The decline of modernity paradigms
Over a century ago, Walter Benjamin analyzed the problematic relationship between art and technology, becoming one of the first to reflect upon the importance and lack of neutrality of technical media. In his seminal essay The work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility (1935),⁵ the German philosopher appeared concerned about the loss of integrity of the work of art, due to the introduction of images reproduced by mechanical means. Benjamin believed that the authority of a work of art resided in its originality, uniqueness and permanence, in its "aura".' He felt that the unlimited reproduction of artistic images threatened the aura and destroyed it. In other words, the authority of the "original" was compromised by the appearance of a copy, that is, by the existence of multiple editions. Being multiple in its essence, printmaking was therefore outside the modem hierarchical current, which considered that the existence of unlimited numbers of a single print would devalue any one of them. Within this context, in order to adjust itself to modern thought, and also in order to be included in the economic market (since the critical privilege of the unique object is instrumental for its economic valorization), printmaking found itself constrained to a narrow definition that limited its infinite possibilities as a means of artistic expression. The need to validate the printed image within the modernist philosophy motivated the appearance of "limited editions". Modern thought defined the differences between the original work of art, a limited edition, and a mass-reproduced copy, thus acquiring a stable hierarchy, which allowed the formulation of an aesthetic value judgment, forcing printmaking into an act of contrition for its sin of multiplicity: to number an edition manifested a form of compromise between the concept of uniqueness and the infinitely reproducible piece.
If mechanical reproduction of a work of art represented something powerfully new for Benjamin, the appearance of digital images during the last years of the 20th century geometrically increased the problems he identified 60 years earlier, blurring even further the distinction between what we believe is a work of art and its reproduction. No other artistic field faces such intense tension between manual elaboration and the unlimited possibilities of technology as printmaking does. Fortunately, the parameters that modernity had imposed on our field, among which were the notion of originality and creativity,⁷ associated with the singular and the unique, as well as the binding link to stifling technical purity - have been reformulated by the concerns introduced by Postmodernist thought, the use of electronic media and the consequences that globalization processes have brought upon culture in general and artistic practices in particular. Many traditional printmaking processes that had been used exclusively for limited editions are now being explored and combined with practices that come from other fields. The idea of multiplicity or reproduction, traditionally synonymous with editions, is being applied to the development of imaging strategies, being used, for example, in installations. The generating matrix itself allows the development of works in a sequenced and serialized way, and the individual image becomes a part of a series with repeated visual information, which preserves the coherence of the group. Simultaneously, the matrix⁸ may be printed, altered, and reprinted to produce a different series of works. Finally, the way to present graphic information oscillates between the traditional two-dimensional image to the use of a three-dimensional space, that of the object-sculpture, of the installation, of the artist's book, or of public art and, if we stretch this concept even further, information may remain solely in digital format, leaving it up to the reader-spectator to print the image directly on his or her own personal equipment.

The Perfume of Absence is a series of portable installations followed by interventions in landscapes and abandoned spaces, based on a process of construction, documentation. destruction and construction of fragments in different scenes. During months of travelling, teaching and working with artists from different cultural backgrounds, Cecilia was carrying pieces of fabric with her and she portrayed these fragments in the new landscapes that were surrounding her in the journey. Through these photographs. and as an attempt to document her experiences in these scenes as a witness and as a performer, she discovered that the apparently lifeless object changes its attitude in order to interact with the environment. As with previous work, this is a way of approach to a visual language that can translate her perception-of/adaptation-to different realities as a migrating artist. This "Nomad Printmaking Project" represents very well the technical and geographical nomadism that is present in contemporary printmaking.