Astrid Jahnsen. Two hundred grams | Museo de Arte de Lima
Exhibitions
The Museum of Art (MALI) in Lima is hosting a solo exhibition of Astrid Jansen entitled "Two Hundred Grams" in Gallery 3 on the first floor, curated by Carlo Trevelli. The "Two Hundred Grams" series continues a series of works created by artist Astrid Jansen over the past nine years, such as "Kneeling" (2017) – exhibited in 2017 at the El Ojo Ajeno Gallery in the Lima Center for Image –, "Background" (2018), and "Lost Gaze" (2018) – exhibited in 2019 at the Luis Miró Quesada Garland Hall in Miraflores. Astrid's creative process involves re-photographing images with a macro lens—for example, in her "Two Hundred Grams" series, she re-photographed images from encyclopedias she used as a child. This lens magnifies certain areas of an image while blurring others, much like viewing an image with a magnifying glass. Astrid's aim is not only to discover details but also to reveal the structure of the image. This structure can be the pixelation of a photograph or (a metaphor behind her creative process) the conceptual (cultural, political) framework behind the production and reception of images. The conspiracy Astrid seeks to expose is patriarchy: every encyclopedia proclaims itself a treasure trove of human historical knowledge. However, this supposedly neutral and universal narrative is actually sexist: most of the figures appearing in encyclopedia entries are male, and the portraits of historical figures are also mostly male, while the women appearing in the portraits are mostly because they are associated with certain famous men. A closer examination of the encyclopedia's editorial details reveals an undeniable fact: the encyclopedia's editorial board is entirely composed of men. Therefore, Astrid's attempt is a kind of salvation: she photographs the women in the encyclopedia. But she doesn't photograph the women specifically featured, but rather those who appear by chance: for example, the illustration for the Lisbon entry is a photograph of a busy street, and in the background, we can only see a woman carrying shopping bags. This overlooked existence of women, which can be said to "transcend the encyclopedia's perspective," is precisely what Astrid collected. She used this to build an archive. A female "anti-encyclopedia" project, composed of anonymous female figures that occasionally appear in encyclopedia photographs: passersby, workers, students, mothers... This project has biographical elements. Astrid recalls helping her grandmother with crossword puzzles in the newspaper as a child. Her grandmother would ask her to get several encyclopedia volumes and look up the information needed to solve the puzzles. This started Astrid's journey of reading and knowledge. Perhaps it was then that Astrid first realized that women were almost nowhere to be found in encyclopedias. When she asked her grandmother why, the answer was disappointing: "That's normal." This dissatisfaction with the answer may have been the initial seed of this project. After her grandmother's death, Astrid inherited these encyclopedias, and when she flipped through them again, the question resurfaced in her mind. This exhibition features 119 photographs in various formats, along with some artifacts. Also on display are some encyclopedia volumes by Astrid Jahnsen used in this project, which are available for public loan. Many of the photographs in the exhibition are included in the book *Two Hundred Grams*, published by the Spanish publishing house La Fábrica in 2025.
