D ince man has bifurcated its evolution and to be close to the monkey became homo sapiens, the view has been the sense that has prevailed over all others. By rising to his feet and keep your head up, front view became paramount for survival.
The arts are the ultimate expression of the visual primacy we share as human beings, mainly in the western world.
But this year, Petrobras awards 2011 seem have jeopardized this claim. Arteba being present for ya .... years, generating excitement with each new edition, this time the prize was assigned to a work in which the visual appeal was relegated to the background too, if we can argue that at some point may be attractive in the traditional sense term.
As always, the works selected have a reserved area within the exhibition, and while you are penetrated you to explore, with various installations and videos that came to us, could not help noticing a foul smell that filled the space. Sewers are to be covered? The bars that are inside will be receiving visits for food science?, people asked intrigued. Actually the answer was much closer than we thought. Almost reaching the end of the parallelogram that separated this area from the rest of the galleries, and if such a thing, like a forgetful neglect it were, on the floor stood a grocery bag with a pair of shoes sticking out from within. When we came to look around to see what it was, the smell was becoming more and more intense, causing the automatic impulse to cover our nose with your hand. The gestures of repulsion multiplied everywhere and to stand before the work finally discovered the cause of stinking: pieces of squid, and in advanced decomposition after several days there exhibited, emerged from inside the shoes as well as some rags that failed to display properly in the bag. The author is Carlos Herrera, of the province of Santa Fe and the name of this book "Portrait of my death." In a nomenclature, the author was asked how many square feet would take the smell off by his lifeless body after he died.
If the work was very small, negligible compared to the rest of the exhibits, which Petrobras Award year after year tend to lean to the monumental, the projection "aromatic" than it appeared from occupying a space that not all other works together could have filled.
That art has long since abandoned the concept of beauty that gave ground, not a novelty at this time. However, to reach these limits of disgust, also contesting any chance of being acquired (both for its quality perishable as by the fact that nobody gives much grace would expose a rotten fish in the living room), it is still causing some discomfort and rejection in both the public and some artists even harder to digest.
funny thing was that this configured an interesting work in tandem with other exposed and there was also its opposite more rigorous. In this case it was a work of Rondolini Luciana, who presented on a few inches off the ground, a giant ice cream stick proportions, which smell so delicious and recognizable, caused eager to pounce on him and devour him. With the passing of the hours the ice cream was melting slowly, the cold and lack of proximity of people, who curiously approached to touch it to confirm its low temperature or taste.
Another work featured a carousel was dismantled, which survived only lights that covered them, recalling the splendor of that once enjoyed among the children playing in the streets today in open disappearance. An appeal to the nostalgia of Mariana Telleria
can safely be said that this edition of ArteBa not only meant a stimulus to the eye but also constituted a challenge to our sense of smell.
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