Juliana Cerqueira Leite: Orogenesi

Brazilian artist Juliana Cerqueira Leite's artist book following her solo exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum, Naples in 2019. Orogenesi is the culmination of two years of Cerqueira Leite's research on Pompeii and the ‘calchi,’ the plaster cast bodies excavated in this world-famous archeological site. The artist connects these to both Martha Graham’s modern choreography and to NASA's space exploration. The show premiers new sculptures which are displayed in the National Archaeological Museum’s iconic Villa dei Papiri rooms. Investigating both ancient and recent pasts through disparate narratives, Cerqueira Leite stitches together a timeline of her own making. At the centre of the exhibition is her own body pushed to its physical limits, acting as a metaphor for psychological and politicised states of being. The publication includes an Introduction by Mario Codognato and an essay by Dehlia Hannah & Nadim Samman.