Networking in Luján

"Let’s unite, unify, /stick together, sum up, add on, / get together, link, converge, /lets us become allies and let us intertwine, / conciliate, stick close, / let us adhere, amalgamate, and shuffle, / coil around each other, absorb each other, take our places in between, /and intertwine, and intermingle and/ interweave."
This song by Jorge de la Vega, one of the more interesting artists of the generation who started showing in the 1960s, heads the 2000 Trama editorial in the book published by Trama on Insights and Context, the seminar held by this undertaking in Buenos Aires in 2000. It illustrates the need of artists to know about each other, to collaborate with each other, to act in a close knit creative and effective relationship, so as to sum up individual efforts and energy into positive collective achievements.

The figure of the artist working in desperate or splendid isolation is an outdated clisé. Artists may feel alone and/or lonely at times working in their studio but they are acutely aware of the world around them.

In a country weakened by lack of official structure and support for serious cultural undertakings, artists, who have always worked with little or no government support and little enlightened backing from the private business world, have taken it on themselves to build up and articulate resources to widen and further ongoing art education, access to legal support, to information, and to build a networking system to serve them as mutual support and to provide opportunities for exchange and promotion within their own country and abroad.

In 1997 Claudia Fontes, a well-known young Argentine artist with a strong commitment to community matters, who had been awarded a two year residence at the Rijsakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, thought of putting into practice in Argentina some of the advantages she had benefited from during her stay in The Netherlands. On her return to Buenos Aires she shared this project with different colleagues and with people from other disciplines related to the visual arts. After many discussions and masses of work, in 2000 a solid project took shape. Fontes herself, Leonel Luna, Pablo Zicarello and Marcelo Grosman were the artists responsible for this first stage of this enterprise that was first called El Potrero, and which later became Trama

In January of that year, The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Development Cooperation offered support to the project through the RAIN artists initiatives network, which connects initiatives from former participants of the Rijksakademie. This allows local artists access to other artists in Indonesia, India, Mexico, Mali, South Africa and Brazil. The Espigas Foundation, and the Antorchas Foundation in Argentina were also instrumental in launching and in ongoing support to this project.

Trama is holding a workshop in the city of Luján, from December 3 to December 10, on "Cultural Management for artists". Greg Streak from South Africa with a project called "Pulse", Goddy Leye from Cameroon, with "The art bakery" in progress community undertaking, are the two foreign artists invited to take part. The Argentine artists attending the workshop are Francisco Ali Brouchoud from Misiones, curator of the Contemporary Art Museum at the Misiones National University, Carlota Beltrame and Sandro Pereira both from Tucumán with a project each, Sigurdún, the former and El Ingenio (The Sugar Mill) the latter, Carina Cagnolo from Córdoba with Cielo Teórico (Theoretical Heaven), Leo Batistelli from Rosario, with Villa Remanso (Remanso village) Gustavo López from Bahía Blanca represents VOX Space and publications, Daniel Besoytaorube and Mario Gemin from Mar del Plata, head the Contemporary Art International Fund. Plus Buenos Aires based artists Ana Gallardo, the curator of art space Lelé de Troya in Palermo Viejo, Marcelo de La Fuente, curator of La Casona de los Olivera in Avellaneda Park and Santiago García Aramburu, in charge of Duplus, an experimental exhibition site on Sánchez de Bustamante 750.

Six tutors and lecturers have been invited to talk and to discuss the projects of the participants, and in the case of Sue Williamson from South Africa, and of Ricardo Basbaum from Brazil, to speak on their own ongoing initiatives as well. The Argentine tutors are Américo Castilla, María José Figuerero, Fernando Frydman and María José Herrera.

The workshop is held at the Hotel de la Paz, built at the turn of the XIX c. This spacious and elegant building, next to the Luján cathedral, harbours historical memories, such as the official centennial Independence anniversary luncheon in 1910, or the luncheon given by Eva Duarte and Juan Perón for thirty guests to celebrate their civil wedding.

The quiet provincial atmosphere of the town and of the hotel play a tenuous nostalgic counterpoint to the poised and energetic discussions of the artists as each one of them explains his or her project to the rest of the assistants to the workshop, who in turn discuss it, ask questions and/or give suggestions.

The nature of each project is closely linked to the historical and geographical background on which it develops or for which it is planned. At the same time, throughout the different talks the same issues come up again and again. The need for working against conventional art teaching that does not allow for creative thinking, the need to create libraries, digital data banks to rescue past and current art history, ongoing education and promotion programs and the need for the physical premises in which to carry on these activities. Another preoccupation and activity, that came up again and again, relates to the strategies to introduce the general public into a sensible and friendly appreciation of contemporary art.

Each one of the artists invited, plus the artists who organized this workshop: Claudia Fontes from Brighton, Marina De Caro, Irene Banchero and Flavia da Rin, from Buenos Aires, have worked long hours to plan and to carry out their art and community projects through. Much of the work is done pro bono driven by a strong vocation to introduce positive changes in the visual art world and in the world at large.

Within this context economy, politics and government mismanagement are not subjects to complain about, but rather issues to analyze as how best to approach the people working in these areas to insist in their doing their duty in the best interest of the community. A sobering and reassuring experience.

Alina Tortosa
Buenos Aires Herald, December 8, 2002

Alina Tortosa es escritora, crítica de arte y curadora independiente. Crítica de arte del Buenos Aires Herald.
Libros publicados de poesía: Las piedras bajo el agua, Centro y Periferia, y Ritual doméstico. Libros publicados de cuentos: Cuentos burgueses, El jardín de la abuelita Ana y otros cuentos y La entrevista inédita y otros cuentos. Escribe sobre arte contemporáneo en catálogos y en publicaciones periódicas. Las principales curadurías realizadas son: Curadora del British Arts Centre de la Asociación Argentina de Cultura Inglesa en el 2000. Xul Solar / Jorge Luis Borges: Lengua e Imagen en el Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, en Río de Janeiro y en el Memorial de América Latina, en San Pablo, Brasil, en 1997-1998, el grupo TAUPE: 6 grabadores xylógrafos del NE de Brasil en el Centro Cultural Recoleta de Buenos Aires en 1997, el envio argentino de la MOSTRA AMERICA, Curitiba, Brasil en 1995, y junto con Silvia de Ambrosini: Los 80 en el MAM, en el Museo de Arte Moderno de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, en abril de 1991.