Argentina: New edition of “Art Week” concludes in Buenos Aires

On Tuesday, October 4, a new edition of Art Week ended in the Argentine city of Buenos Aires after celebrating more than 100 activities, including exhibitions, tributes, and innovative audiovisual experiences.

In addition, neighbors and tourists were able to visit, as part of the proposal, ten selected works that were placed in cultural institutions, gardens, theaters, subway stations, and other symbolic points of the capital.

The event, which filled the streets and spaces of the city with contemporary art, was organized by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture.

Spokespeople explained that for eight consecutive days, the activity allowed to put the focus on the local art scene, unifying an artistic calendar that started with the Pinta BAphoto fair, continued with the Art Week and the Architecture Biennial, and concluded with the ARTEBA contemporary art fair, from the 7th to the 9th of the current month.

“This initiative is a reflection of the joint work to continue strengthening and amplifying our offer of contemporary art,” the city’s Minister of Culture, Enrique Avogadro, explained to the press.

The official emphasized that the celebration “is one of the city’s most complete and diverse proposals because it is integrated into the public space and brings art closer to neighbors and visitors”.

During the Week, neighbors and tourists enjoyed ten projects selected by a jury of experts, works that explored different techniques ranging from painting and sculpture to photography and digital art.

One of these ten works was “Urdimbre” by artist Silvina Babich, and consisted of an installation of wicker, a long, thin, and flexible branch of this shrub that is often used in Argentina to make baskets, furniture, and other objects.

The installation was mounted on the walls of the Zelaya Building in the Abasto neighborhood, the geographical center of the capital.

“The artist’s idea was to make a branch and unite her proposal with the building where it was placed, playing with the possibility of linking art, nature, and city,” a volunteer told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, a passing tourist named María Migliore praised the proposal, arguing that “one sees the work and thinks it is the branch of a tree that expands through the building”.

A highlight of this annual event was the opening of the emblematic Teatro Colón, Argentina’s main coliseum, to receive the digital work “Machine Hallucinations: Coral” by Turkish designer and media artist Refik Anadol, considered one of the world’s leading digital artists.

The work, composed of 1,742,772 digitally intervened images of chorales, was projected on the Teatro Colón’s stage, accompanied by the Orquesta Académica Superior del Teatro Colón as part of its staging, proposing an immersive experience to the audience.

“I loved the idea; it’s something I’ve never seen before, digital art and its combination with classical music,” office worker Valle Salvadores, one of the 2,000 attendees at the gala, told Xinhua.

At the end of the event, Minister Avogadro told the press that “there is a new language emerging from the digital field, and discovering it at the Teatro Colón through the work of Refik Anadol was a unique experience”.

The artist, who has exhibited at the National Museum of China (Beijing), in the southern city of Shenzhen, and in the coastal city of Qingdao, explained that he understands technology as a tool to expand possibilities and that dreams are a fundamental part of his work.

“Dreams are my fundamental source of inspiration. Ever since I got my first computer at the age of eight and saw a movie that inspired me a lot, my dreams became much more visual,” the artist said through a recorded message.

With information from Xinhua