Manuela de Laborde (b. 1989, CDMX) lives and works in CDMX. At first glance, her work carries aesthetic and pleasure claims, right up to a tenuous range of sensations. However, its presentation is performative - soaked with temporality - and its purpose, conceptual. The work revolves around a quest to locate and isolate concepts built around tangible elements, to then create abstractions that regenerate their image and position their force within a new context. Virtual spaces rise and with them propositions for change. Her practice ponders on presence; greatly inspired by the simplicity of certain formations, the economic and exponential nature of proposals, the power of hosting bodies and the playful air of philosophical reverberations.
De Laborde has had solo and group exhibitions at Jardín 17 Barragán, CDMX, MX; PEANA,CDMX, MX; Galerie Anton Janizewski; Berlin, DEU, among others. She has participated in residencies at Light Cone, Paris, FR; Museo Rufino Tamayo, CDMX, MX; and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, DE. Her films have been shown in numerous festivals including the New York Film Festival, NY, US; the BFI, London, UK; FICUNAM,CDMX, MX; MoMa, New York, US. De Laborde has been awarded GRAND PRIX at 25fps Zagreb and JURY AWARD at 24th CUFF. She just finalized her first feature The Backbone of Loss; as well as, attended Atelier 105 - Post production residency with experimental documentary of Havana, CU. She was in charge of realizing the visuals for Camila Fuch during Mutek in CDMX, MX.