In the Pasaje 865 gallery, the group exhibition “Cuatro viajes” is exhibited, in which Jorge Pietra, Cristina Caronni, Mushu and Outsider expand the senses of travel in literal and metaphorical terms. Page 12 visited the exhibition together with the first two artists.
Jorge Pietra shows paintings and a sculpture. “This sculpture -says the artist- is an episode of Martín Fierro, completely racist: when Fierro, drunk, after mocking and insulting a black couple, kills the man in a duel with a knife. The work is part of the series I did during the pandemic, where some are more playful and others, like this one, are more conceptual and dramatic”.
In the case of the paintings, Pietra presents scenes between the dreamlike and the fantastic, where the spaces are multiplied, so that what follows becomes simultaneous. In one of those scenes he shows a kind of art gallery flooded (with colors) and an installation (see image). There a blind man -with black glasses and a white cane- takes a guided tour and explains the works. “Another of the paintings -says Pietra- is the tree of life, from my imaginative point of view. Although the works have their dates, I continue working on the works. For example, in this work dated 2015, I gave the last brushstroke recently”.
For her part, Cristina Caronni presents paintings, drawings and a sculpture. A set that brings together various mythologies and transformations. The first of his works that the visitor encounters upon entering the gallery is a 4-piece polyptych, which introduces one of the core meanings of his work: “Summoning Abundance” (160 x 160, acrylic on canvas of 2022).
The artist explains it: “I always drew and exhibited, although limited to the architect-artist relationship. She had studied painting and drawing with Gorriarena and with Nigro. But I was fickle. In the pandemic I concentrated and made this work that emerged almost as a series. What I am looking for with the work is a call to abundance. I use gold, gold, and I think that this is an act of psychomagic through which I refer to the value of gold. The sculpture/object began when I started painting Styrofoam. The sculpture has a wooden structure, is painted gold, and has inlaid sticks, the kind that are found in Chinese placemats. The piece is held by strings, so that it “floats” in space. On the floor there is a mirror that reflects the lower part of the work, which is also worked as if it were an organism that is transforming. I think of it as a monster that destroys something dark to turn it into gold. Both this sculpture and the paintings and drawings are made with that intention: I am looking for meanings, literary interpretations. The paintings are made on the basis of a bronze powder. They are unconscious processes, without intention.”
“There is a relationship between the paintings and the sculpture: it is what is in my head. In a way, the works are transformations of things that one saw and experienced. I am thinking, for example, of the golden architecture of the incredible temples that we saw with Jorge in Southeast Asia, especially Burma and Thailand.
And Pietra notes: “We have been to very traditional temples in Burma, where, for example, in one of them there is an ancient Buddha, where only men can enter to pray. And there were also many glazed boxes with money and donations on display. There is a kind of staging of abundance. And gold is related to light, to purity. In short, it is a mineral that takes time to form. And all of that is metaphorically taken to spirituality.”
“I saw those temples – clarifies CC – and I said: ‘I want this!’ I also think of the gold jewelry my grandmother gave me. And with all that in mind, during the pandemic I focused: that’s what confinement served me for. And as for the call for abundance, shortly after starting this series, an aunt with whom I did not have the best relationship, when she died she left me half of her apartment.”
For his part, Mushu exhibits a group of very expressive and expansive gestural paintings. She is also dedicated to the cinema. In the video “4 trips” that is exhibited in the room, the four of them meet: there are records by Cristina Caronni, performances, a video diary of the aquatic journeys through Southeast Asia, which works like a cinematographic tracking shot, in which the camera slides showing floating daily life (in barges) and suddenly the temples appear in a surprising succession and monumentality.
Another of the chapters of the video is an animated interpretation of Pietra’s paintings according to Mushu, which is introduced into each of the spaces proposed by the works in a continuum that fuses and transforms them, taking advantage of the internal logic of each painting. And the music belongs to Outsider, the fourth member of the traveling quartet.
* In the Pasaje 865 gallery, Humberto Primo 865, from Monday to Thursday, from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., until December 2.