In some of its stands, the Punto La Boca Fair that sells clothes in front of the Riachuelo these days does not display T-shirts of rock bands or children’s characters. There, in front of the La Verdi space and in tune with the arteBA fair that was installed for the first time in the neighborhood last week, what is on display – and for sale – are the works of Alfredo Dufour. Not coincidentally called OUTLET The exhibition, organized by A La Cal, a nomadic space for contemporary art exhibitions, coordinated by the Barrio sin plaza collective, which since 2017 has promoted individual exhibitions accessible to the community.
The San Juan artist Alfredo Dufour, resident in CABA, is invited to exhibit his works that update pop art with a Latin American identity. “The works that he prepared for OUTLET and the scenographic assembly that we put together works as a glich to the fair that houses us, at the same time that it sanctifies it as a commercial temple,” he said. Ariana Beilis, coordinator of A La Cal with Toti D´Stefano.
With a federal imprint, each of the exhibitions has a creative duo behind it. The Uruguayan Dani Umpi | he was the one who wrote in the text that accompanies Dufour’s sample, which we share below.
Outlet, by Alfredo Dufour. Photo: Ariel Baigorri Theyler.
–
Outlet
Pinocchio, before reaching our days via Disney, had already been a moral reference in children. In its first version, the doll emerges from a cherry tree that speaks and asks the carpenter not to hit it with the ax. It is an anima that, like every soul, needs a physical body to be. The old Geppetto makes him anthropomorphic and the Blue Fairy is the one who gives him life. But many generations grew up reading the tale of that animated wood. A body that has a soul is not the same as a soul that has a body. The material plane.
For others, the doll did not come out of a cherry tree because, as its name indicates, it is a pinion, the seed of a potential tree. A perennial pine, immortal. The symbolism would close on all sides. We know the end: Pinocchio becomes a child, happily accepts the desired mortality and applauded by all. The doll-marionette-puppet who is not aware of the threads that move him, goes through multiple temptations and trials accompanied by a talking cricket representing his conscience. The nose that grows is the lie that cannot be hidden until, luckily, it is swallowed by a whale to enter the depths and be able to transform, transmute.
In the Old Testament Jonah is swallowed by a gigantic fish. Three days and three nights pass in his belly, which corresponds to the death and resurrection of Christ in the New Testament. Disney puts the Blue Fairy to give new life to that drowned doll but Pinocchio could not die because he was made of pine wood … It is very complicated! There is a point in which everything has to do and another point in which it does not.
But the story that is told is the same as always, the most didactic, the profound change in us or our gaze that everything changes to the point of making us reborn. And that change, does it depend on us or is it part of a cycle in immortality? Jesus dies because it was his design, what he had to fulfill, an order of events. Then he is crucified I do not know what wood. The crucifixion was also used as a deterrent so that when you see it, you will think twice before doing your misdeeds. You could end up like this.
Outlet, by Alfredo Dufour. Photo: Ariel Baigorri Theyler.
–
In the 1990s, a didactic toy called Pinocchio 2000 had a slight but intense popularity in the South of Latin America. With eight pieces of colored wood and elastic bands, you could educate and entertain yourself with a thousand variants of a rather robotic wooden doll. In its packaging the toy had a very curious explanatory text, written like a story, which began with the following: “Make of me what your imagination wants. I give you the “possibility”. It could have stayed there but no, he continues a few more sentences until he confesses: “I am a wooden doll that GOD (sic) gave life to through its creator. Because I am very articulate, colorful and made of warm and natural wood. I can transform myself into a fantasy world ”. What can we say about that? That everything is always the same. A fantasy world.
Alfredo Dufour changes the scale of his childhood toy, Pinocchio 2000 and crucifies it, one of the ways not suggested by the packaging of yesteryear. You are not alone. It is not the largest piece in this exhibition either, but I see it as a germ even though the artist has confessed to me that he did not contemplate religious looks for his exhibition, even having painted some very Warholian portraits of Maradona, the hand of God.
In this Olympus, in this Factory, the wallpaper corresponds to huge supermarket price tags. Again the disproportion. I studied Communication and Advertising Sciences dozens of years ago and until recently I knew how a supermarket should be organized. I no longer remember it because maybe they are no longer ordered that way. The order varies but I see that the offer prices in yellow and red continue to work. Or not? Continue that law. Maybe yes.
The national flag is stained and becomes that of Boca. Arcor caramel on a Knorr broth that is sometimes given as change, instead of coins, in some shops. Desacralization and sacralization. Always a fetish. In the most fetishistic space of all: the white cube. The scenographic cube so that in the apparent neatness and sterility, the mechanisms of anxiety select their actions and the objects become amulets, talismans out of scale.
They say that the sales in the Outlets are a lie to move registers and inventories. You would have to ask those who know. I never learned how to order an outlet. I think I stopped studying when they became fashionable. They should not be as random as they seem. I think light is important. White as a carnage. He calls you, something comes to you, something adrenaline-pumping, anxious, you grab, you buy and you go. It is not to better see the opportunities, the damaged ones, out of stock, the balances… they are traps, generally with a very high ceiling. In the space the objects and their buyers flow, sometimes accompanied by music or perfumes. The four senses in action. Saturated. The bitten tongue. One walks around and does not know if it is between scarcity or abundance.
Do you have conflicts with money? Think abundantly right now! Start giving! The more you give, the more you receive! Become worthy of abundance! Do it now, before that law becomes obsolete. Go to your closest niche! Look at the change date.
A concrete synthetic experience. Link, click, pin and green.
Consumers have the right. Right to clear product information. Right to compensation if what is promised is not fulfilled. Right to protection when a company does not respect us. Right to choose without pressure. Right to quality. Right not to be discriminated against in the commercial transaction.
Outlet, by Alfredo Dufour. Photo: Ariel Baigorri Theyler.
–
With some saints, mainly those who are on the edge of the religious as occurs in popular devotions, we compromise, we negotiate prayers for favors, walks on our knees, cans of water. If we do not give what we promise not only does the miracle not happen but we can be punished. Nobody protects us. We negotiate with those beings who seem to be more dangerous than God. A game that eroticizes me a lot. There are those who can differentiate the fetish from the religious symbol. A very difficult gift.
Religion teaches that the purest happiness is that of father and son. It also punishes the pursuit of happiness by taking it as something fleeting, ephemeral like a cell phone model. They talk a lot about hunger, the insatiable hunger of consumption that brings dissatisfaction, the low instincts that have pleasure as the highest good. Sin. Lie. The Bible asks that we not be greedy because the greedy person adores the things of this world, they are idolaters. You must learn to resist these impulses, these idols. Protect ourselves logistically, set ourselves in the exact middle point between desire and need to achieve our vital goals. How? With what? With prayer and temperance as each one carries his cross. Away with the artificial temptation for absurd things! Values at stake. Set of values. Stock Exchange.
Living in the adrenaline of waste without judgment, in a loop that distracts us from that God, we will not get very far. How can we control ourselves without the hand of God? How to find a fish that swallows us and takes us to the clarity of the depths? They give various solutions. One of them is to value what we have, think about the time and money we invest in acquiring it. Another is “The Two Week Rule.” When the desire for an object presents us with a new need, we must wait that long to see if it is something we really want. Identify the trap. The market trap, God’s trap. The cost-benefit ratio. You have to be alert. It’s very complicated!
Currently the speed of the click does not let us think, we are not even walking through the outlet, the white cube. When we want to see a package arrives at the door. The stages of desire and purchase come together in a single impulse, a touch. How to make these stages aware and improve our self-control? No idea. It’s very complicated! There is a point in which everything has to do and another point in which it does not. You can’t be so moral when a cherry log yells at you “Buy me!” Always the same. A fantasy world with a God watching you. What a pity!
OUTLET – Alfredo Dufour
Av. Adm. Brown 739, Feria Punto La Boca, local 22 and 23, Monday to Saturday from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Until November 13.
/i/2004629064.png?f=meta "YouTube is going to hide the number of dislikes on videos – IT Pro – News")