Lara Favaretto (b. 1973)

A poignant evocation of absence, Lost & Found was exhibited in September 11 at MoMA P.S.1. Curated ten years after 9/11, the exhibition aimed to think about how events on that day continue to shape the world. Lara Favaretto’s work directly explores how objects carry stories, understanding inherent potential of the found item. Every year, she goes to auctions to buy forgotten luggage and items left in trains. On buying a piece of luggage, she locks it, never opening it to see what is inside. 'I select objects,’ Favaretto has said, ‘that add parallel lives to my installations, objects that already have a history, especially those that have been submitted to various kinds of energy, power, and weather conditions—all agents that intervene on the materials that compose each artefact.

Because I work with secondhand and found materials, my choices are limited to whatever is currently available. I can never determine in advance the characteristics (shape, color, size, etc.) of the materials that I am looking for. Sometimes I get objects that I really don’t like, and I could perhaps cheat and choose something nicer, or buy something new and make it look worn—but of course I can’t, because that element of randomness is central to my practice.’ (L. Favaretto, quoted in ‘500 Words’, Artforum, 6 June 2012).