(Non) Soft Cities

Abstract

Review of the curatorial text of the photographic exhibition “(Non) Soft Cities” by the artist Leonardo Portus held at the Palacio La Moneda Cultural Center (CCPLM), Santiago de Chile, between October 2019 and April 2020.The investigative journey Portus had from his previous works is approached, emphasizing his continuous search, where architecture opens a dialogue with urban planning, history, and landscape, in the field of contemporary and visuals arts. It also explains the origin of the name of the exhibition and its relationship with the events in Chile before and after the 1973 coup d'état, implying Portus's link with history, his methodologies, his themes, and his way of making objects, this time in tune with the findings, Duchamp, Benjamin and Ranciere, as a Modernity archaeologist.