ARGENTINA
There aren't many contemporary artists who have painted landscapes, but those who have done so have been exceptional. Laffitte and Mendanha have found their own way to approach this genre; they do not intend to engage with nostalgia or memory, nor to compete with photographic reality, nor to question how to represent nature, nor to be associated with a broader "ism": realism, symbolism, or impressionism. They do not revert to the overwhelming presences of the Nordic romantics, nor to the ordered universes of Claude Lorrain or Nicolas Poussin, nor to the comfortable decorum of the bourgeoisie of the Impressionists, nor to the rich tradition of Argentine landscape painters from the 19th century. They do what they have always done: react and act. They have always been committed to defending their freedom to not be tied to a language or style; they address the world through ideas, opportunities, and images that have temporarily energized their own experiences. Their versions overwhelm us with that striking immediate presence that they, as artists and as people, have had to feel. They convey an impression of dread and wonder, of mystery and spirituality: a sense of surprise at the complex fabric of tensions in the world.

The origin of this series lies in a trip that Laffitte and Mendanha took to a friend’s estate in Entre Ríos for a long weekend. It is a relatively depressed province, underexploited but rich in resources, and as such, it presents a somewhat discouraging image marked by the Argentine economic crisis; an image that speaks to the common people, of where and how they live, and who they are.

Manuel and Juliana took a large number of photographs during that trip, but above all, they were struck by the drama of the landscape—soaked and overwhelming; by the fecund decay of plant life and the signs of death and rebirth following the devastating and frequent floods. They were excited about the project of painting landscapes and intrigued by the outcome. Gradually, they found themselves caught up in it, like flies in a web. They realized that those images could be transferable or applicable to the social situation of the moment. Argentina was once again trapped in an economic cycle; plunged into free fall and disoriented amidst blatant corruption and a lack of political vision. The wealthy, of course, had already tucked their money away in Swiss banks or Caribbean tax havens, or converted it into US dollars. The middle class, on the other hand, was in the process of losing everything it had saved: devaluation and inflation were gradually diminishing their wealth. And there, in the landscapes of Entre Ríos, one could perceive a symbolic situation akin to ground zero: a feeling of sinking from nothing to less than nothing.

However, it is also necessary to point out that our conversation developed during the course of the series, and over time it became evident that the social or political dimensions of the works weighed less, in this case, than the allegorical, metaphorical, and poetic connotations, in which the viewer would find their own subjective readings.
—Kevin Power, 2013