Un secreto se apaga entre mis manos

ArtNoble Gallery is pleased to present Un secreto se apaga entre mis manos (A secret is revealed in my hands), a solo exhibition by Amparo Viau (Adrogué, Argentina, 1991), with a critical text by Benedetta Casini.

Born in Adrogué, in the province of Buenos Aires, Viau studied Visual Arts at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes and film directing at CIEVYC in Buenos Aires. In recent years her work has rapidly gained recognition within the Argentine art scene, with solo exhibitions and participation in institutional projects including Fundación PROA, as well as winning the Premio a la Obra de Arte at arteBA 2022.

For her first European presentation, Viau conceives a large-scale installation, an immersive path in which a single drawing, approximately forty meters long and made with chalk pastels on paper, unfolds through the space, transforming drawing into a physical, visual, and temporal experience. The image ceases to function as an isolated element and instead becomes an environment, a passage, and a gesture.

At the center of Viau’s research lies the human figure. Intertwined bodies, overlapping scenes, and narrative fragments construct a layered visual texture in which drawing enters into dialogue with performative languages such as contemporary dance, theater, and cinema. The images appear like suspended choreographies or theatrical still frames crystallized on paper. Each body contains a gesture, a tension, and a rhythm, while each group of figures suggests the possibility of a story unfolding within another.

The installation conceived for Un secreto se apaga entre mis manos unfolds in three moments—beginning, transition, and expansion—which do not follow a linear sequence but rather trace a cyclical movement. An initial zone of tension and density, where bodies intertwine and overlap, gradually gives way to an unstable threshold of formal transformation, eventually opening into a phase of expansion in which color and space seem to dilate and breathe. The narrative does not reach a definitive conclusion; the image remains in a state of continuous reactivation, suggesting a circular and processual sense of time.

Chalk, a fragile and powdery material, reinforces the performative dimension of the work. The mark preserves the intensity of the gesture while at the same time revealing its vulnerability, allowing the ephemeral—almost impermanent—nature of the image to emerge.

Un secreto se apaga entre mis manos thus takes shape as a space of passage in which drawing becomes a stage and time manifests as cycle, transformation, and return, inviting the viewer into an immersive experience where gesture, space, and narrative intertwine in a visual and sensory continuum.