On the fringes of the night and in the glow of the parties, between papers and words, Bárbara Bianca LaVogue (1970-2018) passed like a flash of lightning through the Buenos Aires nightlife scene, building and injecting vitality into her unique world, from the late 1980s until her final days. Her vibrant and hypnotic strokes give her images that same intensity that she applied to her life, and she portrayed the friendships, muses, drag queens and diversity of dissidents that surrounded her, together with the heels, jewels and accessories that reveal her close ties to fashion. She left her indelible mark in each of her drawings, just as she did in each night, catwalk or club in which she appeared. A gesture of beauty and an affirmation of her identity. ‘I’m an artist, because I am Bianca, because I am LaVogue, I am an urban legend,’ she declared with certainty.

Tu presencia en mí [Your presence in me] is on view in the Café of the Museo Moderno, allowing LaVogue’s drawings and paintings to once again inhabit a space made for socializing, conversation and debate. Like a vibrant archive of the Buenos Aires underground scene, her images reveal faces and bodies made up of innocent and fragile gestures. The selection of works reveals her passion for glamour, parties and a cartography of desires, yet it also shows her devotion to an intimate faith, a spiritual quest, and her dedication to the friendships that were her sanctuary.

Today, her works re-emerge with the same vitality and urgency that led to their creation, occupying space, reaffirming her presence, and reminding us that memory is not just an archive of the past, but a force that is reactivated in the present.