the project

During her residency at Secant Space, Laura Ortego will return to their project Chicas, a series of portraits of girls between childhood and adulthood that she began in 2012 in Argentina and continued in 2014 in Beijing, China. This time, the boundaries of the portrait will expand to incorporate into the work the process of making it, their own transition both physical and territorial and that of those who collaborate.

Laura first began coming to Asia in 2010. Since then, through her travels and projects, she has sought to decolonize her conceptions of the territories she visits and of her own. The protagonists of her works are usually women, gender-diverse people, and migrants. In addition to Chicas, she works on Juego de living, in which she invites women to choose an object to which they have some connection, lend it to the artist so she can photograph it, and tell her the story behind it. She also works on Visita, in which she visits “creators,” document their workspace, photograph their portraits, and ask them a question in the manner of a koan.

As in the Avatamsaka Sutra, where reality is seen as a network of jewels in which each one reflects all the others, each person who participates reshapes Laura Ortego’s map.

The project will culminate in an exhibition in May 2026.