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.

Franz Ackermann was born in Neumarkt St. Veit, Germany, in 1963. He studied art at the Akademie er Bildenden Kunste in Munich and Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in Hamburg. In 1991, he received the DAAD grant, which allowed him to make his first trip to Asia, settling for a year in Hong Kong. Traveling has become fundamental in his works, experimenting with practices inspired by situationist deviation and psychogeography *. He uses photographs and sketches done in pencil, ink and watercolor, taken during voyage, to make mental maps. They are not mimetic reproductions of the territory but instead a synthesis of the physical and mental world. From these, he elaborates vertiginous agglomerations of vibrant colors, which confront the viewer with a collapsed perspective of pictorial, geographical and architectural space. For Franz Ackermann, the voyage and the experiences that he lives through are part of the creative process.

* Psychogeography is a proposal of situationism in which one tries to understand the effects of geographical environment based upon emotions and people’s behavior. One of its best-known strategies, deviation, is an urban hike without specific direction, following the pulse time.

 In November 2012, Franz Ackermann will present his most recent work in Faena Arts Center’s Molinos Room: a 2800 sq. ft. site-specific, creating his biggest mural ever. To achieve it, he will travel to Buenos Aires, where he will photograph the city’s highlights, to create a new mental map. He will work during two months composing his mural, which will consist of 20 panels of painted wood, which will be subsequently assembled in the room.

Created to support the creative development of artists and researchers, through scholarship programs and residences.
 
LEA proposes the creation of specific projects to maintain an open, dynamic and inspiring dialogue with the different areas of the Faena Arts Center, building a cultural and artistic movement centered in the Faena District and the City of Buenos Aires.
 
This first edition, is led by Emiliano Miliyo, with the collaboration of Diego Bianchi and Ines Dahn. The artists participating in LEA 2012 are: Nicanor Araoz, Ernesto Ballesteros, Julian D’Angiolillo, Irina Kirchuk, Valentina Liernur, Lucrecia Lionti, Adriana Minoliti, Dudu Quintanilha, Luis Teran.
 
LEA makes available to participating artists, a working space for three months in which, through a prorama of experimentation and research they will be able to materialize an individual or collective project - which will be displayed in the Catedral Exhibition Hall of Faena Arts Center.

“I like it when the memory of what was seen remains unstable, like in dreams.”

Manuel Ameztoy was born in 1972 in Buenos Aires. His solo show, “The Sources of the Nile,” was shown at Alejandra von Hartz Fine Arts in Miami in 2009. His work is part of the permanent collections at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario in Argentina and the Molaa Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA.

Best known for his handmade cut-outs of tissue paper in large acrylic boxes, Manuel Ameztoy has established himself as one of the most prominent figures of the Buenos Aires contemporary art scene.