Biography
I was botn in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina on March 6th, 1972. During this year I lived just in front of the sea “and you in front of the dear Pacific…look at the ocean and look where we have come to…” C.F.R. Between 1993 and 1995 I resided in the capital of the European Community, Belgium, where I attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
I am a Visual Artist, graduate in Plastic Arts in the Arts Faculty of the National University of Tucumán. I attended post-graduate studies in contemporary art at the National University of Cuyo, and am currently studying for a further degree in Visual Arts at the Arturo Prat University (Iquique, Chile). I am in charge of theoretical-practical courses both at an individual (since 1992) and institutional level, at the National University of Tucumán (since 1998). I have been teaching courses in “Art and Artistic Discourse” and “Practical Workshop in Engraving III, IV and V”.
I currently co-direct the Institute for Asthetic Research together with Jorge Gutiérrez, and with the great help of Ana Claudia García. Since 1993 I have participated in research, cultural management and artistic production groups. Amongst them are the Centre for Research in Contemporary Art, La Sangrada Familia (“The Bleeded Family”, the finest male friends I have had in my artistic life), the Pukara group, Margen Gráfico, which I co-founded, the Institute for Education, Production and Research in Printed Art and I currently form a group with Lilian Gutiérrez and Mónica Herrera (“Paralelo 26, al este del paraíso” / “Paralell 26, East of Paradise”, the best female friends I have had in my artistic life.). I co-founded workshops such as xilo (1993) together with Gómez Tolosa and Gonzales Medina, and Grafiek from 1995 to 2005 and Zero in 2007.
I have shown my work both in my country and in other places, such as Belgium, France, Chile, Austria, Mexico, England, the United States, Japan, Australia, Spain, etc. It has been over 80 shows and more than 20 salons. I have been granted awards in some of them and have been a jury member in others. I have also been invited to lecture in the Catholic University of Perú, at the Arturo Prtat University, at national sessions on engraving and to many other places. I apologise for thos which I have forgotten to mention. My first endeavors have been in the field of painting, but I later dedicated to engraving, artist’s book, video installation, photography, ceramic, mail art, digital art, sculpture, etc.
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.
One of the works that represents me the most is the “Rayography Lab”, since in this micro installation I have been able to conjoin all of my passions: my passion for art, for travelling, for photography, for graphic art, for collectionism, reading, etc. In general terms I set up a working space, a desk where certain random items, and others that are not so random, indicate that I have been working in that place, and that I have rescued the things that I am interested in, be it because of their rarity or their content: a virgin crown that I placed on a Taschen book with my name, one of the matchboxes from the collection that was given to me as a present by a friend during my childhood, the photographs of a trip to Teotihuacán, the work in digital art that I showed at the OSDE salon, which was based on those photographs, a cd that simulates to be a vinyl record and other items that are covered by a glass so that the space remains immaculate and acquires a museographic character.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
I believe that everyone entertains himself as it is possible. The same applies to artworks: each person reads the as they can. I do not intend to provide a guideline, but I do believe that in my latest works I have tried to achieve that they appear to be one thing at first sight and that on a closer look it shows (or does not) to be another. For example in the work “Where Spring Never has an End”, I painted the HIV virus, but to people it seems like the prettiest and most decorative flowers that could be concieved. Also, in “The King’s Palace” I represented the historic house where the independence was declared as a japanese palace and almost nobody notices “The Tucumán House”. There are different ways to relate with works and this is alright. I also believe that over the course of 20 years of production I have made different proposals, many of which are different from one another. I still believe that the an initiative should come from the State promoting an artistic education that enables the understanding of movements and tendencies.
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?
My work is currently positioned within the parameters of what Nicolás Bourriaud called post-production in visual arts. I still think it could be something my mother ate during her pregnancies because my brother works in the same thing but in the field of cinema, documentary and TV. In my case, all of this has to do with production and consumption. I work with a selection and combination of very miscellaneous elements, most of them related to travel. I dedicate substantial time to this subject and have checked 65 cities in 18 countries on my Facebook “Travel Map”. I know I have not checked some places because I do not remember them and that I have to other places been more than once.
I acknowledge a large influence from the illustrations of my children’s books, especially one that I found a long time afterwards…and it was then that I realized this. “The heavenly weaver”, also from the cinema of Tarkovsky, Almodovar and Greenaway. My contemporary referents are Leandro Erlich, Anahí Cáceres, Alejandro Gómez Tolosa, Guillermo Kuitca, Elena Blasco, Jorge Gutiérrez, Ana Claudia García and the two greats: Luís Felipe Noé and León Ferrari. Of all of them I am interested in their thoughts and conversations concerning art. I also owe greatly to Víctor Gripo and, although it may sound strange, to a painting by Jorge Figueroa that I saw when he was painting in the Faculty’s workshop.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
Amongst the most important shows I watched, two were in Malba: one by Víctor Gripo and another by Guillermo Kuitca. Another one was in Tucumán: “Flores en el jardín (Flowers in the Garden)”, curated by Jorge Figueroa. In the first and second we had the opportunity to see works from different periods by both artists. In the thirds, the emergent production of the Province of Tucumán was shown and Maxi Farber was introduced to the visual arts scene of Tucumán.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
Fortunately, Argentinian art is dynamic. There is a tendency towards hybridation in productions and a large importance of plastic photography.
