Biography
I was born in Tucumán on October 15, 1959. I live and work in Tucumán. I am licensed in Arts and have a Masters in art history. I'm employed as a teacher in the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Tucumán and, likewise, in the Escuela de Cine, Video y Televisión de la UNT. Since the Nineties I've dedicated myself to the study and production of video art. I have published, since 1994, articles and essays on video art and contemporary art in books and national and international magazines. Worth noting: "Locus et corpus", in Carlos Trilnick, published in October of 2007; and "Bjørn Melhus: the clonante", in Artes y Medios Audiovisuales. Un estado de situación (A state of situation), Muestra Euroamericana de Cine, Video y Arte Digital - MEACVAD 2007 “Ethos y pathos en la experiencia periférica del arte contemporáneo” ("Ethos and pathos in the peripheral experience of contemporary art",) in Nonsite Revista on-line, Volume 1, Alojada (Lodged) in w3art.es, in 2003. I have obtained prizes, scholarships, and subsidies for the development of my artistic work and for research relating to video art. Among those worth noting: First Prize Experimental Video category – Prize MAMba – Art and New Technologies, MAMBA/FOUNDATION, 2003; Scholarship to attend the Workshop for Improvement in Movies and Documentary Video for producers in Latin America, 1996 contest for scholarships and subsidies for the Arts, offered by Fundación Antorchas in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation, The MacArthur Foundation, Fundación Andes and Fundación Vitae; and Subsidio Estímulo for Video - 1993 contest, offered by Fundación Antorchas in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation & The MacArthur Foundation. Since 1983 I’ve participated in group and individual shows in sculpture, video, and video installations. Some of the more recent include: RESPLANDORES Poéticas Analógicas y Digitales, curated by Graciela Taquini and Rodrigo Alonso, August of 2007; ‘La Normalidad’(The Normality), with the artistic coordination of Alice Creischer, Andreas Siekmann, Loreto Garín, Eduardo Molinari and Federico Zukerfeld, in 2006; “1º Durban Video Festival 2005”, curated by Irene Banchero, held in march with the colaboration of Proyecto TRAMA, Durban – Sudáfrica, 2005; “Pertenencia: Puesta en valor de la diversidad cultural argentina. Tucumán”, curated by Jorge Gutiérrez, Andrés Labaké and Aldo Ternavasio; Bienal Champ Libre, “Horizonte – Proyecto II Desierto”, curated by Graciela Taquini, Montreal – Canadá, 2004.
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 select “Mi adorable mariposa (el aleteo)” ("My adorable butterfly (the palpitation)") because it's a work that has given me much satisfaction. It is a video done in 2003, which is governed by dynamics: the dynamics of war. To define it in a few words, I would say that the many machines of war, those of distancing vision, permit us to glimpse a horizon of contrast which is increasingly more discouraging. This video puts on screen a double bombardment: images that circulate in the media and those of the bombs. This works in three surreptitious layers: a bombing from World War Two filmed by a documentary maker, various bombings from the last Gulf war transmitted by the television networks, and a graphic of the butterfly of E. Lorens (dinámica de los fluidos) (dynamic of the fluids) that I obtained from the Internet. The sound reproduces the takeoff of airplanes (played in a loop) and an aria from Madam Butterfly (Un bel di vedremo).
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
During the 90's my videos were produced, basically, to be viewed in video installations. In them, my interest is in exploring the continuous/contiguous relationship that exists between the interface of machine- man- imaginary. Therefore it suggests to the spectator to relax and enjoy, thus creating a symbolic entrance for them to build their own fictions and agree to the meaning. In my video installations, the notions of space -as well as continent and content- return as inexact and subjective; and the time, relative. I like to suggest, as well, that my video installations can be thought less as 'put in scene' rather "put in the abyss of a scene" (as when a picture inside a picture is painted, or a film inside a film is represented).
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 do not get along well with tradition. I conceive of art as somewhat dynamic, heterogeneous and plural. I think that video art is a line of artistic work that operates in that sense. I consider León Ferrari as one of the most important influences of national art. I admire his work which, up until today, does not cease to produce ruptures in the art field and in the same movement, manages to produce critical thought. In the field of electronic arts the production of Iván Marino interests me exceedingly, by the dialogical relation, intelligent and critical, established between art and NTII (New Technologies of the Image and Information).
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
One of the most significant shows for me was the retrospective of Guillermo Kuitka in Malba.
