Exhibitions

To promote artistic experimentation, encourage the crossover of disciplinary expressions and explore every possible combination of art, technology and design -while blurring the boundaries between them- the 2012 edition of the Faena Prize called upon artists and art collectives from all over the world to submit projects for installations, sculptures, pictures, technology and audio.

Coordinated by Ximena Caminos the international jury select of 837 submissions for this year’s edition, the winner: Argentinian artist Franco Darío Vico. 40% of the projects were from Argentina, with the rest came from over 40 countries, including the USA, Italy, Germany, Spain, Colombia, the UK, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and the Netherlands. “We have chosen Vairoletto Foundation by Franco Darío Vico as the winning submission of the 2012 Faena Prize for the Arts edition. The proposal, whose freshness and defiance of convention we found interesting, is based on a little-known character from Argentinian history: ”Juan Bautista Bairolet–Vairoletto” a bandit operating in Santa Fe Province in the early twentieth century. He was described as the “Robin Hood of the Pampas” because of his solidarity with the poor and his anarchic attitude to official hierarchies and institutions. Our recognition of Vico’s work was prompted by the challenging of institutions as well as the artist’s rejection of the grand sculptural gesture supposedly called for by the FAC’s space. The choice was also informed by the way he turned the prize into a political funding reallocation exercise. We have selected a project that subverts the privileged position of the arts in contemporary society and expands, thoughtfully and in a spirit of celebration, the very definition of artistic practice,” said the Jury.A native of Santa Fe Province, Argentina, Franco Darío Vico will receive a total of $75,000. Of that sum, $25,000 will go to the artist himself, and the remaining $50,000 will be used to finance the project’s production. The final result will be exhibited at the Faena Arts Center in mid-2013.