The curator of the exhibition De Bastardismos y Apariciones explains the heritage of the discipline at the UC School of Art: nomadism, creative freedom and collective work.
Until January 8, the exhibition “De bastardisms and appearances” is exhibited at the Macchina Gallery, located on the Campus Oriente UC. The sample brings together 42 works that account for the central role that engraving has played in the 60-year history of the UC School of Art, and was curated by Paula Solimano (1991).
With a degree in Art from UC, Solimano is completing a master’s degree in Art History and a diploma in Curatorial Studies at Hunter College, an institution that depends on the City University of New York, in the United States. Last year he developed two curatorial projects: “Archipresent: Latin American Art in the Ca.Sa. Collection”, at the El Tranque Cultural Center, and “Gran Sur: Chilean Contemporary Art in the Engel Collection”, at Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid . They are joined by Juan Pablo Langlois: Afterwards no one will remember “, for the Cindy Rucker Gallery in New York, in 2018.
We have talked with the curator about her show “De bastardismos y apariciones”. On how in this selection artists are present who update the notion of engraving and pose the existential problem of trying to return to the origin. They also express a sense of not belonging and loss of familiarity, of having to consider a foreign place as home.
The 42 works on display also show a double nature: they are creations both by artists and teachers as well as by groups. Among others, Pedro Albertini, Carlos Altamirano, Mónica Bengoa, Sybil Brintrup, Cristóbal Cea, Nicolás Grum, Beatriz Leyton, Pedro Millar and Eduardo Vilches are represented, as well as Jemmy Button and Proyecto de Borde.
How was this project born? Did they summon it or did you propose it?
“They contacted me from the extension of Arte de la Católica last June. They were interested in me doing a curatorial to celebrate the approximately 60 years of the School of Art, because it was founded in 1959 and that I review the history of engraving in the course of This time. Then it was, on the one hand, to review the origin of the School of Art, where a super important precedent is the incorporation of Taller 99 to the Central House in 1959, since it would set the standard for engraving and, on the other hand, to see how that story continues in the 60 years. “
Could you mention some milestones that show the role that engraving has played in the history of the UC School of Art?
“I think the first milestone would be the incorporation of Taller 99, and that is very interesting because hence this idea of bastardism; it shows how engraving workshops are these bastards who migrate from one house or from one family to another Then there is the closing of the Chile, the Católica welcomes artists, and the TAV is created, because the engraving workshops are always nomadic and collective spaces. I believe that Eduardo Vilches’ training at Yale was very important, due to the methodologies of teaching that he incorporated into the Catholic School of Art. Another milestone that he rescued are two courses that Eugenio Dittborn taught in the 90’s: Experimental Graphics and Staging. His assistant was Ximena Somoza and he was interested in expanding the idea of graphic; he organized the courses in groups of two or three students and invited them to mount works outside the Art School. So he was forcing them to create collective works and at the same time taking them out of their comfort zone , so that they had to manage those samples. It is interesting how projects such as Jemmy Button, Galería Chilena and Proyecto de Borde come out of those 90s courses, since they are collective projects that blur the boundaries between art creation and self-management. “
You mentioned the closure of Chile. What do you mean exactly?
“It happens that they threw out teachers from the Chile School of Art, so there are students who remain nomadic and the Catholic opens its doors and welcomes them. An example of that is Beatriz Leyton, who is a super important artist in the show. So These artists, who are being trained in printmaking, which are collective and collaborative spaces in themselves, seek ‘refuge’ in other institutions. So the exhibition is not only thinking about the fuzzy boundaries between printmaking and graphics, or whether there is work by contemporary art and visual culture, but even between institutions. There is also the record of a work by Cristián Silva, which is called Wealth is idiotic, poverty is brutal, and that it is an intervention that he made in Hoffmann’s House in the early 2000s. Hoffmann’s House was a mediagua that served as an artistic exhibition space that was wandering in different parts of Santiago and was thought as an engraving project, but in Finis Terrae University. Its founders are Rodrigo Vergara and José Pablo Díaz, who studied with Carlos Navarrete, who was a Catholic artist. So the curatorship is also thinking about how those margins between the institutions are blurring. “
You selected for this exhibition works by artists, as individuals, and also by groups. Does this decision have to do with the nature of the engraving itself?
“The fact that the engraving workshops are moderately horizontal collective spaces provides the conditions for there to be more collaboration. The exhibition rescues these projects from the 90s, also Hilda Yáñez, who is from the early 2000s, and at the same time rethinks the Such a traditional category of printmaking and takes it more to graphics, with a focus on how graphics allow projects to circulate. That is, to the fact that they are reproduced, that they circulate, that they can disseminate their same projects, which was super important in the 90s, when there was not much infrastructure of institutions or commercial galleries, and there were not many intersections between the two. At that time, graphics ended up being a good vehicle to do self-managed projects and show outside of Santiago and Chile. “
Part of the collective nature of printmaking workshops has to do with a material reason; the artists must meet because it is not feasible for each one to buy a press, right?
“Of course. It also has to do with how the different knowledge regarding traditional techniques is transmitted. In this exhibition that essence is rescued that they are collective spaces, but it is about taking a little focus from techniques as traditional as lithography, silkscreen, woodcut. There are works that are digital animations, sounds, board games, lampoons. It really tries to think critically and update the notion of engraving. “
Something that strikes me about the engraving workshops is their horizontality. There are always some older artists, with more experience, who accompany the younger ones in the processes, transmitting information, knowledge and methods, but the treatment is always in pairs, between recognized artists and beginners or amateurs.
“Yes, that’s very nice. That was something I learned by interviewing Ximena Somoza about her experience at the UC School of Art. These engraving ‘masters’, Eduardo Vilches, Jaime Cruz and Pedro Millar, she told me, always They approached the students in a super respectful way. They were men or women, older or younger, there was always a sense of horizontality. Ximena Somoza told me ‘I think that comes precisely from the fact that they were trained in engraving workshops The same thing happened with La Hormiguita, Delia del Carril, who was super important in Taller 99. They always thought of teaching not as a vertical transmission of knowledge and experiences, but as an exchange. And it is also beautiful because thanks to that horizontality and the creative freedom that these teachers give and that later their students, becoming teachers also give, is that there is an almost absolute freedom to take the engraving, its concepts and concerns, to places super new and risky. “
Was it complex for you to select the works and authors for this exhibition?
“Yes. They invited me to do this exhibition that fulfilled two tasks, collect the origin of the school and review the engraving in the Catholic. Then, together with the curatorial assistant of the exhibition, Antonio Echeverría, we did an investigation of institutional crossings. a cross between the Catholic and Yale, then the Atelier 17 with Nemesio Antúnez, really dynamiting the limits of the Catholic a bit. Because if this was a sample of the Catholic, we should think critically about where its margins are. It became clearer what had been called engraving in the Catholic and to the extent that the problem of trying to return to the origin became clearer, it focused on artists of the Catholic, where there is a freedom to expand the engraving to graphic media. So there is not only lithography, but there is also printed art, drawings, animations, photography, digital graphics. We defined that the artists included in the sample had to Specialize in these media, that is, in graphic experimentation, which will be characterized by trying to solve these problems through graphics. And so it was sorted out a bit. The two rooms of the Macchina Gallery are not too big, but they are not small either; the walls measure four and a half meters, so there we said, well, let’s take advantage of the space and perhaps that some works will go on top of others. We had many showcases, so that also gave space to have several archives of the same group, and this was the case to the extent that this curatorial argument of the problem of origin and a bastard condition became increasingly clear. It became much clearer which works were going and which would perhaps remain for a second instance. Because the research is so big that I would love to show more of the research in another exhibition. “
What will Radio Beethoven auditors who visit the show discover?
“I think you are going to find an explosion of themes that are related to origin. Together with Antonio Echeverría, the curatorial assistant, we were interested in how this show is affective, that is, it talks about issues such as childhood, motherhood, domestic life , with which anyone can relate, but also addresses issues such as the neoliberal system, colonialism, racism, xenophobia, but from an almost physical and emotional place. There are many works that are super nostalgic, there are other works that move you from the ominous, you feel strange when you see them, nothing is familiar. Although this exhibition is institutional, it is super conceptual and I hope it moves the public in a sense beyond ideas and intellect. “
How has engraving marked the evolution of the UC School of Art over time? What did this impregnate in the formation of so many generations?
“On the one hand, engraving has given artists a lot of creative freedom and has allowed them to investigate issues or life experiences that are super basic, such as childhood or origin; artists are wondering about the feeling of wanting to return to their hometown. It has been a space where one can explore super intimate experiences. On the other hand, through Eugenio Dittborn’s courses that I mentioned to you, the limits between engraving and graphics are blurred and the conditions to collaborate and to be self-advocates are provided. a coincidence that these courses have resulted in projects for the exhibition, circulation, dissemination and distribution of art in the 90s, at a super critical moment in the history of Chile and also in the history of art in our country “.
“Of bastardisms and appearances”. Macchina Gallery. Jaime Guzmán 3,300, Providencia. Open from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 8 January, from 12:00 to 16:00, with free entry and mobility pass. See more in Agenda.
Artists: Pedro Albertini / Carlos Altamirano / Alejandra Bendel / Mónica Bengoa / Sybil Brintrup / Roser Bru / Paz Carvajal / Cristóbal Cea / Jaime Cruz / Dinora Doudtchitzky / María Elena Farías / Rodrigo Galecio / Nicolás Grum / Jemmy Button, Inc. / Cristóbal Lehyt / Beatriz Leyton / Pedro Millar / Claudia Missana / Felipe Mujica / Mario Navarro / Patricia Novoa / Edge Project / Rocío Olivares / Max Palma / Tomás Rivas / Cristián Silva / Francisca Sutil / Elda Torres / Fernanda Ureta / Eduardo Vilches / Hilda Yáñez / Ximena Zomosa.
By Romina de la Sotta Donoso. 02-01-2022.
