Eliza Ballesteros. DARE, 2021
MUR BRUT 18
4.2. – 25.4.2021

For MUR BRUT 18, Eliza Ballesteros has designed a wall in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf parking garage.

Eliza Ballesteros invariably reacts to the spatial conditions her work is shown in. Material and form of her work act as carriers of meaning, negotiating questions of gender norms, traditional spaces, and cultural practices.

For the parking garage at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, she cooperated with graphic designer Teresa Schönherr to develop a type face generated as a sculptural work. In playful typography the word dare appears, applied to the wall in road marking paint. The large-sized type face becomes visible when the cone of light from a car hits the wall.

DARE, 2021 is an artistic response to the media-coined image of a parking garage. It has entered our minds as a space of fear or crime and stays uncanny through this visual definition.

The space-oriented type face, appearing as an encouraging ray of hope, reacts to the type faces present in the parking garage. Beyond that, it constitutes a counterpoint to the cold architecture of the space due to its playful design. Tying in with type faces by feminist activist groups and pop culture, DARE, 2021 points to the potential of type faces to emphasize societal patterns.

Eliza Ballesteros studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she graduated in 2019 as a master student of professor Rita McBride. Her work encompasses installations, objects and type faces.

Curated by Katharina Bruns

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf parking garage, Grabbeplatz 4, 40213 Düsseldorf
The exhibition is open every day from 6 am to 10 pm