A landscape in the icebox, acerca de Transformaciones azarosas en Malba, Fragmento de la nota publicada en Diario Bs. As. Herald 18 de Julio 2005, por Didier Maleuvre.
Un paisaje en caja de hielo.
Transformaciones azarosas es aunque pequeña, una inquietante exposición de tres instalaciones en Malba.
Vaya al Malba tan pronto como pueda o no podrá ver uno de las más perplejas exposiciones temporales: se está derritiendo. Literalmente. Una exhibición momentánea que evidencia su temporalidad. Arte con fecha de vencimiento. Ars longa, vita brevis, los poetas han dicho desde Seneca hasta Chaucer y Goethe. Cierto entonces. Pero si el arte es para ser real, si es para reflejar el mundo tal como es, fugaz, mortal, efímero, transitorio, entonces, ¿no debería ser también efímero y transitorio? ¿No debería el arte acordar también en desaparecer del curso de nuestras vidas? Esta es una de las interesantes ideas que Transformaciones azarosas ofrece, una pequeña pero emocionante exhibición de tres instalaciones en Malba.
La inmortalidad era el consuelo de hombres y mujeres que vivieron en la época de las tradiciones. Pero la nuestra, como sabemos, es la era de la moda. “ Todo lo sólido se derrite en aire”, Karl Marx dijo para describir este extraño y moderno mundo de mutación, cambio, revolución y planeada obsolescencia. Nosotros los modernos somos escépticos sobre las cosas que desaparecen.
La primera y tal vez más sorprendente de las piezas de Transformaciones Azarosas es “Paisaje Frágil” de P. Senderowicz. Es una instalación, no sólo temporaria, sino que hace a la temporalidad sujeto de su expresión. Consiste en una caja de hielo abierta y rectangular, no deja de parecerse a un sarcófago, o hacernos pensar en él, un recipiente de helados del negocio de la esquina poco corriente. Transparente desde todos los lados y abierta arriba. En el interior es un paisaje de montañas de hielo, picos de azul cristal, viole, zafiro suave, y cobalto, que forman una fantástica visión no observada desde los implacables témpanos del pintor germano del Romanticismo, Caspar David Friedrich…
A landscape in an icebox.
Transformaciones azarosas is a small but stirring exhibition of three installation works at the Malba, Buenos Aires Herald July 2005. By Didier Maleuvre
Get to the Malba as soon as you can or you might not be able to see one of its most perplexing temporary exhibits. It is melting, literally. A temporary exhibit that definitely exhibits its temporary state. Art with an expiry date. Ars longa, vita brevis, the poets have said since Seneca to Chaucer and Goethe. Quite so. But if art is to be true, if it is to mirror the world as it is, fleeting, mortal, impermanent; then should it not be just as fleeting and impermanent? Should art not agree also to disappear in the stream of this disappearing life of ours? This is one of the interesting ideas set forth by Transformaciones azarosas, a small but stirring exhibition of three installation works at the Malba.
Immortality was the consolation of men and women who lived in an age of tradition. But ours, as we know, is the age of fashion. «All that is solid melts into air», Karl Marx said to describe this strange new modem world of mutation, change, revolution, uprooting, and planned obsolescence. We modern people are sceptical about lasting things. Which is why the idea of a timeless work of art, a monument to weather the storm of time, has also gone into disuse. Nowadays a great many works of art, especially installation pieces, are built specifically for the place and the time of the exhibition. After the exhibition closes the piece is dismantled and only photographs and written descriptions remain of its existence.
The first and perhaps most striking piece at Transformaciones azarosas is «Paisaje frágil’ by Paula Senderowicz. It is an installation which is not only temporary but makes the temporary state the subject of its expression. It consists of an open ice box, a rectangular refrigerator not unlike a sarcophagus or, come to think of it, your regular ice-cream fridge at the corner store. It is transparent on all sides and open at the top. Inside there is a mountainous landscape of ice, crystal-blue, violet, tender sapphire and cobalt peaks and gourges that make up a rather fantastic icescape not seen since the German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich’s implausibly cracking ice floes. (…)
The exhibit is elegantly and unpretentiously organized by the guest curator Corinne Sacca Abadi who did a fine job of gathering three installation works of corresponding, dialoguing features. We are not the masters of our fate. Our actions have consequences beyond our control. Isn’t it fitting that masterpieces should therefore dismiss their masters? And yet: undeniably, the fragile landscape, like Antarctica, is disappearing because of our actions. Shouldn’t someone put a glass top on that icebox to preserve at least a picture of what ice was once like? Or must we accept the day when we have to go to museums to see some ice? A definition of art I hold dear says that a work of art should enhance your ability to discover anew, see truly, and love the world. These installations at the Malba make you want to run to nature and say, “Please stay. “