03.10 — 07.02.2017
Curator: Mariano Mayer
Gallery 1, Level -1
The bulk of the work produced by Gastón Pérsico (Buenos Aires, 1972) consists of assemblage sculptures, publications, and installations; his art constitutes a setting where an array of his personal interests comes together. In keeping with that spirit, the exhibition project La música es mi casa revolves around the themes of coexistence and sound experience as it encompasses a range of disciplines (the visual arts, poetry, music, and graphic design).
Those elements act as indexes that at once interrogate and facilitate recognition of the situations and things that enable sound experience. A space born of a synthesis of languages, this exhibition makes reference to different situations where it is possible to reflect on perceptive experience. The proposal attempts to formulate unlikely relationships that give shape to different layers of meaning and experience. Awareness that “in any perception, the body is present; it is there, being affected by another body” is key to displacing the viewer from the position of reader of signs to a subjective position to which the body is central.
The central piece, the one for which the project is named, consists of an audio recording in which two actors (a female voice and a male voice) recite the lyrics of a house music set translated into Spanish and reproduced without the music. The work is an exercise in translation between media that crosses references between discotheques and concrete poetry, between the body and its absence and language. The voices make themselves heard throughout an exhibition space that also houses different sculptures made by deconstructing an array of architectural environments and materials used in domestic furniture, discotheques, practice rooms, and concerts
Due to its very nature, La música es mi casa engages different disciplines, sources, references, and quotes to form a conversation. It operates, then, as an open space in which guest artists are invited to intervene.
Gastón Pérsico
(Buenos Aires, 1972) He graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “Rogelio Yrutia” in 1989 and, in 1997, he received a degree in graphic design from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). He was selected to participate in the Programa de Talleres para las Artes Visuales Rojas UBA/Kuitca (2003-2005) and the Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas(CIA) Programa 2010. He formed part of the Suscripción collective (1999-2005). In 2006, he was awarded second prize at Premio arteBA-Petrobras for his Heavy Mental Records. That same year, he began publishing Script (Madrid-Buenos Aires) with Cecilia Szalkowicz and Mariano Mayer. From that platform, the project Foreword Cubista was exhibited at Espacio Abisal, Bilbao in 2010. In conjunction with Cecilia Szalkowicz, he participated in the CIFO Grant Program 2007, Cisneros Fontanals Art Fondation (Miami). Together, they created Copy-Paste: AutoZine in 2009 for the second edition of the San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial: Latin America and the Caribbean. In conjunction with Roman Schramm, Cecilia Szalkowicz, and Hella Gerlach, he created the Reunión project (Buenos Aires – Berlin) in 2010.Solo shows of his work have been held at Nora Fisch Arte Contemporáneo, CCEBA, Instituto Goethe, Belleza y Felicidad, Fotogalería del Centro Cultural Rojas, Mite Galería, Vasari (Buenos Aires). His work has been featured in group shows at macro (Rosario); the Museo de Arte Moderno (Mendoza); the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Bahía Blanca); Parque de la Memoria, Fundación Proa, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Alianza Francesa, Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Buenos Aires); MAC Niteroi (Rio de Janeiro); Blanca Soto Arte, Casa Encendida (Madrid); Traschi Gallery (Santiago, Chile), Printed Matter, (New York), and other venues.
Inaugural Conference
Gastón Pérsico in conversation with Agustín Pérez Rubio and Mariano Mayer
Thursday, March 9 at 6:00 p.m.
Gallery 1. Level -1
Featuring
Just as hip-hop and pop culture in general use the label “featuring” to indicate the participation of special guests in their projects, La música es mi casa features a series of activities and interventions by guest artists. Each participation establishes a dialogue and interaction with specific aspects of the work.
Program
May 17th, 12–9 PM
Featuring David Lamelas
Installation of the work Límite de una proyección (1967)
May 31st, 6:00PM and 8:00PM
Featuring Lucio Capece, RX22
Sound installation
June 3rd, 7PM
Featuring Pablo Schanton
Performatic conference
June 7th, 12–9 PM
Featuring Djs Pareja, La música es mi casa (Djs Pareja Remix)
Sound installation
June 14th, 12–9 PM
Featuring Miguel Mitlag
Installation
The cycle Featuring is part of the BP.17 program.
Publications
Two printed publications accompany the exhibition. Conceived as constituent works of La music es mi casa, these books allow for the incorporation of other communicative experiences and moments of perception, extending the time and space of the exhibition.
The book La música es mi casa, based on translations of house music lyrics included in the sound work of the same name, is presented as a book of poems that explores the visual possibility of rhythm and musicality in the repetition of the printed word.
The book Featuring, meanwhile, offers a series of readings and approaches to the different themes addressed in the work. Written especially for this publication, the texts by Mariano Mayer, Pablo Schanton, María Salgado, and Marina Zuccon reflect on music, poetry, architecture, and sound, forms of perception, disco culture, and sound communication, among other topics. Also included is the text of a lecture by Yves Bonnefoy on Mallarmé and music, selected by the artist as a reading that complements and expands on the proposal of this work.
Press Images
Permission to reproduce the images is granted solely for publication alongside press releases, reports, and reviews of the exhibition Gastón Pérsico. Music Is My Home, which will be on display at MALBA from March 10 to July 2, 2017. Request a username and password to download the images, along with an explanation of the medium in which they will be published, at prensa@malba.org.ar.
