museumsbygningen (DE); Casa Encendida (ES); Index (SE); Museo del Chopo (MX); Casa del Lago (MX); Inter Arts Center (SE), Desiré Saint Phalle (MX).
Her books ‘A conversation in 60 pages’, ‘Letters to my mother’, ‘The Sixth Hour’, ‘Pastimes’ and ‘Soon will be late’ have been launched at Lunds Konsthall (SE); Museo Amparo (MX); Inter Arts Center (SE); Museo Carrillo Gil (MX); Fylkingen (SE); PS1 Art Book fair (USA); Laboratorio Arte Alameda (MX); Salon für Kunstbuch. 21er Haus (AUT), among other institutions, but also in the public space. She has been actively collaborating and engaging with the artist book and publishing fields like in the panel discussion, ‘Book Artists, so what? Collaboration between artists and designers’, Malmö Konsthall and MABB.
Visit Helena Fernández-Cavada’s website – helenafc.com
Read Helena Fernández-Cavada’s CV here (PDF, 106 kB, new tab)