Breaking Banality: Properties of imagination

The art world is very developed in Argentina and artists are using all type of resources. There are many universities in the country and a wide group of artists are making successful performances around the world. Argentina is a country shaped by diverse ethnics, the native population together with immigrant groups conform a multifaceted culture, and Buenos Aires became a quite European type city, very different from the rest of Latin American cities. Local printmaking artists are used to take part in international biennials and exhibitions and have an avantgarde point of view despite the sometimes limited access to technology.

In this opportunity we are presenting a group of six printmakers: five of them living in Buenos Aires and one in Tucuman, a small province in the north of our country. These artists are mostly offsprings of immigrants that arrived in the country at different historical times. Of different ages and ways of working, they were chosen because all of them have in common the skill of using a simple image to transmit a conceptual message.

As a curator, I chose these artists because they have extended and combined resources to interpret and express this complexity that dwells within us, showing their own view of the world but always starting with a very simple and common object. They work with a wide range of techniques displaying their particular combination of the traditional with new technologies, incorporating the photographic image, and also mixing toxic and nontoxic methods.

Andrea Moccio presents in this show part of her series “Soft Poetry”
She intervenes a phone book with multiple printed names where the individual is immersed into anonymity, and through her art generates a creation with its own identity that can both be unique or become multiple, using graphic methods. She brings individuals out of context and time.

Silvina Paulon is the youngest of the group and yet the one that best preserves the purity of traditional techniques. Elaborating her woodcuts with great care and talent she has achieved a recognized place among Argentine artists. She chooses toys or common objects like bottles or glasses, and with them creates an enigmatic world, sometimes dramatic, which is accentuated by the use of black and white in most cases.

Roberto Koch lives in northern Argentina and works not only with prints, but also with painting and other media. In his work his eye focuses on some of the objects or human figures that become protagonists. They appear in a dimension of icon. Through free association, Roberto creates a metaphor to convey the message or ideology sought. He deconstructs the space, and fills it with other iconic images or symbols that represent local and foreign cultures, transmitting often a critical meaning.

Silvana Blasbalg combines simple images that we have in front of our eyes, creating her own universe. She chooses dynamic elements but shows them in a silent presentation, overlapping texts or geometric shapes that create an ambiguous space. With digital technology together with traditional superposed printing techniques, she creates a disturbing climate.

Zulema Maza presents in this show her character “Tomasa” - a Paraguayan young woman who comes to Argentina as an immigrant looking for better work and living conditions. Zulema Maza creates an exotic mixture of her original home, memories of her sheep, the countryside sky, and the new glamorous city.

Mirta Kupferminc - I am taking part in this show both as artist and curator.
I am presenting with simple objects a story of transformation. A piece of a tree that resembles a roll of paper, in dialogue with a roll of paper that resembles a tree trunk…. and both these images in relationship with a cascade of pencils, made of wood, falling into a swirl. Related to printmaking techniques, I try to use new technologies together with very traditional ones, going back and forth between them.

Mirta Kupferminc
Buenos Aires, Argentina
January 2013