Estrid Lutz

Estrid Lutz is a French artist born 1989 living and working in Puerto Escondido - Oaxaca Mexico. Lutz’s earliest artistic works could be seen as violent explorations of the surfaces where human interaction with non- human occurs, and effect takes place. All artworks embody her reoccurring interest in the concepts of the natural and the technological, often finding emotional or empathetic connections as well as physical touch-points between the two.

Since 2018, Lutz has lived and worked in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico where she found the perfect environment to develop her work in by observing the rough natural environment of Zicatela, one of the most dangerous surf beaches in the world. In Puerto Escondido, Lutz has continued her research into biological organisms and ecosystems, and how humans and their technological materials are inspired by, interact with, and have an effect on these. Several experiments have had a direct relationship with the waves and beach: A hands-on approach that tests the boundaries of what’s possible.

Explorations include being flown over the waves and between whirlwinds in an Ultralight Aircraft to drop drawings and flowers into the ocean, having artworks taken out to sea on her behalf and documented in the pipelines, and burying the edges of large lenticular, photo- luminescent, and sun-sensitive works in the sand.

Lutz’s practice embodies the blurring of dichotomies, investigating the interactions between the human-technological (science, polystyrene, aircraft) on the one hand, and the forces of nature on the other (pipelines, whirlwinds, animals) with sensitivity to emotional communication. In face of something more powerful than us, what is the significance of dropping flowers into giant waves?