Fundación Proa - Auditorium

PROA TV. Alejandro Ikonicoff and Gastón Pérsico in an interview with Adriana Rosenberg

proa08 — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:56:17 +0000

Within the exhibition Some Artists / 90 - TODAY, Alejandro Ikonicoff’s collection represents the latest production of Argentine art. He started collecting in the early years of the 2000s, following the model established by Gustavo Bruzzone, who formed his collection based on the close relationship with the artists of the 90’s. One of the artists who became very close to Ikonicoff is Gastón Pérsico, who made the selection of works for this exhibition along with Cecilia Szalkowicz.

Interviewed by Adriana Rosenberg, director of Fundación Proa, Ikonicoff and Pérsico make a review of the origin of the collection, the selection criteria of the works and the new modes and roles that have recently adopted both collectors and artists.

PROA TV. Gustavo Bruzzone talks about his collection and his relationship with the artists of the 1990s

proa08 — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:08:56 +0000

In the early 1990s, Gustavo Bruzzone began collecting works of the most representative artists of the time on the local scene from a close relationship with the artists. Currently, Bruzzone has one of the most representative and comprehensive collections of that period, a sort of record of a decade, focusing mainly on the productions of the artists that were exhibited in the gallery of the Centro Cultural Rojas, led at the time by Jorge Gumier Maier.

The exhibition Some Artists / 90 - TODAY shows part of these works as part of a tour across the Argentine art of the last quarter century through three private collections. In PROA TV, Bruzzone reviews the history of his collection and his relationship with the artists.

PROA TV. Collector Alejandro Ikonicoff talks about next exhibition “Some artists - 90 / Today”

proa08 — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:08:04 +0000

On Saturday April 27, Proa inaugurates Some artists - 90 / today. Argentine Art. Collections Bruzzone / Ikonicoff / Tedesco. A revealing overview of the argentinian art from 1990 to the present that retrieves the debates of the last two decades in the the institutional and artistic fields through the works of over 120 artists from private collections of Gustavo Bruzzone, Alejandro Ikonicoff and Esteban Tedesco.

These three collections are formed from the special relationship of dialogue and collaboration with the production of numerous artists. Ana Gallardo, Rafael Cippolini, Cecilia Szalkowicz and Gastón Pérsico made the selection of works to be exhibited at Proa.

Ikonicoff’s collection brings an outstanding body of works from recent years. Cecilia Szalkowicz and Gaston Pérsico selected some works for the exhibition.

PROA CINE / BAFICI. “Three Sisters”, by Wang Bing

proa08 — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:00:35 +0000

SCREENINGS
Saturday, April 13 , 5 pm.
Saturday, April 20, 3 and 6 pm.

Tickets only available online or in puntos de venta del BAFICI.

For the third year, Proa hosts the BAFICI Film Festival -Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival- with the screening of “Three Sisters” (2012, 153 min.), the latest film by Wang Bing, one of the most prominent documentary maker of the contemporary cinema.

Synopsis
Winner of the award for Best Film at the Venice Biennale and DocLisboa in 2012 and the Fribourg International Film Fest in 2013, Three Sisters shows the life of a small and very poor family in the mountain valley of Yunnan, a remote region of rural China. There, three sisters of 10, 6 and 4 years living practically alone, accompanied only by a grandparent, an aunt and a father who has to be away for months on business. Despite the cold and absolute scarcity, the three built a silent brotherly bond that will provide shelter to a childhood plagued by loneliness and poverty.

Dijo la crítica
“Un triunfo del cine de observación, Three Sisters abre una ventana a un mundo desconocido, y transforma lo cotidiano en algo extrañamente mágico”.
Giovanna Fulvi - Toronto International Film Festival

“La obra de Wang Bing tiene una importancia capital”.
Roger Koza - Festival Internacional de Cine de la UNAM

“Three Sisters ofrece una mirada esclarecedora y profundamente humana sobre una familia pobre cuyas rudimentarias condiciones de vida son una réplica punzante a la ilusión del boom económico chino”.
Variety

“Wang Bing juega entre dos polos, la visión de una China antropológica y las texturas de los recuerdos, las imágenes del día a día de estos niños, un material totalmente cinematográfico”.
Alberto Moreno - Contrapicado

Three Sisters
China/France, 2012, 153 min.
Direction: Wang Bing
Direction of photography: Wang Bing, Huang Wenhai, Li Peifeng
Edition: Wang Bing, Adam Kerby
Sound: Fu Kang
Production: Mao Hui, Sylvie Faguer
Produced by Chinese Shadows, ALBUM Productions

About the director
Wang Bing was born in Shaanxi Province in China. He studied at the LuXun Art Academy in Shenyang and the Beijing Film Academy. His first experience as a documentarist was “Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks” (2003), a nine hours feature film presented at the Toronto Film Festival and internationaly acclaimed. His other achievements were “He Fengming: A Chinese Memoir” (2007), “A Journal of Crude Oil” (2008), “The Ditch” (2010) and “Three Sisters” (2012), his last film.

Harun Farocki: Films and conferences

proa08 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:06:21 +0000

During March, Proa’s Auditorium will be showing a series Harun Farocki’s films which, among others, will premiere in Argentina the filmmaker’s three latest realeses. Farocki’s work revolves around uncovering the ideological processes that the production and reception of images entail.

Furthermore, on Saturday 16 of March, Farocki himself will be at Proa’s Auditorium offering a public conference.

Harun Farocki. "In Comparison" (Zum Vergleich) 2009, 61 min.

FILMS
“Inextinguishable Fire” (Nicht löschbares Feuer)
1969, 25min., DVD
An Agitprop (agitation and propaganda) film belonging to protest movement against the Vietnam war. A treatise about the production of Napalm, about the division of labor and alienated conscience. Today it constitutes a document of 1968’s educational rigorism, but also of it’s capacity to clarify complex relationships so that, for many members of that generation, understanding and agitating became an indivisible unit.

“Images of the World and the Inscription of War” (Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges)
1988, 75min., DVD
A film about the authenticity of images and the possibility of their control. Where are the limits between images and realities? The director investigates the connections between inventions for civil society and their military use. The examples confirm Farocki’s thesis about correlations between industry, technique and armament.

“Videograms of a Revolution” (Videogramme einer Revolution)
de Andrej Ujica y Harun Farocki, 1992, 106 min., DVD
A film that shows the Rumanian revolution of December 1989 in Bucharest in a new media-based form of historiography. Demonstrators occupied the television station [in Bucharest] and broadcast continuously for 120 hours, thereby establishing the television studio as a new historical site. Between December 21, 1989 (the day of Ceaucescu’s last speech) and December 26, 1989 (the first televised summary of his trial), the cameras recorded events at the most important locations in Bucharest, almost without exception. The determining medium of an era has always marked history, quite unambiguously so in that of modern Europe. It was influenced by theater, from Shakespeare to Schiller, and later on by literature, until Tolstoy. As we know, the 20th century is filmic. But only the videocamera, with its heightened possibilities in terms of recording time and mobility, can bring the process of filming history to completion. Provided, of course, that there is history. (Andrei Ujica)

“Trabajadores saliendo de la fábrica” (Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik)
1995, 36min., DVD
The first camera in movie history (directed by the Lumiére brothers) filmed a factory, but a hundred years laterit can be said the the factory rarely attracted film; it rather repelled it. Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin leaving a factory exemplify some of the concepts about work that cinema has produced throughout its history.
A film that dialogs with Farocki’s installation “Workers leaving the factory in eleven decades” (2006)

“War at a Distance” (Erkennen und verfolgen)
2003, 58min., DVD
In 1991, when images of the Gulf War flooded the international media, it was virtually impossible to distinguish between real pictures and those generated on computer. This loss of bearings was to change forever our way of deciphering what we see. The image is no longer used only as testimony, but also as an indispensable link in a process of production and destruction. This is the central premise of “War at a Distance”. With the help of archival and original material, Farocki sets out in effect to define the relationship between military strategy and industrial production and sheds light on how the technology of war finds applications in everyday life. (Antje Ehmann)

“Nothing Ventured” (Nicht ohne Risiko)
2004, 50min., DVD
What venture capital or VC for short actually means is explained the film itself. Banks only lend money against collateral. Those who have none have to turn to VC companies and pay interest of 40% at least. We had filmed scenes at a wide range of companies: VC companies discussing projects; entrepreneurs seeking to give shape to their ideas; consultants rehearsing their presentation. In the end we restricted ourselves to just one set of negotiations and used the material shot over two days. What tipped the balance for me was hearing the lawyer for NCTE, the company seeking capital say, “We are a little disappointed by the offer”. I felt myself transported into a Coen-Brothers film.The protagonists in our story film are sharp-witted and filled with a desire to present themselves. They are negotiating the conditions for the loan of 750,000 Euros. (Harun Farocki)

“Yella”
by Christian Petzold; scirpt collaboration: Harun Farocki. 2007, 88 min., DVD
Yella decides to leave. She longs for the future. Her previous existence must remain in the past. In this journey she meets a man from the finance world that works with high risk capitals. She plays a good role s her assistant, but elements of her past constantly make their way into her new life.

Harun Farocki. "A new product" (Ein neues Produkt) 2012, 37 min

PREMIERES
“Respite” (Aufschub)
2007, 40 min.
In “Respite”, Farocki presents the filmic record of Rudolf Breslauer, photographer and prisoner of the transit camp for jews in Westbork. After studying the latter use of the images taken in concentration camps, Farocki decides to do a silent film, using only the original material, without adding to or cutting any of the original sequences.
“I wanted to present the material in such a way that it invited it’s own unique lecture” (Harun Farocki)

“In Comparison” (Zum Vergleich)
2009, 61 min.
Bricks are the resonating fundamentals of society. Bricks are layers of clay that sound, like records just simply too thick. Like records they appear in series, but every brick is slightly different – not just another brick in the wall. Bricks create spaces, organize social relations and store knowledge on social structures. They resonate in a way that tells us if they are good enough or not. Bricks form the fundamental sound of our societies, but we haven?t learned to listen to them. Through different traditions of brick production Farocki’s film has our eyes and ears consider them in comparison – and not in competition, not as clash of cultures. Farocki shows us various brick production sites in their colours, movements and sounds. Brick burning, brick carrying, brick laying, bricks on bricks, no off-commentary. 20 inter-titles in 60 minutes tell us something about the temporality of working processes. The film shows us that certain production modes require their own duration and that cultures differentiate around the time of the brick.

“A new prodcut” (Ein neues Produkt)
2012, 37 min.
In his last film, Farocki shows how corporations handle a positive discourse in a cynical way, that is, they use a rhetoric of which its void is not only evident but also part of its communication. One could think of a second degree cynicism that consists in having a cynical conduct with one’s own cynicism and derive from it a language capable of communicating that one trusts in it because one doesn’t trust in it, but knows that all the rest share that same distrust. It would be tempting to praise this as another case of communication’s -not necessarily conscious- social refinement, if it wasn’t for the fact that it leads those involved into an inevitable infantilism. (Dirk Baecker)

Harun Farocki. Harun Farocki. "Respite" (Aufschub) 2007, 40 min.

About the artist
Harun Farocki (Germany, 1944) is considered one of the most radical artists active today. His work revolves around an analysis of the audiovisual representations and images produced by contemporary society. In more than one hundred films, productions for television, videos, installations and essays, Farocki has attempted to reveal the forms of power involved in the production, register and consumption of images from the beginning of film history through video games and virtual reality.

Artists’ Film International

proa08 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:42:23 +0000

February: Tuesdays through Sundays and holidays, at 4pm.
March: Tuesdays to Fridays, at 4 PM.

Alejandro Cesarco. "Everness", 2008. 16mm film transfered to DVD. B/W and sound. 12’

Now in its fourth edition, Artists’ Film International presents an overview of film, video and animation production by international artists. An initiative of Whitechapel Gallery, London, the works are selected by eleven institutions from around the world. Formerly called Art in the Auditorium, the series has changed its name to reflect the vague boundaries between audiovisual productions and the ways those productions are exhibited.
Artists’ Film International opens on February 2, 2013. The event, which is sponsored by Tenaris – Organización Techint, will continue throughout the month of February at Proa’s Auditorium.
As in previous years, for this edition of Artists’ Film International each participating institution engages in an independent process to select the work of an artist. Together, the works provide a diverse overview of the narrative possibilities of independent audiovisual work and reveal conceptual and formal experimentation in contemporary video, film and animation.

Sefer Memişoğlu. "Breeze", 2011. 8'18". Color and sound. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery NON, Istambul

Complete list of artists, works and institutions:

Dan Finsel. “I Would Love Farrah, Farrah, Farrah (I)” / Ballroom Marfa, USA
Aleksandar Jestrovi Jamesdin. “Gypsy Style”, “Last Tango” / Belgrade Cultural Center, Serbia
Sriwhana Spong. “Costume for a Mourner” / City Gallery, New Zeland
Alejandro Cesarco. “Everness”, “Zeide Isaac” / Fundación Proa, Argentina
Gianluca y Massimiliano De Serio. “Stanze” / GAMeC, Italy
Sefer Memişoğlu. “Breeze” / Istanbul Modern, Turquey
Anetta Mona Chişa y Lucia Tkáĉova. “Manifesto of Futurist Woman” / Neuer Berliner Kunstverein Video Forum, Germany
Ben Hagari. “Invert” / New Media Center, Israel
Liu Chuang. “Untitled (Dancing Partner)”, “Untitled (Festival)” / Para/Site, China
Nguyên Trinh Thi. “Song to the Front” / San Art, Vietnam
Corin Sworn. “Lens Prism” / Whitechapel Gallery, United Kingdom

This exhibition is sponsored by Tenaris – Organización Techint.

PROA TV. Edgardo Rudnitzky interviewed by Jorge Macchi

proa08 — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:44:25 +0000

Jorge Macchi interviewed Edgardo Rudnitzky, the author of “Nocturno” a sound installation that is taking place at Proa’s Auditorium.

PROA TV. Curator Véronique Wiesinger highlights some works of the Giacometti exhibition

proa08 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:17:18 +0000

En un video realizado por Revista Ñ, la curadora Véronique Wiesinger presenta en detalle algunas de las obras más significativas de la exhibición de Alberto Giacometti, empezando por la temprana “La femme culiere” (La mujer cuchara), 1927, y finalizando con un busto de 1965, “Homme à mi-corps” (Hombre de medio cuerpo), 1965, que manifiesta su estilo plenamente desarrollado.

Un paseo por el infierno y el paraíso de Giacometti. Por Mercedes Pérez Bergliaffa. Revista Ñ. 18.12.2012

PROA TV. Thee artists talk about the work they did for the “Oxímoron” exhibition

proa08 — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:54:39 +0000

Matías Duville, Jorge Miño y Luis Terán, los tres artistas convocados por el curador Daniel Molina para la exhibición Oxímoron en el Espacio Contemporáneo de Fundación Proa, hablan aquí sobre sus respectivas obras, sobre su concepto, su desarrollo y su relación con el espacio en que están expuestas.

Matías Duville - “Ma ligne de l’oxydation”, 2012

Jorge Miño - “S/T”, 2012, de la serie “Al final de todo”

Luis Terán - “VKG2″, 2012

PROA TV. Curator Daniel Molina presents “Oxímoron” in Contemporary Space

proa08 — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:30:54 +0000

Oxímoron’s curator, Daniel Molina, presents works by artists Matías Duville, Jorge Miño and Luis Terán in Proa’s Contemporary Space. A project of interventions in the Café and the Library, in dialogue with the architecture of each place.