Biography
I graduated from the Prilidiano Pueyrredón Art School and studied animation with Rodolfo Sáenz Valiente at the University of Buenos Aires. I did seminars and courses on contemporary art and animation. Since 2000 I keep visiting my teacher, Hector Maranesi, in his workshop.
I work as an art teacher (I believe in education! It’s a very powerful tool), I teach in my workshop for children and adults, and I also teach in some schools and made workshops for the Education Department.
I participated in group exhibitions of drawing and painting since my adolescence. I also did murals and scenery for plays and musicals. I made some short animations and edited videos.
In 2001 I began to develop an experimental work: at first I made optical toys. Then, I searched on the active participation of the spectator, made actions and installations, and participated in several group exhibitions –for example in the International Meetings of Visual Poetry organized by Vortex and the National Biennale of Bahía Blanca in 2005. In addition I made an individual exhibition at FM La Tribu and I was selected to make an installation in the National Award in 2006. Along with Viviana Macías I participated in “Living Archive“ [“Archivo Vivo”], her work in the Delta of the Tigre Islands. I was in Tafí del Valle, Tucumán, Argentina, making collective actions with local weavers and artists. And I didn’t stop painting and drawing... the diversity of activities shows that I'm still very curious.
Since 2003, I take part of the art group FALDAS with Melina Scumburdis and Florencia Fernández Frank. We make a collective in-process work, that is made visible through actions and exhibitions, among others, in the Cárcova Museum, a park, Juana de Arco Gallery, Expotrastiendas Art Fair, Espaciocentro Gallery in Córdoba, and in the “Night of the Museums” in Buenos Aires.
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.
"Gyros" [“Giroscopios”], La Tribu FM Radio Station, installation, July of 2006. This installation is a visible combination of several works arising from the idea that art can be a game and the viewer can become an actor. I experienced it in 2003: I discovered that the tops can draw! I did my own tops with marker and unused CDs and made them draw... In the tops’ drawings, the procedure is the most important, it’s a time for the game, the picture is simply what is left of this action, the result is random, and, moreover, it does not depend on the virtues of the drawer. That allowed me to perform actions and installations which invite viewers to draw with the tops from written instructions. In "Gyros" I exhibited drawings that I made with different tops on paper or board, some painted with watercolors, markers or oils; and drawings made during the installations or the actions and pictures of these events. I took the staging as a game, I hung paintings and overlapping drawings that also invaded the airspace. On the opening day I invited the people to make tops, to draw and to hear the sound of the tops... This installation is both an exhibition of the registration and the traces from other works. It proposes a re-reading of this material and shows the production process, inviting to further developments.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
I think it would be good if the work were read with sensibility... Realizing that every decision/choice that I make, and any other in “the artist’s” place, defines "art". I think that art can be the construction of a playful space-time, where there are no hierarchies. I propose the work to be a collective event and I leave an important place for the chance. The object, the visible, is just one part of the work and yet functions as a carrot to attract to the action. I Attempt to bring art to non-scholars, to expand its scope of action, of knowledge, of food; somehow, to investigate the edges.
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 find it hard to classify my work in a tradition... I know that I have many artists as references. At this time I'm going to name those who come to my mind right now, but I’ll probably forget some that are also important to me, and they will probably come to my mind in the future. I begin by considering the expanded concept of art of Joseph Beuys and his notion concerning that "every man is an artist". The experiences of the 60s and 70s of Ligia Clark, Helio Oiticica, and those of Fluxus too, which pointed to an active spectator. The expression and experimentation of the masters of the new figuration, painters like Jorge de la Vega and Felipe Noé, and further the Cobra Group. The poetry and humor of Alberto Greco, Federico Manuel Peralta Ramos, Antonio Vigo, León Ferrari. Conceptual drawings by Víctor Grippo, Gabriel Orozco, Jorge Macchi, Ballesteros. Artists that are project managers and involve others as Fernando García Delgado, Juan Carlos Romero, Viviana Macías and Diana Aisenberg. The social commitment of some, like Eduardo Molinari. I share with many artist-friends conversations that feed me, they are: Florencia Fernández Frank, Melina Scumburdis, Luis Terán, Lautaro Yepes and the organizers of karting races, Mariana Sosnowsky, Diego Perrotta, Inti Pujol and others. Later generations of artists that interest me are the children! Through my teaching activity I am in contact with their productions, and though it sounds corny, they are a constant source of nutrition for me; they have a particular way to relate to what they do and the freshness of not having preconceptions or academic training makes them wonderful.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
I will name just a couple of exhibitions of artists who are teachers of teachers: León Ferrari, the exhibition was done at the Museum of Modern Art of BA in 2004, where his pictures of "writings" and "plans" could be seen. And the retrospective exhibition in Recoleta Cultural Center, which included "Hell and idolatry" [“Infiernos e idolatrías”]. The retrospective exhibition of Víctor Grippo at the Museum of Latin American Art of BA.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
There is so much variety of trends that it is almost equal to the number of artists... I see groups of artists who congregate by affinities of procedure, ideologies or friendship, around curators or critics. These fellows are who give legitimacy to the art production, who make the visibility of the work, that enable access channels to the exhibition spaces and to the art market circuit. I believe that the trends of what "is" seen are defined by them. Probably this has happened at all times in all places...
