Lux Lindner (b. Buenos Aires, 1966) is an emblematic figure within Buenos Aires’ contemporary art scene. He has profound knowledge of Argentina’s history and culture and his work often manifests his lucid and irreverent reflections on what constitutes being Argentinean.

In this exhibition Lindner is presenting a project for a monument to be placed in a key spot in Buenos Aires, located right across the Government palace and highly charged with political symbolism. Where there used to be a monument to Christophorus Columbus — taken down because of its association with colonialism and later replaced by a monument to Juana Azurduy, an independence fighter from the XIX Century, which has also been taken down, during a change in ruling party — Lindner is now proposing to the Government of Buenos Aires to install a Monument to the Unknown Smuggler, posing the idea that the smuggler was a key figure during the colonial times and afterwards, the seed of what would become Argentina. The monument avoids figurative representation, it is a large sewer-like pipe —where the flux o merchandise-power-money between Spain and its colonies circulated— intersected by a much smaller and narrower pipe representing the secondary flux of exchanges which included liquor, forbidden materials and books: novels, intellectual influences.

Lindner has had more than a dozen solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Latin America and Europe, including the Mercosul Biennial in 2007 and the Istanbul Biennial in 2013. He has received several important awards in Argentina such as The Klemm Foundation Prize and the Konex Prize. In 2012 the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (MALBA) acquired one hundred and sixty eight drawings made between 1985 and 2012 for its collection.