Leonor Antunes

Portuguese, Berlin-based artist Leonor Antunes in conversation with Professor Briony Fer and Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley, recorded in October 2023 to accompany Antunes’ Fruitmarket exhibition the apparent length of a floor area.

Leonor Antunes works with traditions of modernist art, architecture and design through sculpture made and displayed with the specifics of a given place in mind.

The forms and materials of her sculptures reference a history of modernism embedded in the work of its less visible protagonists; overlooked, often female, artists and designers. This cast of historical ‘companions’ enters Antunes’ work in enigmatic ways – through an echo of form or measurement, or the replication of a particular knot, hinge, colour or material – infusing it with their spirit and sensibility.

For her show at Fruitmarket, research led Antunes to the work of architect, designer and writer Sadie Speight, whose work included a house in Cumbria for textile designer Alistair Morton of Edinburgh Weavers. Cork, a traditional Portuguese material Antunes has used frequently in her previous work, now had a different resonance for her, inspired by Speight’s extensive use of it in her interiors.

Further details about the show, including images and video, can be found at the Fruitmarket online archive.

The book produced to accompany the exhibition, written by Briony Fer, is available from Fruitmarket’s online bookshop.

A video of this conversation can be viewed on YouTube.

 

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