Alejandro Cesarco’s “Album” (Leporello N° 11) presents the titles and durations of each of the songs that make up The Cure’s “Disintegration”, the band’s iconic album from 1989. Each song is listed on its own panel, as if they were images in a photo album.
Admittedly, The Cure plays heavily in the soundtrack of Cesarco’s youth. These gloomy soundscapes further the artist’s investigation into questions of aging–both in relation to style, regrets, and possibilities. Curiously, Robert Smith, the band’s frontman, wrote “Disintegration” as he was about to turn thirty, supposedly fearing his best years were behind him.
The release of Cesarco’s “Album” coincides unexpectedly with “Songs of a Lost World”, The Cure’s latest, and fourteenth, studio album.
For The Leporello Series, LL’Editions has invited a select group of international artists to contribute. Each artist is given carte blanche, restricted only by the accordion format and its ten panels (recto). To date, participating artists include (in order of appearance) Heimo Zobernig, Micah Lexier, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Ryan Gander, Shannon Ebner, Maurizio Nannucci, Karl Holmqvist, Jonathan Monk, Pieter Laurens Mol, Kay Rosen and Alejandro Cesarco.
Inhabiting a space between book and paper sculpture, the Leporellos are printed on delicate Mohawk Superfine Eggshell paper. Each volume in the series is limited to 250 numbered copies which come in a bespoke rigid box, with the title hot foiled both on its front and on its spine, allowing it to sit comfortably in a bookshelf when not on display.
Biography
Alejandro Cesarco (b. 1975, Montevideo, Uruguay) lives and works in Madrid, Spain. Cesarco has held solo shows at Tate Modern in London and at Jeu de Paume in Paris, and participated in the Venice Biennale. His work is part of prominent collections such as that of the Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art. He is represented by Tanya Leighton, Raffaella Cortese, and Elba Benítez galleries.
Cesarco has also curated exhibitions in the U.S., Uruguay, Argentina, and most recently, a section of the 33 Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2018) and ARCO, Madrid (2020). He is director of the non-profit arts organization, Art Resources Transfer.
