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Presentation

“Colecciones de artistas"

December 16th, 2023 - March 3rd, 2024
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Fundación Proa presents a new edition of 'Artist Collections,' the exhibition held in 2001 and 2006 that brings together the private collections of a group of contemporary artists from the local scene.

This time, Cynthia Cohen, Marina De Caro, Sigismond de Vajay, Gachi Hasper, Inés Raiteri, Rosana Schoijett, Cecilia Szalkowicz, and Gastón Pérsico unveil works that they have been treasuring over time in their homes and studios, inviting viewers to discover through them the interests, personal connections, and creative intersections that make up their everyday universe.

The selection also bears witness to their own trajectories, as the chosen pieces are the result of acquisitions, gifts, and exchanges with other colleagues they encountered in workshops, scholarships, and exhibitions held in different periods and spaces. Given this uniqueness, and that in most cases, this collection grew spontaneously, without a defined program or objectives, the artists prefer to describe themselves as 'collectors' rather than collectors.

Curated by Patricia Rizzo and Mayra Zolezzi as the assistant curator, the exhibition highlights the artists through almost 400 works of various formats and aesthetics, offering a glimpse into the artistic practices of an era. "If we look at the three editions of this series in perspective, we can appreciate a panorama of Argentine art from the 20th and 21st centuries. What is also interesting is that each moment records changes in local artistic practices. The emergence of scholarships and workshops changed the way of producing compared to previous decades when artists did not coexist but rather engaged in a generally more solitary activity," explains Adriana Rosenberg, director of Fundación Proa.

"Artist Collections" allows the construction of a history of relationships that proposes new perspectives to read the history of art through the experiences that artists share in a specific time. The fact of taking the collection out of private spaces to present it in the exhibition space of Proa means that we made an interpretation. Mindful of this situation, the curator made a representative selection from each collection," adds.

PREVIOUS EDITIONS

In its first version (2001), the exhibition brought together artists whose collections gathered works that were contemporary or earlier, including Luis F. Benedit, Nicolás García Uriburu, Rómulo Macció, Luis F. Noé, Rogelio Polesello, Alfredo Prior, and Josefina Robirosa. The 2006 edition presented the private heritage of nine prominent Argentine artists and around 140 works belonging to different generations and trends, such as Marta Minujín, León Ferrari, María Juana Heras Velasco, Dalila Puzzovio, Clorindo Testa, Marcelo Pombo, Roberto Jacoby, Facundo De Zuviría, and Alberto Goldenstein. Rizzo shared the curation with Sergio Avello.

ARTIST COLLECTIONS 2023

The sets presented this time at Proa stand out for their individuality and also for a manifest correspondence in the artists who repeat in each collection, offering a historical view of production and ways of working in the last two decades. Thus, there are dedicated works, portraits of friends, and pieces that came as birthday gifts, exchanges, and/or fee payments, as well as those inherited from family. In all of them, the affective component is evident as a guiding thread.

"During visits to their homes and studios, we set out to build a narrative that captured the essence of each collection. As a result, the exhibition is presented as a window into the everyday lives of each artist. The conceptual richness of the sets reveals how training experiences, their career, and personal stories intertwine to shape collections built with love and admiration. Each work is a visual testimony of a shared history," says Mayra Zolezzi, assistant curator.

Rosana Schoijett's collection documents her experience as a photographic chronicler and is the result of intense exchanges during her participation in the Kuitca Scholarship (2003-2005), where she shared space with some colleagues present in the exhibition; it also includes significant pieces of family origin. In Gachi Hasper's collection, works by great geometric artists stand out, including María Martorell, Germaine Derbecq, and Marta Botto, whose investigations on geometry somehow influence Hasper's production, who has also discovered the benefit of practicing reciprocity: every time she sells, she buys, according to her words.

Cynthia Cohen preserves carefully chosen works from friends and colleagues such as Marcelo Pombo, Alberto Passolini, Jorge Miño, and Luis Benedit, among others from her family environment, especially her children; the artist confesses that she never moves them around in her house because she prefers to engage in the game of observing them and finding new points of reflection in each mood.

In Marina De Caro's collection, in addition to anonymous works chosen mainly for their unique imprint, there is a marked presence of students who passed through her workshop. The collection also reflects the collaborative spirit among friends, works that come from solidarity purchases and exchanges, which the artist prefers to think of as subjects rather than objects, given the emotional charge they represent.

Inés Raiteri's collection is marked by three important moments in her formation and stands out for a color scheme related to the palette the artist uses in her work: Daniel Joglar, Beto De Volder, Deborah Pruden, Elisa Strada, Maja Lascano, and Marina De Caro; it includes work by Catalina León, also present in the collection of Cecilia Szalkowicz and Gastón Pérsico, plus a Matías Duville from the same period that De Caro retains.

In the case of Cecilia Szalkowicz and Gastón Pérsico, like Schoijett's, exchanges are significant to the point that they consider their friends as the true authors of the collection, as they did not choose many of the works they live with themselves. This allows thinking of that heritage as a collective biography built by their emotional surroundings.

Sigismond de Vajay's vast heritage is scattered around the world and reflects different stages of his nomadic life. It preserves works by international and local artists, most of which are the result of purchases and exchanges made in the context of exhibitions in which he participated as a producer or curator, and in this context, he especially recalls a Spencer Tunick installation made in Frida Kahlo's workshop in Mexico, exhibited on this occasion.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

"Artist Collections" will be on display until March 2024. It is accompanied by a calendar of educational activities and Public Programs designed by the Education Department of Fundación Proa to explore and expand the reading of the multiple generational intersections, languages, and aesthetic coincidences underlying the artists' collections.

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