Biography
Born in Rosario in 1975. He studied Fine Arts at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts of the UNR. During 2006 and 2007 he did “El levante”, a work clinic with Mauro Machado, Graciela Carnevale, Luján Castellani and Lorena Cardona. In 2006 he took part of an exchange program with the Work Reading workshop Casa 13, in Córdoba, which was coordinated by Lucas di Pasquale and Juan Der Hairabedián.
He obtained an honourable mention from the Jury at the II National Contest for Plastic Arts - Platt Award 2007, with the work “De cómo convivir con las cosas” (On how to coexist with things).
In 2008 he attended an art clinic by Eugenio Ampudia at the Centro Cultural Parque de España (Rosario), and was a finalist at the ArteBA-Petrobrás Award 2008
He lives and works in Rosario, Argentina
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.
“On how to coexist with things” is a video which I did at the apartment where I was living at the time. A camera fixed on a tripod recording three actions happening in the same place: drinking mate, eating a soup and drinking a glass of wine. The kettle, pot, bottle and glass are paintings. Back then I’d moved with my girlfriend and was beginning a new time living together and adjusting to the new environment. All the housework, needs, my art production, all happening in the same (tiny) space.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
With one step forward and the other step back, a hand on the head and the eyes closed.
Actually I don’t suggest to read my work at all. There are other people’s work that are far more interesting: “Don Quixote”, “Heliogabale”, “On heroes and tombs”, short-stories by Quiroga or Borges, etc.
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 two biggest influences were my brother, Elbio Yadanza, and Luis Alberto Spinetta, though they have never done anything (directly) to such extent; moreover: the latter doesn’t even know I exist.
My brother was someone who was always reading, drawing, who knew a lot about music, who disliked football…. And Spinetta was the great musician and songwriter who said things that I didn’t understand but that I liked. All this attracted me, made me think I was losing something big. And after wandering about doing nothing I started studying Arts. I started to meet professors and artists such as Claudia Del Río, Hugo Cava and others that made me realize that art was a serious stuff. Van Gogh was the first artist I admired, later on the avant-garde artists, and little by little I started to know the contemporaries. A lot of them interest me so as to mention them all. I think that the works of my first exhibition (“Vestigios”) have something in common with the meticulous work of Román Vitali (taking into consideration the huge distance among us). And my latest works seem to have the same motivating impulse than some of Carlos Herrera’s forms of production.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
I choose the canteen build up by Raúl Castells, at Puerto Madero, where he served “mate cocido y tortas fritas”, because it seems to me he was able to come up with an artistic gesture from a non-artistic perspective, from a non-artistic field. I think that is more significant than any other exhibition or work of art.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
There is a certain tendency to be cool that tends to confuse some “cool” actions with actions related to the purpose of being a work of art. But maybe stating this is a mistake on my part, since one of the advantages (or disadvantages) of contemporary art is that there are not yet clear definitions as to where to put it; on the contrary, it tends to move away from definitions and concepts all the time, despite the fact that one can really tell a contemporary work from one which is not by the range of insults uttered by the public. Maybe because of this, the seduction strategy unfolded within the last few years is based in controversy. A work of art the argues with the viewer will hardly fail the exam of the critics. The polemic can be seen from different places: grotesque, absurd, aggressive, horrific, etc. On the other hand, doing a work of art that does not say anything, soft, mellow… many times is found to be uninteresting.
