Luis Enrique Zela-Koort

Luis Enrique Zela-Koort (Lima (PE) / Buenos Aires (AR)) is an artist and researcher observing technological responses to biases that would otherwise be cataloged as objective truth; analyzing the ideological instrumentalization of science, mythology, and identity. They integrate reflections on the interplay between abstract forces and gendered, subjectivity creation. Articulating digital tools and manual methods, their objects embody actual or hypothetical processes as a means for conceptualizing new possible worlds, where historical, hegemonic narratives are digested to elaborate meta-fictions- or non-linear reinterpretations of reality. As such, they have been exploring the potential of theory-fiction, for conceptualizing strategies to escape binary modes of thought while deconstructing modernity's dynamics between culture and nature. They move freely across media, employing sculpture and ceramics, extended painting, and interactive works- fusing organic and computational aesthetics, exposing the intimate connection between our bodies and the knowledge we produce. In a larger pursuit for what Zela calls arguments for “Queer Metaphysics”, their research is focused on creating an alternate body of knowledge that recognizes the indivisible unity between observer and observed. As a queer artist living with chronic illness, Zela is interested in the political weaponization of essentialist discourses, and the power of compelling characterizations of nature. Consequently, Zela's work plays with notions of desire, virality, simbiosis, and transformation. Visually, this manifests as pictorial or machinic assemblages of industrial, biological, or ritualistic elements where ambiguity is employed to invite the audience's speculation. Their process employs anecdotal, academic, and popular references, approaching art as a bridge