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.
"The Chosen Instrument II", an installation conceived for the exhibition "Beginning with a bang" curated by Victoria Noorthoorn at Americas Society in New York. It encapsulates the way and the materials I work with. From a "urban legend" (you never know how much they have of real), and during the furor caused by the arrival of man on the moon, the airline Pan American World Airways opened a "waiting list" for future flights to the moon. You could access the list by paying a dollar. The installation consisted of:
1) A file/collection of printed material and original objects of the Pan Am airline arranged in an office desk.
2) The release of "tickets to go to the Moon" from the 3 different classes that the American Airline had in service. Support: a preprinted bus ticket.
3) A video documentary of that printing edition process at the John Fuser enterprise, -former printers and inventors of the bondi (buses of Buenos Aires) tickets-.
4) The objects that were part of the printing of this edition (original laser descent, films and polymers).
5) A performance of this ticket’s sale at the installation. When the action was not displayed, the viewer had the opportunity to purchase tickets in the dispenser used for the performance and pay into a ad hoc piggy.
In relation to time, I usually work with elements, events, conventions and crafts of history, presenting them now. There are always traces of the physicality of painting in my work including those that are three dimensional. I try to avoid the illustration. The relationship that may be brought to the public in the exhibition space is something I have increasingly considered.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
I want the viewer to choose and find the way he can read the work, if a work can be "read". My wish is that this could happen with wonder and curiosity. Traveling through details, both in a painting and in deployments in space.
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 recognize myself within realism in its broadest spectrum. I think my work is formally linked with the realism of different eras. The new objectivity between the wars (Franz Radziwill, Otto Dix), the British kitchen sink (John Bratby the painter), the fundamental Peter Blake. Near Berni and Peralta Ramos at the grave of Tut Ankh Amon.
My contemporary references are : Sound Martín, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Michael Coombs, Gerhard Richter, Sebastian Diaz Morales, Zoe Di Rienzo, Esteban Pastorino, Eduardo Molinari, Xcell Marcos, Juan Carlos Cena, Guy Bar-Amotz.
Artists that interest me from previous generations: Candido Lopez, Miguel Diomede, Blur, Egon Schiele, Romero and Boccardo, David Hockney, Gordon Matta Clark, both Greco and Gerardo Alberto, Fabio Kacero, Kurt Schwitters, Luc Tuymans, Edgardo Vigo , Marcel Broodthaers, Cheri Samba, Tarufetti Raul, Luis Medrano, Guillermo Iuso, Chris Ware, LFNoé, Ray Davies, The Kinks, The Clash, The Jam, Pete Townshend and The Who, Keith Moon, Paul Luis Romero, Pablo Suarez, Cildo Meireles, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Prince, Serge Jacques, Tracey Emin, Doris Salcedo, Rachel Whiteread, Mark Dion, Daniel Roldan videos and hopefully I can keep adding people to the list.
From later on I follow, I like and I respect: Ezequiel Semo, Ezequiel Garcia, Alejandro Somaschini (who comes from the communication field), Santiago Iturralde and his essential painting, Carolina Katz and her obsessions, Veronica Gomez, Ana Victoria Montecucco, Elisa O'Farrell, Estanislao Florido, Javier Carricajo, Amalia Pica, Nicholas Levin, Martin Guerrero, Julian D'Angiolillo permanent temporary.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
Boccardo Mambo / Grippo at Malba / Alberto Greco at the Museum of Fine Arts / Noe at MNBA / Mónica Millán at MamBA / "Soup" and "Nieto" by Baggio at the Pop Hotel and the home of his grandmother / "Tertulia" Molinari-Varchausky at the Recoleta Cemetery / "Someone calles” by Provisorio Permanente at Ruth Benzacar / 29th Biennial of Pontevedra in Recoleta / Esteban Pastorino at Torrejón Dabbah / Daniel Joglar at Torrejón Dabbah / Diego Perrotta at Recoleta 2004 / Dino Bruzzone, Mambo / "From the Soul" by Di Rienzo, Katz and Baggio. I felt them as fundamental regarding the perception of art production, necessary to understand. The retrospectives allowed us see the “arrogance” of work of artists of a long-term career.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
There is a strong tendency to some sort of "us" and "them", leading to a lack of discussion about what is happening today. Clusters of artists usually join the "technology of friendship" and this space is a proof of that, though it certainly seems inevitable in this context. Maybe working towards a more fluid exchange of ideas and forms of creation is the key to avoid inbreeding and cabotage art.
