M OV E M E N T A N D T R A N S F O R M AT I O N
I N S TA L L AT I O N S
Distortion 600x500 SITE SPECIFIC 2018 CCK WALL DRAWING AND TEN MOVING PARTS THAT ROTATE. THEY ARE ACTIVATED WITH MOTION SENSORS.
MOVILES TRIBUTE
Centro Cultural Néstor Kirchner Curator: Rodrigo Alonso Centro del movimiento 2018
Moviles Tribute is a serie of kinetic sculpures. Each piece is based on the research of historical artists who worked the movement and its optical effects through out the history of art. Each of the pieces takes some elements of each of the artists investigated, the appropriation is not only formal or a estheticit’s also conceptual and abord questions about how would develop those search is that they historically made in the current context. How would the present technology go through the works of these Masters? The first of the series is a work that takes as a starting point the work “Rotorelief” by Marcel Duchamp of 1935. The second, “Variation Number 16” adds a new variation to the “15 variations on the same theme” of 1938 Max Bill, develops there search on the rotational movement of certain geometrical shapes and their transformation, I add rhythm, time and compas.
In “Rotation for a color”, “Distortion”, “Frequency” and “Sequence” I investigate the studies and works of Jesus Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz Diez, specifically the effects produced by the visual vibration of geoemetric patterns, the repetition and the sequences of lines, the changes of orientation and direction, I add to those static visual effects, more and new visual situations generated with the use of devices that produce mechanical movements. The pieces “Rotations”, “Multiple Displacements” and “Luminous Movement” deep in Martha Boto’s searches to which I incorporate techniques such as engraving and ledlights. These formal and experimental investigations have had the support and discussion of teachers close to me during my training as Rogelio Pollesello, Julio Le Parc and Eduardo Rodriguez.
Frecuency 40x40x20 KINETIC BOX OF THE SERIES MOVILES TRIBUTE INVESTIGATION: JESUS RAFAEL SOTO ACRYLIC, PAINT, SHAFTS AND MOTORS
Mindoro3 40x40x20
KINETIC BOX OF THE SERIES MOVILES TRIBUTE INVESTIGATION: VICTOR VASARELY 1954 ACRYLIC, PAINT, SHAFTS AND MOTORS
Moviles Tribute VIEW IN GALERIA PABELLÓN 4, BUENOS AIRES
Variation number 16 40x40x20 KINETIC BOX OF THE SERIES MOVILES TRIBUTE INVESTIGATION: MAX BILL ACRYLIC, PAINT, SHAFTS AND MOTORS
Rhythm for Rotorelief 40x40x20 KINETIC BOX OF THE SERIES MOVILES TRIBUTE INVESTIGATION: MARCEL DUCHAMP ACRYLIC, PAINT, SHAFTS AND MOTORS
Secuence 40x40x20 KINETIC BOX OF THE SERIES MOVILES TRIBUTE INVESTIGATION: CRUZ DIEZ ACRYLIC, PAINT, SHAFTS AND MOTORS
Multiple Displacements 40x40x20 KINETIC BOX OF THE SERIES MOVILES TRIBUTE INVESTIGATION: MARTHA BOTO ACRYLIC, PAINT, SHAFTS AND MOTORS
Installation “Passage” 200x100 8 ACRYLIC DISKS OF 5MM, MOTORS AND LED LIGHTS
Installation “Passage” (Details)
Track 2 - diameter of 120cm ENGRAVED ACRYLIC RING View in the gallery Co GalerÃa, Santiago de Chile
Magnet Tracks - 100x160 ENGRAVED THERMOFORMING ACRYLIC PLATES View in the gallery Co GalerÃa, Santiago de Chile
Installation “Vibratium Etereo” (Details)
Installation “Vibratium Etereo” 240x160 15 ACRYLIC DISKS OF 5MM, MOTORS AND LED LIGHTS
Installation Transformation GRAFICS, THEORIES, RECORD PLAYER, ENGRAVED MIRROR, QUARTZ, MUSIC BOX
Intallation Incompletud NOTEBOOKS, DRAWING, RECORD PLAYER, DISKS, PICTURES, WORK 12 POSTAL FOR NOBODY
AUDIBLE LANDSCAPES
Centro Cultural Recoleta
Curator: Renato Rita Comments by Alberto Mario Perrone, Asociación de Críticos de Arte.
“Metamorphosis is a metaphor that is imprinted with a determined idea of time”. R. Barthes
Perhaps the most striking thing about this show is the extensive geometric mural in black and white with metamorphosing circles and parabolas—the same is reproduced in the tiny, attractive catalog—that runs from end to end in the elongated exhibition space. As do the public—at least as was demonstrated during the opening—mesmerized in front of the large mobile works done on circular panels of translucent acrylic situated at either end, with several meta-circles in movement (inner circles on other circles) that tend toward trans-verberation and metamorphosis. The space actually exhibits just three large works that form part of the dynamic this original artist has been working with, but the trio has inner communication, both in its serenity and its dynamics of synchronized, polyphonic, rhythmic whirling. If viewers have followed at least some of Villafañe’s previous production, they will note a careful synthesis that has distilled the work, and also that the vertigo she has invited since the beginning has been channeled into superlative severity and the interpretative subtlety of full body graphic gestures.
Audible Landscapes #20 • Extended Geographies Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires
Curatorial text: It it easy to understand how the desire for “purity” might seek its realization in “pure geometry” while at the same time overlooking the fact that geometry’s purity does not constitute purity in art. Geometric construction will nevertheless become, by way of this quid pro quo, the predecessor of constructive technical construction, which emerges from a similar spirit. Hans Sedlmayr The Revolution of Modern Art
Personal text by the Curator: Cloud or warehouse, rock or pillow; sounds in form, illusions in mind. The inconceivable laziness of the natural, the curve’s foreseeable defect, the understandable pride of the straight line, color’s implicit shadow. Infinity’s ineludible vanishing point in a perspective that is estranged by the horizon. Commotions that inhabit with ease, disrupting the mind at any attempt to approach drawing’s unnamable devices. Renato Rita SXXI
Torrent and Transformation Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires
Stone Water Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires
RESONANCE
“So, so you think you tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain? Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?” Pink Floyd. WISH YOU WERE HERE
(1975)
Still 1 video performance
TO BE OR NOT TO BE by Rodrigo Alonso
In the famed film CITIZEN KANE (1941) by Orson Welles, communications media magnate Charles Foster Kane pronounces a strange word just before dying, setting an investigation by the press into motion that articulates the plot of the entire story. It is significant that at the moment of his death, there is no one in the room who could have heard it. For this reason, though investigators never manage to determine what was meant by the word (Rosebud), the spectator does know that it refers to a childhood memory on the part of the main character. It operates as a decoy, a true excuse for the narrative, by way of which Welles constructs one of cinema history’s most exquisite films.
Installation: Transformation - 120x120 • RECORD PLAYER, ROTRING, GRAFICS
Mariana Villafaùe’s recent work has a childhood memory as its point of departure, but in light of the formal results attained, we might similarly characterize it as a decoy. As the artist herself explains, her father left their family home when she was a little girl; among the objects he left behind, there was a record player and a vinyl record of WISH YOU WERE HERE by Pink Floyd.
Like the Rosebud from CITIZEN KANE, the object and the song are the motivation for an aesthetic investigation that explores different possible ways of translating sound in visual terrain. As this advances further forward, the specific anecdote falls back in order to focus attention on the representation of visual patterns and the poetic materialization of memory.
Still of video. Work process
Employing the record player as an instrument, Villafañe makes a group of circular drawings—to a large extent random—that she later manipulates. On the basis of these drawings, she elaborates visual constructions in which waves, vibrations, echoes and reverberations predominate. The embodiment of these constructions takes a wide diversity of forms. In the CAJAS DE RESONANCIAS (SOUNDING BOARDS, 2014) series, they capriciously materialize in cut-out paper forms,
protected in acrylic boxes. In the RESONANCIAS (RESONANCE, 2015) series and WISH YOU WERE HERE (2015), lines freely unfold in precise strokes of acrylic on canvas. One specific piece, MOVIMIENTO CIRCULAR (CIRCULAR MOVEMENT, 2015) is presented in plotter cut vinyl and applied directly to the gallery wall. In all cases, there is a chromatic reduction to black and white, which emphasizes their relationship to scientific schemes used to measure aural spectra.
Sequential fragmentation of the memory - 100x100 INK ON PAPER OVER ACRYLIC PLATE INDIVIDUAL COLLECTION, SANTIAGO DE CHILE
Mariana Villafañe’s aim, however, is not scientific but emotional and poetic. Her desire to embody the immaterial nature of sound is in some way connected to a crystallization of the figure of her absent father. HAMLET’s dilemma once his progenitor has left his life—“To be or not to be”—has a curious resonance in the artist’s decision to work in between the being of plastic material and the non-being of sound’s immateriality. In this sense, her work finds a deep via along which to deal with memory while avoiding literal or descriptive devices.
View in the gallery “Quadro Arte Contemporáneo”, Buenos Aires
The best of two worlds 200x200 ACRYLIC ON COTTON PAPER
The multiple layers of mediation that exist between the old record player and her linear graphics make the process of plastic abstraction manifest, but they also reveal decisions that respond to her personal and artistic subjectivity. After all, there is not necessarily any relation between one extreme and the other. In any case there is an obstinate will, a drive that insists on traveling the route of memory with the understanding that in the creative act, an artist uses their entire being, including technical skill and sensibility, the body, history and the present.
Audible’s Landscapes #15 200x150 ACRÍLICO SOBRE TELA
Videoperformance
People like to conserve their memories, but artists often manipulate them. This operation contains a latent unrest. What is it that is distorted? It is the photograph, the recorded sound, the old treasured family relic, or the tale that constitutes these into the repository for an emotive memory? What is the limit for such manipulation? Can you call Hell Heaven, can you call a smile a veil? Art is the realm in which this effectively takes place. Not because its objective is to erode memory or to negate reality, but precisely the opposite. How can we refer to these things other than through the filter of our most rigorous and unwavering subjectivity? After all, as the great Argentinean writer said so well, The past is a clay that the present Molds at its will, interminably. Jorge Luis Borges, TODOS LOS AYERES, UN SUEĂ‘O (ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, A DREAM, 1985)
CAJAS DE RESONANCIA
VIEW IN GALLERY
CUTS OF LAYERS OF COTTON PAPER IN ACRYLIC BOXES
Sounding boards Mark Hachem Gallery, ParĂs
PA I N T S
Audible Landscapes #15 - 200x150 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #8 (Detail - Sivori Museum)
Audible Landscapes #8 - 300x150 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #10 - 400x400 // MURAL
Audible Landscapes #10 // MURAL IN CONTEXT
Audible Landscapes #14 200x200 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #12 200x100 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #0 100x100 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #6 100x100 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #7 - 100x150 // ACRYLIC ON PAPER
Audible Landscapes #5 - 100x150 // ACRYLIC ON PAPER
Audible Landscapes #11 100x150 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #13 100x150 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
Audible Landscapes #20 • Extended Geographies 1200x150 POLYPTYCH: CONSISTS OF 12 PIECES OF 100X150 EACH ONE ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
DRAWINGS
Parallel worlds I - 50x100 INK ON COTTON PAPER
Parallel worlds II - 50x100 INK ON COTTON PAPER
Sonorous memories I - 120x120 INK ON COTTON PAPER
Sonorous memories (Detail)
Sonorous memories II 120x120 INK ON COTTON PAPER
Sonorous memories I y II - 120x120 // INK ON COTTON PAPER View in the gallery Co GalerĂa, Santiago de Chile
Continuous variances 20x20 IN ON COTTON PAPER
STATEMENT
My artistic production is focused on investigating morphological geometric patterns that are drawn from sensitive experience. I look for the point where math, pure geometry and geometric abstraction intersect from a standpoint of sensitivity. I am interested in visual representations of movement and sound, or to be more precise, the vibration that precedes them. My search has led me to venture into mathematical, metaphysical, and philosophical theories in depth, in addition to exploring artists whose references have been along similar lines, such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Bill, Giula Kosice and Gregorio Vardanega, one of the Concrete artists from the ‘40s I have studied. I look to appropriate their investigations, combining them with my own in our current context.
Mariana Villafañe
Born: 1972, lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied Architecture and Visual Arts. Her works are articulated by way of intersections between different disciplines such as photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, video and installation. She has participated in group shows in Buenos Aires, Bogota, Miami, Lima, Panama City, Santiago, New York and Berlin. She participated in the Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas (Artistic Research Center, CIA) in 2012 and 2013. Torcuato Di Tella University in 2010, 2012 and 2013. She attended Pablo Siquier’s Taller de ProducciónTeórica (Theoretical Production Workshop) at the IUNA. She has participated in courses, workshops and intensive production discussion groups with: Ernesto Ballesteros, Alfio Demestre, Daniel Quiles (Art Institute Chicago), Severine Hubard (FR) Paula Messarutti, Lucio Castro (Arg-NY) Cia. Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas, Santiago Garcia Navarro (arg-Bra) (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella), Ariel Jimenez (Ven), Fabiana Barreda, Alejandro Cesarco (NY-UY), Rodrigo Alonso, Mari Carmen Ramírez (Puerto RicoUSA), Valeria Gonzalez, Julio Sanchez, Carla Rey, Marina Onhabere, Maggie Atienza Larsson, Laura Messing, Coloquio de Fotografía Princeton-Di Tella.
Exhibitions 2018
FACA Feria de Arte Contemporáneo Argentino 2017
Art cartagena 2015
Art Lima 2017 Galeria Pabellón 4
Art Wynwood 2015
2016
2014
El Centro en movimiento. CCK Curaduría RODRIGO ALONSO, febrero / marzo 2018. // Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta Solo exhibition
Art Miami Gallerie Mark Hachem Paris
Scope Art fair 2014 Miami
Muestra Individual “Paisajes Audibles” Sala 12 Centro
Lima Photo 2014
Solo show Galería Las Misiones Uruguay
cultural Recoleta Mayo 2016
Chile arte Contemporáneo 2014
SP Arte 2018. Sao Paulo
Seleccionada Bienal de Irán 2016
Pinta Art Fair
PARC Peru Arte Contemporaneo 2018
Museo de Artes Plásticas Eduardo Sivori 2016.
Art Palm Beach
FACA BS AS, MAYO 2018.
FIAC Paris gallerie Mark Hachem
Art Winwood 2014 y 2013
Art Beirut 2016 2017
Parte Arte conmporaneo Sao Paulo 2016
2013
Art Miami 2017. Galeria Mark Hachem Paris. Diciembre 2017, Miami,FL.
Swaab Barcelona 2016
Scope Miami 2013
Art Basel 2016
Scope NY
Scope Art Fair Miami Beach 2017. FL.Galeria Pabellón 4.
Art Lima 2016
Affordable art Fair NYC
Seleccionada revista Art Nexus como los 10 artistas del momento , Muestra Hagase la Luz Espacio Art Nexus, Miami Diciembre 2017.
Start Londres 2016
Museo de arte decorativo de Buenos Aires
Art Marbella 2016
Museo de Tres Arroyos pcia. De Buenos Aires,
Art wynwood Miami 2016
See Me exhibition Space Long Island
Art Palm Beach 2016
Times Square contest
Parte Arte Contemporánea Sao Paulo. Noviembre 2017. Pabellón 4 “Hágase la Luz” Espacio y colección Art Nexus. Art Bo, Bogota, Colombia. Octubre 2017
Berlin Art Project 2015
Expotrastiendas Bs AS.
Intervención Bustamante y las Heras. Buenos Aires Espacio Público. Argentina
Scope Art fair Miami 2015
Arte BA
Pinta art Fair Miami 2015
Museo del Banco Provicia de Buenos Aires
Selecionada Bienal de Venecia 2017. Personal Structures. Curadora Sara Danieli .Gaaf Foundation
Parte Arte Contemporaneo Sao Paulo 2015
Espacio para la memoria, ESMA.
SP Arte Contemporáneo Galería Shor Sao Paulo
Museo de Artes Plasticas Eduardo Sivori Buenos Aires 2015
Intervención Gral. Paz y Rivadavia Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Espacio Público.
Scope New York 2015
and galleries in NY, Miami, Santiago de Chile, San Pablo, Lima, Berlín and Buenos Aires and her work figures in public and private collections in those countries.
