Florencia Rojas

The starting point for Florencia Rojas’ project was a trip to Essaouira (Morocco). While inspecting the local flora, the artist identified a widespread species that has been banned in Spain and included in the Spanish Catalogue of Invasive Alien Species due to its colonising potential and the serious threat posed to native species, habitats and ecosystems: the Elands sourfig. This species can be reproduced by cuttings, i.e. by removing a fragment and introducing it into the substrate or directly into the soil. It is used in the area to help prevent the dunes from eroding, acting therefore as a work force. 

Florencia Rojas wants to work on the possible analogy between rooting by cutting and the act of migrating to another place. Her intention is to reflect on the connotations of prohibition and illegality that this movement from south to north across the Mediterranean has taken on, and to conduct a theoretical and practical research project whose core focus is the politics of migration. The artist will materialise the research in an installation, in which the plant will be present. 

BIO

Florencia Rojas is a visual artist whose practice, while primarily photographic, also extends to other techniques such as video art or installation. She has had solo exhibitions such as Avenida de los Poblados, unnumbered, curated by Jesús Alcaide (OTR, Madrid, 2022) or In the Same Rivers (En los mismos ríos) (Festival Mapamundistas, 2021). She has participated in group exhibitions at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the CAAC in Seville, the C3A in Cordoba, the Young Art Gallery in Madrid, the Bilbaoarte Foundation and the Spanish Cultural Centre in Córdoba (Argentina). She has also received several grants and support for creation. She is also a doctoral student at the University of Malaga.