Lorenzo Beust
(Brazil, 1997)
In his work, Lorenzo Beust explores the streets and landscapes to capture the intersections between rural and urban in the pampa of Rio Grande do Sul. Digital photography is used as a tool for experimentation, incorporating visual codes from glitch culture and car tuning. By digitally modifying the images, the artist questions the ownership and identity of the characters portrayed while revisiting traditional gaucho iconography.
In Mecânica, commissioned by the 14th Mercosul Biennial, Beust chooses the horse and the mechanical cow as central elements, using them to tension consolidated visual narratives. While the horses appear digitally transformed, the mechanical cow - a kind of popular taxidermy - is presented as a symbol of the urbanization of the lasso culture. Together with the lasso community, the artist transports this culture into the landscape like someone positioning a sculpture in space. The project functions as a gesture of preservation and questioning, highlighting cultural displacements and the blurred boundaries between tradition, memory and transformation in the landscape of Rio Grande do Sul.
Anna Cavalcanti
Bio
Lorenzo Beust (Brazil, 1997) is a visual artist. His current photographic research focuses on contemporary gaucho culture, with the main themes being the culture of lassoing mechanical cows and how the symbols of gauchismo are reflected in the urban landscape. He has participated in exhibitions held at Planta Baja, Farol Santander, and MAAPA, all in Porto Alegre. He lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
