COLLOQUIUMS
Scenes from the 80s. The early years
Proa launches Scenes from the 80s. The early years, a catalog including texts by curator Ana María Battistozzi and scholars Roberto Amigo and Lucas Fragasso. Along with the book presentation, a series of conferences and seminars will be organized in order to contribute with the study on a key period of art scene in Buenos Aires.

Pop, Realisms and Politics. Brazil - Argentina
Coordinators: Paulo Herkenhoff y Rodrigo Alonso
International scholars will present their latest developments in their research on the cultural relationship between both countries during the 60s and the 70s, a central topic in the history of Latin American art.

John Cage. 100 Years
Coordinator: Martín Bauer
In the centenary of his death, Proa organizes special events, conferences and presentations coordinated by Martín Bauer. A unique tribute to the artist, composer and essayist John Cage, a central figure in 20th Century music.

Alberto Giacometti
Coordinator: Véronique Wiesinger
The most relevant scholars and specialists on Giacometti’s work will present their recent researchs in dialogue with local experts. A necessary meeting within the framework of a unique exhibition to be presented at Proa on October 2012.

CINEMA
February / December
Guest programmers
Two relevant Argentine filmmakers are in charge of 2012 cinema program. Each Saturday, they present the films, reflecting and discussing the works selected.
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April
BAFICI – XIV Edition
Proa hosts the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, one of the most significant cultural events in the city, with screenings and dialogues with international filmmakers.
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THEATRE
Compañía de Funciones Patrióticas
The theater company directed by actor and playwright Martín Seijo presents new productions, always with a unique performance during holidays or national days. As in 2010 and 2011, the company updates and adapts texts of the Argentine repertoire, discussing the national values, political traditions and economic history of the country.

MUSIC
November
Contemporary Music Concerts - 16th Edition (Teatro San Martín)
A new season of the prestigious festival directed by Martín Bauer will be hosted at Proa. Renowned international musicians present their works in the Auditorium.
John Cage. 100 Years

LITERATURE
September
International Festival of Literature of Buenos Aires
In this edition, Proa invites one of the most personal and compelling voices of contemporary literature in Latin America.
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FNPI + Proa
For over ten years, Proa co-organizes cultural journalism workshops with the Ibero-American New Journalism Foundation (FNPI), inviting the most relevant writers and journalists from the region.
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PROA TV
Proa’s official YouTube channel presents exclusive contents such as guided visits by the curators, interviews and audiovisual documentation.
youtube.com/proawebtv

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More information:
2012 Complete Program (PDF)
2012 Exhibitions

Only 4 screenings
Saturdays, September 17 & 24 / October, 1 & 8

Admission: The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu: $25
Videograms of a Revolution: $15
Information and revervations: auditorio@proa.org / (011) 4104-1000/1001

"The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu". Dir. Andrei Ujica. Romania, 2010. 180'

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU
Original title Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceausescu
Romania, 2010. 180 min. Color - B&N
Director / Writer Andrei Ujica
Film Editing Daba Bunescu
Produced by Velvet Moraru
Icon Production
www.the-autobiography.com

VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION
Original title Videogramme einer Revolution
Germany, 1992 106 min. Color - B&N
Directors / Writers Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica
Film Editing Egon Bunne
Produced by Harun Farocki
Harun Farucki Filmproduktion, Bremer Institut Film / Fernsehen Produktionsgesellschaft
Narrator Thomas Schultz

"Videograms of a Revolution". Dir. Harun Farocki/Andrei Ujica. Germany, 1992. 106'

Press:
Ciclo Alan Pauls en Fundación Proa. Carolina Quintana. 18.09.2011
El arte de dejar hablar y escuchar al dictador. Por María Luján Picabea. Revista Ñ. 16.09.2011
La única verdad que mostraba Ceausescu. Por Paraná Sendrós. Ámbito Financiero. 16.09.2011
Se estrena en PROA “Autobiografía de Nicolae Ceausescu”. Escribiendo Cine. 16.09.2011
Ciclo de Alan Pauls en Fundación Proa. Por Gabriela Schevach. Juanele. 15.09.2011
Proa Cine. Cuisine & Vins. 15.09.2011
Autobiografía de Nicolae Ceausescu de Andrei Ujica - Ciclo Alan Pauls. Arte en la red. 14.09.2011
Ciclo Andrei Ujica en Proa Cine. Haciendo Cine. 14.09.2011
Proa Cine presenta “Autobiografía de Nicolae Ceausescu” y “Videogramas de una revolución”. Pandorama. 14.09.2011
Proa Cine. Autobiografía de Nicolae Ceausescu y Videogramas de una revolución. Ramona Web. 13.09.2011
Ceausescu en PROA. Por Horacio Bernárdez. La espada vengadora. 12.09.2011
Ascenso y caída del imperio rumano. Por Diego Rojas. Página 12 / Radar. 11.09.2011
Proyectan en Proa dos documentales del rumano Andrei Ujica. Agencia Télam / Yahoo! Noticias / Terra Noticias. 09.09.2011
Proyectan en Proa dos documentales del rumano Andrei Ujica. El Comercial (diario de Formosa, Chaco). 09.09.2011
Ciclo Alan Pauls: Nicolae Ceausescu X 2. Puesta en Escena .com.ar. 09.09.2011
Andrei Ujica por dos. Otros Cines. Septiembre 2011

"The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu". Dir. Andrei Ujica. Romania, 2010. 180'

Every Saturday until October 8, the critic and writer Alan Pauls presents The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, directed by Andrei Ujica, and Videograms of a Revolution, directed by Ujica and Harun Farocki.

On the occasion of Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed exhibition, Proa’s Auditorium presents “Chère Louise”, by Brigitte Cornand. In this intimate film-portrait the artist contunally returns to her major themes: her ever-present childhood, her passion for tapestry and rivers, her deep attachment to music and the poetical dimension of her visual and written oeuvre”.

Chère Louise
Director: Brigitte Cornand
Les Films du Siamois
France, 1995
Duration: 50’
Languages: French / English Subtitles
SCREENINGS: Tuesdays & Sundays, 6PM

More information: http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?article1442

Download the audio guide

Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed exhibition audio guide by Philip Larratt-Smith available for download for mp3 player or mobile phone.

For the first time, Fundación Proa participates in BAFICI - Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival. In its 13th edition, premieres in Argentina the documentary film Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today (1948/2009), the greatest courtroom drama of all time - the 1945 Nuremberg trial of top Nazi war criminals.

Sandra Schulberg and Josh Waletzky have masterfully restored this historic movie (after U.S. officials suppressed the film and the negative and soundtrack were lost or destroyed), originally directed by Schulberg’s father and commissioned by Pare Lorentz.  The negative was struck from the best quality extant print, borrowed from the German National Film  Archive, and not one picture frame was removed or changed in the restoration. The restoration team also reconstructed the musical score and Liev Schreiber re-recorded the narration.

The International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (Nov 20, 1945 – Oct 1, 1946), the first major trial to  prosecute crimes against humanity, addressed questions of guilt and complicity in unimaginable atrocities. The film captures the defendants in their own words, admitting only to “certain excesses” and “abuses.”  Intended as an historical endpoint, an object lesson for future generations, Nuremberg has since become, tragically, a prototype for tribunals convened to prosecute genocides around the world.

NUREMBERG (1948/2009, 78 mins.)
Original version Written & Directed by Stuart Schulberg. Editor: Joseph Zigman. Producers: Stuart Schulberg & Pare Lorentz. Production Supervisor: Eric Pommer, U.S. Office of Military Government. Musical Score: Hans-Otto Borgmann. Restoration by Sandra Schulberg & Josh Waletzky.  Executive Producer: Leon Constantiner. Narrator: Liev Schreiber. Senior Archival Researcher: Elisabeth Hartjens. Score Reconstruction: John Califra. A production of Schulberg Productions and Metropolis Productions. USA. In English & German with English subtitles.

PRESS:
Entrevista a Sandra Schulberg, hija del realizador de Nuremberg. El Intransigente. 31.05.2011
Sandra Schulberg: “La película combate el negacionismo”. Revista Veintitrés. 18.05.2011
El juicio en Nüremberg. Cine Buho. 05.05.2011
Sin escenas de Justicia en la sociedad del espectáculo. Clarín. 04.05.2011
La memoria y la propaganda. Revista Noticias. 22.04.11
Los crímenes nazis en un tribunal histórico. Clarín. 18.04.2011
Documental sobre el juicio de Nuremberg revive horror nazi. El Día (La Plata). 18.04.2011
Nüremberg: Its Lesson for Today. Reseñas de cine y vida (Blog). 17.04.2011
Un documental sobre el juicio de Nuremberg revive el horror nazi. Terra Colombia; La Segunda (Santiago, Chile); Emol (Santiago, Chile); Información (Alicante); La Nueva España; La Opinión A Coruña; Info7 (México); Univisión (EEUU); Yahoo! En Español; Levante EMV; Diario de Ibiza; Faro de Vigo; Noticiero Legal; Terra España; Periódico 7 Días (Rep. Dominicana); La Opinión de Granada; Caracol Radio (Colombia); Diario de Mallorca; Miami Diario; Canarias 7; Informativos Telecino (España); La Opinión de Zamora; El Economista (España); La Información; Pasito; Orange (España); Panamá América; 20 Minutos (España). 15.04.2011
Mostrar lo indecible: el impactante filme sobre el juicio de Nüremberg. Clarín. 12.04.2011
Tras 62 años de censura, llega la película del Juicio de Nuremberg. Tiempo Argentino. 12.04.2011
“Nüremberg” y Sandra Schulberg en Telenoche. ProaTV. 11.04.2011
Un documento para la historia. Página 12. 09.04.2011
BAFICI “Nüremberg”. “Nüremberg”- Un documento para la historia. DIsonancias Blog. 09.04.2011
BAFICI “Nüremberg”. Leedor. 09.04.2011
El juicio en Nüremberg, la historia detrás de la película. Revista Ñ. 08.04.2011

Thursday, January 20. From 2 to 8PM
Limited capacity. For registration: send a CV and a paragraph-long statement of intent, by e-mail to: auditorio@proa.org

Fabrice Gygy, Lang/Baumann, Josep-Maria Martín and Gianni Motti, some of the most distinguished artist of the international contemporary art scene, participate in a public encounter on Thursday January 20 at Proa’ s Auditorium. Most of these artist, will visit Buenos Aires for the first time in occasion of Of Bridges & Borders, the exhibition who will open next Saturday January 22.

The artists will dialogue with Sigismond de Vajay, exhibition curator, on the processes of work production and the diverse formats they use: installation, sculpture and minimal objects, performances, site-specific and multidisciplinary projects. Beyond the diverse subjects they tackle, their non-traditional processes break from the idea of the artist trapped in his studio.

Of Bridges & Borders is an art project who started with an homonymous publication that assembled important artists, musicians, architects and intellectuals from 17 different countries, in order to account for –in words of de Vajay, curator for the exhibition and editor of the publication- “a global and contemporary memory”. In this new stage, Of Bridges & Borders adopts the form of an itinerant exhibition. Its first exhibition will take place at Proa from January 22. Besides Gygi, Lang/Baumann, Martín y Motti, the exhibition will also present artists Thomas Hirschhorn, Carlos Garaicoa, John Bock and Jorge Macchi.

With the support of:
Swiss Arts Council PROHELVETIA
Swiss Embassy in Argentina

LAST CONCERTS. Saturday December 11/18 – 8PM.

Information: auditorio@proa.org / (011) 4104-1001
Admission: $30

“Each performance is a celebration” says Beatriz Pichi Malen, one of the most distinguished voices of Mapuche music, to describe her shows. “That is why” she continues “I sing stories: I narrate how I got to singing, how I snatched it. I talk about what the wind from Patagonia means to us, in that strength, hitting the mounts and bringing rocks together, is where the wind chant appears”.

Next Saturday December 11, at 8PM, Pichi Malen will perform at Proa’s Auditorium in her third of four exclusive concerts programmed for this year. The last show will be on Saturday December 18.

Nearly deprived of technological assistance, the show she will give at Proa reveals different Mapuche compositions: sacred, profane and popular chants and songs of sorrow and pain, all evoking the symbols of this culture. Pichi Malen accompanies her songs with brief explanations and stories in a captivating, almost ritual, concert that reveals the strength and subtleness of traditional Mapuche music.

Descendant of cacique Ignacio Coliqueo, Pichi Malen is devoted to the search and diffusion of her ancestors’ culture, which she accomplishes through these recitals, recordings and editions of Mapuche songbooks.

In her extensive artistic career, she has had several presentations in Latin American European and North American cities. She edited two records and her songs are included in important international ethnic music compilations. In 2002, she performed a series of memorable concerts at Fundación Proa.

“I am a messenger of the tuned word. Singing is what drives me; it is a Mapuche taught, because, in our culture, all beings are destined for something. Some of us can find what we came for in our lifetime, some of us can’t and we transit life without ever having blossomed. The manchi –healers- told me that singing was what brought me to this world.”

+ info: http://www.pichimalen.com/

The bonds that exists in Latin America between and the revolutionary riots of the 70s and current uprising criminality, ravaging countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil or Guatemala, was the main topic of the public encounter with journalist Jon Lee Anderson at Proa’ s Auditorium. The event took place in occasion of a seminar on report writing, conducted by Anderson himself, and with a group of 16 assisting journalists from all over the continent, supported by a agreement between Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), (New Journalism Foundation), created by Gabriel García Márquez, and Fundación Proa.

From 2000, Proa has developed a training program, in agreement with the FNPI. Together, they have organized several workshops and seminars in Buenos Aires, conducted by renowned journalists such as Ryszard Kapuscinski, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Javier Darío Restrepo, Héctor Feliciano and Susan Meiselas. Given this agreement, Anderson visited our country for the first time during 2006, giving a workshop on profile writing.

In this occasion, the 16 elected participants worked and dialogued with Anderson on the concept and method of report writing, during five days.

During this public encounter, coordinated by FNPI director Jaime Abello, Anderson, who is currently working in Afghanistan, described his experience in a trip he had made to Rio de Janeiro a few months before, while writing a piece for the New Yorker on dealers way of living in a Brazilian favela. This was not Anderson first contact with Rio. He first visited the city in 1997, during a promotional book tour of his book on Che Guevara’ s biography. “During four days, people were specially nice to me, showing me around the city and its surreal beauty, taking me to all the good restaurants, getting me acquainted with its people, having me stay at a USD400/ night hotel. They did not want to leave me alone. They were afraid something would happen to me. So, on my only day off, pretty tired from this situation, I asked for them to take me to a favela. We visited one near the Maracaná.  The guide took us through a paved road they had just made so that women and children did not have to move on the mud. Cement was brand new; but we started walking on buttresses made of a slippery strange substance. The guide confirmed my hint in one look: it was blood. Afterwards, a women told us what had happen: that night, dealers (narcos) had killed an informer and while he was still bleeding they had dragged him down the road, for the whole town to see. Then they had chopped its body into pieces.”

Anderson said he wanted to know that criminal life in the same way he had got acquainted with the guerilla world. Before, if you were born poor in Latin America, the only choice you had to get out of poverty, was through ideology and guns. That was the only way to change one’s destiny. Now that ideological upsurge has become a criminal upsurge. There are no more means of dialogue because there are no more political rules. “The only code these new rebels respect is that of profit. They recognize themselves as criminals, anti socials, who live their lives at the expenses of the rest. They do not conceive a peaceful coexistence with the legally established city. They do not recognize delegates offered by the police, as corrupted and criminal as them”, says Anderson.

Born into a family of diplomats in California in 1957, Jon Lee Anderson spent his childhood and teenage years in Latin America. He began working as a freelance journalist in 1979 in Peru for various international media. He dedicated ten years of his life to studying insurgent movements around the World. His book on Che Guevara’s life owed him international acclaim. He writes regularly for the New Yorker. His latest books published in Spanish are “The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan”, “The Fall of Baghdad” “El dictador, los demonios y otras crónicas”.

To give an example of the degree of defenselessness to which journalist are exposed nowadays, Anderson remembered an interview he had in Río with a chief dealer, surrounded by twelve of the chief’s bodyguards, ready to fire at the sign of any irregularity. The dealer asked Anderson what he had to gain by talking to the press, in which way giving them information would help him, what benefit could he draw from it. Anderson recognized he was right: addressing the press wasn’t at his convenience from any point of view. “I couldn’t answer his question. Then I realized the conversation was over and the dealer was only deciding whether or not he was going to kill me”, he remembered.

Journalism’ scope is not encouraging, he highlighted. He remembered the impunity with which journalists are killed in Mexico. One can negotiate ideological matters even with a Muslim extremist. But with a criminal, it is impossible to negotiate. He does not care about other people’s life. Being society’s informants, journalists are the first in line, as they are the most awkward ingredient. Faced with fear, silence.    If the States do not take control of the matter, journalists are facing a possible ice age”, he said.

He ended the discussion by debating what would happen to criminals without resources –who amount to 200 thousand, only in Río- if ever drugs were legalized and dealers lost control over this business.  ¿Would they turn to political revolution?

+ info

“When I discuss my plays, I concentrate on technical details instead of the aspect of meaning. Someone once asked American poet William Carlos Williams about the meaning of his poems, he said: don’t ask me with what they mean, ask me about what I have created. My family and I spend our summers in Colorado, and there is a river close by. That river changes color each moment, each day, without meaning for it to happen, but still accomplishing something beautiful and expressive. I would like for the same to be said about my work.”

These words were used by American composer Alvin Lucier to describe himself during his interview at Proa, last November 24, in occasion of the XIV Contemporary Music Concerts, organized by the Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires, and under the direction of Martin Bauer.

Born in 1931, Lucier has produced music with instruments such as a small vibrating cable (”Music On A Long Thin Wire”, 1977), a clock responsive to its owner’s emotions (”Clocker”, 1978), six glasses (”Small Waves”, 1997), o toy bird (”Bird and Person Dyning”, 1976). For some critics, his most representative work is “I Am Sitting In A Room” (1970), based on the repetition of a recording of a text recited by himself through loudspeakers. The recording and repetition of this playback is done so that it systematically cancels out any trace of the human voice.

Interviewed by critic Gustavo Fernandez Walker, Lucier remembered the moment when he found a personal way of expressing himself. He had been in Germany, in Darmstadt, where he had been to classes by serial composers; and, when he came back to the States, he understood that he could also produce serial music but it wasn’t in him as it was, essentially, an European tradition.

Lucier explains: “I befriended a scientist who was working on a brainwave amplifier and I got to experiment with the gadget. Back then, I was giving a class at university and called John Cage to invite him for a concert. Cage agreed to it as long as one of my compositions was part of the repertoire. I said I didn’t have any. There was an awkward silence. Then, I mentioned my work with the amplifier, who still didn’t work. He said not to mind that and give it a try; which I did. The result was the first work I considered entirely my own. It was a register of alpha brainwaves, which I used for percussion.”

In his own words, the physicality of alpha brainwaves allowed him to avoid falling into the musicality of serial compositions, focusing on more physical aspects of sound. Lucier admitted that the composing process does not come easily to him. “I would like have the right tone everyday. Instead, I have to reason hard to successively eliminate superfluous elements, leaving only what is necessary” he added.

When asked about the changes in work, he mentioned that in the 60s and 70s he worked mostly on works based on material aspects of sound, but from the 80s on, people begun questioning about the possibility of doing instrumental pieces. “I was always very interested by that [instrumental music], because I wanted to be involved in main stream music. I am a composer because I love classical music. So I begun writing pieces for strings, looking to expand the limits of the instrument’s natural sound. I played them in a simple way, without extended techniques. If I use oscillators, is to generate a more vivid sound, Now I work in between acoustic exploration and chamber music, trying hard for each composition to have a beginning and an end, so that they can be played in a concert. I am always on the edge.”

After the interview, Italian ensemble Alter Ego, formed by distinguished European instrumental musicians, played works by Francesco Filidei, Michel van der Aa, Beat Furrer, Georges Aperghis, Rytis Mazulis, Somei Satoh, Jonathan Harvey and Jacob TV. The repertoire included a piece by Lucier himself: “Silver Streetcar for the Orchesta”, triangle solo, a fifteen minute long piece where a percussionist hits different spots of the triangle, exploring the various sounds produced. The work’s title alludes to Luis Buñuel. Lucier comments: “Surrealists hated music and they had fun giving instruments ridiculous names.”

Alter Ego is formed by Oscar Pizzo (piano), Francesco Dillon (cello) and Manuel Zurria (flute). Guest percussionist:  Antonio Caggiano.