Archive for the ‘Photo’ Category

METAPHYSICAL CLASH

Posted by Lola

METAPHYSICAL CLASH (2021)
Series of 5 prints (edition format adaptable / size variable)

Metaphysical Clash is a sequence of five mirrored digital relics that stage a confrontation between belief systems, technological mediation, and the instability of perception. Each image resembles a ceremonial object or altar fragment—simultaneously sacred artifact, machine component, and hallucinated architecture—suspended in a field of chromatic displacement.

Developed in 2021, the series emerges from a moment of global uncertainty and accelerated digital immersion. The works reflect a tension between material presence and virtual distortion: objects appear monumental yet unstable, symmetrical yet fractured, devotional yet synthetic. The recurring vertical structures evoke crosses, pedestals, masks, or instruments of ritual, but resist fixed interpretation. They operate instead as transitional forms—thresholds between the physical and the symbolic.

Chromatic aberration and mirrored duplication function here not as visual effects but as metaphysical strategies. They destabilize the authority of the image and suggest parallel realities occupying the same surface. Each print behaves like a speculative relic from an unknown system of worship—one in which technology replaces mythology while still reproducing its structures.

Presented as a set of five, the works form a sequence rather than a hierarchy. Together they propose a fragmented altar: five viewpoints of the same unresolved structure, or five incompatible translations of a single invisible object.

The possibility of varying scale reinforces their conceptual openness. Whether intimate or architectural, the images retain their role as sites of encounter—between viewer and artifact, signal and noise, certainty and projection.

I AM HERE TO STAY

Posted by Lola

 

I AM HERE TO STAY is a photographic series documenting landscapes across India. Created following the artist’s journey to the country in 2011, the work emerged from a period of reflection on time, displacement, and the uncertainties of the future within contemporary society. The landscapes function not only as places but as spaces for contemplation, where personal experience intersects with broader existential questions. At the core of the series lies a simple yet profound inquiry: DID THE UNIVERSE LOSE MY EGO?

Although the series has not yet been exhibited, it marks an important moment in the artist’s ongoing exploration of identity, presence, and the relationship between the individual and the vastness of the world.

 

EGO OPEN FOREVER

Posted by Lola

EGO OPEN FOREVER

The Virus Inside the Virus

(ongoing digital performance / installation proposal)

EGO OPEN FOREVER is an ongoing digital performance by artist Lola Lustosa that investigates identity, ego construction, and self-representation in the age of social media.

The project began as an intervention using the platform Facebook—what the artist describes as “the biggest ego manager in history.” On the opening day, Lustosa took over the news feeds of more than 600 people for approximately three hours, posting a continuous sequence of self-portraits accompanied by fragments of her personal story. Through this action, she created what she calls a “virtual sculpture of the ego.”

By deliberately revealing intimate aspects of her life, the project explores the tension between what is shown and what is felt, questioning how digital platforms shape our identities and emotional landscapes.

The work functions as an open and continuous exhibition within the social media environment, accessible twenty-four hours a day through the digital network.

The series currently consists of 584 self-portraits and continues to grow.

The Virus Inside the Virus

We live in an artificial world — a virtual world.
We have closed the doors to a universal connection. In order to sustain this world of illusions we destroy living systems: trees, rivers, soil, water, and the organisms that repeat millenary flows of existence.

We produce waste that has nowhere left to go. Society becomes infantilized through the constant consumption of this waste.

With EGO OPEN FOREVER, the artist proposes to act as a virus inside the virus — an opposing force that disturbs the system from within. The work seeks to reopen the possibility of emotional and physical reconnection with what truly matters.

We have all acquired the same disease: the system.
To reconnect with the cosmos, the system must be broken.

— Lola Lustosa, Berlin, 2012

Flux

Everything is true. The hysteria is natural.

We are living through a moment of transformation in which previous structures of identity dissolve while we continue looking at them through old frameworks. The real tension today lies in confronting the possibility of existing without a fixed identity.

Our connections accelerate while we simultaneously long for slowness. Speed and slow motion merge, stretching time and perception. Humanity becomes a collective mass attempting to move beyond outdated narratives toward a new existential consciousness.

— Lola Lustosa, Berlin, 2013

Digital Performance

The digital performance EGO OPEN FOREVER consists of a growing series of self-portraits produced by the artist since 2005.

Initially created as a spontaneous and intuitive gesture, the images gradually became a personal archive reflecting instincts, ideas, frustrations, relationships, pride, failure, and persistence.

“I began taking these pictures as a random game.
With time I realized their deeper meaning: they became a door to my instincts, ideas, frustrations, happiness, relationships, pride, and failures.

They are proof of my persistence in life.

Now I have the courage and the pleasure to share these private reflections with you.”

— Lola Lustosa

“For those not interested in ego trips: please don’t come in.”

Physical Installation (proposal)

The project can also be presented as a physical installation transforming the digital archive into a spatial experience:

• hundreds of small printed self-portraits forming a sculptural wall
• texts accompanying the images
• headphones with music referenced in the digital archive
• projections of the social media feed
• mirrors or reflective elements placing the viewer inside the “ego sculpture”

In this format the digital performance becomes a physical environment of identity and reflection.

The project could also take the form of an artist book.

The artist is currently seeking partners and exhibition spaces to realize this installation format.

Recognition and Context

The project has been mentioned in Wall Street International and has been presented in artistic contexts including Fundação Iberê Camargo.

Exhibition

The digital exhibition has been open since
23 March 2012 — 19:30 (Berlin time)

Website
https://lolalustosa.com/ego-open-forever/

Archive
https://www.facebook.com/EGOOPENFOREVER

All images © Lola Lustosa

 

timeline Original format:  Lola Lustosa, OPEN SINCE 23/03/2012. 19:30

FACEBOOK

CAPITAVEIS “YOU CAUGHT”

Posted by Lola

CAPITAVEIS “YOU CAUGHT”

Light has a meaning that goes beyond color, beyond incidence or reflection itself. As I see it, light is the greatest evidence of the passage of time. In this work, I explore the search to connect two universes—the micro, my starting point, and the macro, whose limits I cannot know. These are abstractions of the mind, simple questions, pure points of interrogation, and the absence of answers.

Dimensions: Each photograph 120 × 100 cm
Process: C-prints
Edition: 10 + AP
Year: 2008

ESTUDANTINA

Posted by Lola

 

Estudantina is a sequence of moments derived from a short performance. It presents six seconds across six photographs. As in both photography and dance, the work focuses on capturing and defining a precise moment. Exposure time is what renders everything visible. The gesture within the sequence is one of disappearing into light while simultaneously being revealed through exposure. Lustosa works as a dancer, performer, and photographer, and her practice often combines these three elements.

Medium: Photomontage
Dimensions: 240 × 300 cm; each photograph 120 × 100 cm
Process: C-prints
Edition: 5 + AP
Year: 2008