Discontinuous

Dany Barreto. Serie: Paraguayan Dream, 2008. Photography. Direct take. 23.6”x31.5”. Courtesy of the artist.

CCR-Centro Cultural Recoleta

Buenos Aires, Argentina

February 12 - March 8, 2009

By Maria Carolina Baulo

Discontinuity appears in every moment of our lives. Our daily activities, even when following certain mechanical rituals, hold an intimate relation to the discontinuous: we always develop tasks that could last for a few minutes and then become discontinued within the course of our day.

Something quite similar happens with art. An artwork could be part of a conscious - or not - search for the artist’s goal; it could become part of a series or it could be relegated to ostracism. A piece could be dismissed because there’s no empathy with the other works; it could be a rehearsal, a simple sketch of the way to achieve a desirable final result. Nevertheless, those pentimenti hold the essence of that artistic search; they represent what the artist tried to capture and understand, and they are witnesses to this vital activity. They also highlight what lies beneath, the hidden, the unseen; discontinuity materializes in those pieces as evidence of those things the artist “did not want to do.”

“Discontinuous” gathered a group of talented artists with solid careers, who decided to show their discontinuous works: the black sheep of their productions, works that guided the artists, quiet interpellants placed in the lonely, dark spots of their ateliers. Maggie De Koenisgberg, Dany Barreto, Juan Batalla, Carlos Bissolino, Marcelo Bordese, Pablo da Monte, Dulio Pierri, Eduardo Stupia presented pieces that, for some intimate reasons, remained forgotten and dislocated from their original series, but never from the artist’s memory. Organized by the curator Mindy Lahitte, the exhibition presented mixed techniques, drawings on paper, photographs, acrylics, oils on canvas and sculptures. Artists with different perspectives, visions and approaches shared the experience of having a vast production that included several discontinuous works. They aren’t second-hand works; they show the true imprint of emotions, pieces silenced and rejected (but not literally). At “Discontinuous,” they had the chance to be in the spotlight, to shine as traces of a fragmentary reality, all of them bound by the solidarity of being part of the “excluded.” It was amazing to discover how those applications could represent fantastic flashes of creativity, which even the artists themselves couldn’t recognize then. Artworks have a life of their own far beyond artists’ intentions; that is why, like swans, the pieces at “Discontinuous” allowed their own creators to rediscover them and finally find out they aren’t and never were, ugly ducklings.

Maria Carolina Baulo: Art writer based in Argentina. She is specialized in Art History, with studies in Cinematography, Photography and Theatre. macabaulo@hotmail.com