Vision of art
1. Choose a work that represents you, describe it in relation to its format and materiality, its relation with time and space, its style and theme; detail its production process.
I will comment on a photograph (self-portrait) taken in 2004 that has no title. The horizontal scene shows me, sitting down in the floor, completely covered with sheets of paper. These same sheets also extend as a pattern on the wall and floor of my house. White dominates the image. It is based on a blurred image I had in my mind: a posture that goes in search of the gaze of the other. The take (direct) was pondered for a long time and I searched for a moment and a kind of process that were brief, home-made. Regarding the formal, the image disputes with the typical photographic almost-advertising portrait created in a studio. In that sense, I thought it was best not to realize that type of image. The aim was to achieve an odd scene, strange with a sense of lack of affection. But a loving detachment that would fight against the self-centered art clichés built out of a strong passion. There were several people collaborating behind the camera and I found myself with the difficulty of the light and the short distance between the lens and myself. Everything was fastened with Scotch tape. The rareness and effectiveness of this work are born from the quietness and the possibility of all falling apart despite of positioning the image very near the ground (taken from the photo frames of Kurosawa’s movies). The fall of the sheets of paper would be short and silent.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
Beyond the complicated arguments that cross my mind and heart when I make things, I would suggest that the perception guide should be pleasure. I would also recommend to be stoned. But I don’t like suggesting ways of reading. I don’t identify myself with the fact of “reading a work”. One might keep in mind that I do things from a Buddhist procedure. I create, out of love and not passion, a novel of the things I think I know.
3. In reference to your work and your position in the national and international art fields, what tradition do you recognize yourself in? Who are your contemporary referents? What artists of previous generations are of interest to you?
I definitively consider myself outside the mainstream, in an anti-professional stream. I love all that is Brazilian but I doubt about the “the Latin-American”. Nowadays I like Kippenberger, West, John Waters, Solondz, Klara Domini, Oiticica, Lynch, the first Jarmusch, Gilbert & George and Aira.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
Exhibitions: D’Alessandro y Xcella in Larreta Gallery, Jacarandance and Bum Bum by Gary Pimiento, The makeup to the boiler between two museums [El maquillaje a la caldera entre 2 museos] that Mariela Scafati began and was continued by other artists from Bahía Blanca, the last one by Gumier (because he is the founder of a way of making art nowadays), The Armed Hawaiis [Los Hawaii armados] by Ueno, Darkroom by Jacoby and Mists [Brumas] by Román Vitali.
Works: the folding screen cardboards by Klara Domini, any of the works on paper by Prior.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
Abstract video / Interactivity with a weird interface / Political obviousness / Arty designers / Posh photographer / Social project (and the combination of posh photographer and social project) / Projects instead of artworks / Solemn Art / Adolescent happy mess / Humble art / Painting for the living room (never dies) / Ugly-cool art / the same Feminine art as always / Crazy art / Buddhist art / Mysterious installation / Collectives or Groups.
