La Precaria
Valerie Downs

During her residency at Proyecto´ace –from August 4 to 29, 2025–, Valerie Downs developed her series La Precaria, working on handmade craft papers by tearing, perforating, and threading them with unconventional materials such as her own hair, deer hair, feathers, earth, and rust. Her practice—which she herself has compared to a “Lazy Susan,” in which different parts of herself generate varied creative expressions—questions the notion of “normal” materials by exploring what we are, laden with memory, fragility, and intimate pulsations.

At the event Del muro al papel al aire (From Wall to Paper in the Air), held on August 27th, 2025, the local community of Buenos Aires had the opportunity to experience Valerie’s pieces and engage with her poetics. Her work brought this personal and collective reflection on discard, bodily tension, and the threshold between the visible and the invisible into the public space. Her intervention not only gave new meaning to fragile materials, but also opened up a space for shared emotions, in which the act of looking becomes a gesture of mutual care between artist and audience.