juanele interviews argentine artist gachi rosati

8/8/2019 Juanele Interviews Argentine Artist Gachi Rosati

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JUANELE INTERVIEWS GACHI ROSATIOCTOBER 15, 2010 CENTRO CULTURAL RECOLETA BUENOS AIRES
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At Centro Cultural Recoleta, Gachi Rosati spoke with us about her two current projects,both exhibited there under the title, Inventario de Pintor (Painters Inventory). Both ofthem employ pictures and words to reflect on the symbolic power of painting, its historyand its material conditions. Rosati also regards the practice of painting as enabling fo-cused contemplation and therefore as a way to acquire knowledge and to commit imagesto memory.

Her work employs this capacity via appropriative investigations. Sometimes, she tellsminimalistic stories about a specific object that has become something else: A symbol insomeones private life, but one that is also related to a whole world of taste and prefer-ences, public fetishes and social values.

In another, explicitly metalinguistic project, shes painted and reproduced pages takenfrom various handbooks about the discipline of painting itself. Subtle as can be, ren-dered with both respect and irony, the publishers of such educational materials probablynever imagined the resulting re-contextualization of this group of images.

Gachi is currently researching the possibilities of creating a trade union for visual art-

ists. In this ongoing work she has exhaustively investigated the professional status ofand the social role of artists in Argentina and around the world, their needs and claims,and also the necessities of the market and the pressures the market puts on artists.From the Spanish model, she has taken the idea of building a Rescue Plan (Plan de Res-cate) that deliberates the creation of social security, and a retirement plan, as well as thegranting of credits based on artistic production. Moving forward from real problems andactual needs, its still to be decided whether this project will become a piece of fiction orsomething more concrete.

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Gabriela Schevach: Ive heard that there isnt a visual artists trade union in the U.S.

Gachi Rosati: I dont specifically know about the U.S. When I started to get informationabout the different associations, I di the most research about Spain, more than anythingbecause of the language. It was easier for me. For instance, I got material from Hol-land and Canada, but it was complicated for me to familiarize myself with the codes. Infact, there was a word-relation between Spain and how their words sounded here that

seemed interesting to me. Perhaps, if I had to read in other languages, it would be harder[to make those connections]. Ive heard very little about the U.S. from friends living there.I think they dont need a union so much because they have many possibilites: There aremany residencies and companies that invest in artistic production.

Gabriela Schevach: Perhaps they are organized in a different way.

GR: I think so. In Spain, artists make demands for things a lot more advanced than whatwe can demand here [in Argentina]. But its good to think that a plan exists [there] andthat its a rescue plan [Plan de Rescate] that could work here.

Some of the organizations I am researching want to take measures like taking the budgetassigned to other organizations and giving it to visual artists. I dont think thats a goodidea. An example: Theyve suggested taking money from the historical heritage, consider-ing that historical museums were dated anachronisms and that maybe contemporary artdeserved more importance. I dont agree with such a decision.

I think that there has to be a budget for us, for contemporary art, but not taking it awayfrom anything else, which I consider equally important. Well, the first and foremost is

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organizing, to get in touch with members of the trade unions and with lawyers that knowabout the legislation that we would need in case we can obtain professional status. Forthe moment, Im doing, above all, research. But, as Im not a researcher, Im doing it morefrom the visual and linguistic aspects: That is, which words are employed, what the planconsists of when the organization is formed and which decisions are to be taken.

So, as I told you, I was fascinated by the idea of a professional status for the artist, arescue plan. These Spanish organizations have employment agencies, they have drawn amap where you can look at the artistic structures, the different organizations in the vari-ous areas. At the same time, there is a union of associations that explains which localand international companies are financing projects. So you can do a map -- something Ithink is necessary in Buenos Aires -- for all of Argentina.

We have a solidarity artists network that isnt open to everybody, but rather its built bya chain effect of oen artist who nominates someone else. This seems a very good plan tome, but perhaps it would be better to break the network down to something more...

Gabriela Schevach: ... so that you dont need to know someone to get in, that its acces-sible in more objective conditions. For me, the problem that we artists have is that in ourfield there are almost no objective values. I know you can say that everything is subjec-tive, above all in the symbolic production (in journalism too), but art plays with thoseedges. Anyway, in this subject, it would be good to have things clearly set out becausethey are related to basic needs.

GR: Yes, absolutely. Thats what we find hard to do. As artists, we have the advantage, in

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principle of assuming fictive roles many times and, in fact, we can play with them. Butwhen we need to get organized and go to reality, it looks like we cant make a difference.

I dont know why it doesnt work. But we are also a very small country in respect to thedevelopment of contemporary art. It must be for some reason or another that we have nomarket. Many existing galleries declare that they cant earn a living from contemporary

art.

Gabriela Schevach: Anyway, the trade union project, besides referring to several socialproblems, relates to the works youve been developing. This exhibition at Centro CulturalRecoleta, featuring other projects youve done, has to do with very strong material ques-tions, the objective conditions of painting. For instance, all these pieces in Sala 1 (Exhibi-tion Hall 1), relate to objects that become symbols when you paint them...

GR: Im interested in recovering the romantic figure [of the painter]. On the one hand, Iminterested in getting it back; on the other, when I examine it, I realize it isnt so romantic.

Sometimes its more important to laugh about it than to take it seriously.

I like to explore the History of Art and, not in order to criticize contemporary art... Howev-er, there are things Id like to recover, related to, for instance, the trade. If there is some-thing that I can identify myself with, its being a painter by trade. Because its somethingI do with my hands and things happen to me when I do it. And I dont feel comfortablewith the tag of contemporary art or conceptual or any of those tags. I can declare myselfas a painter, above all, because its a process of making. In that making, I feel very com-fortable.

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What I find interesting about painting, and that is perhaps why I do these art-historyrescues," is that painting is not just a trade, but its also a medium of reflection orthinking. I take painting as a means to know people better, to know the world better, I canreflect about it and, of course, painting is for now my channel, my medium.

In this exercise Ive done, I utilized a piece by Van Gogh. Its funny that now, in 2010, Imgoing back to Van Gogh! Im having fun with this backward movement," better-said

as, re-assessment." There is this piece: A pair of shoes (Paris, 1886). And [Martin] Hei-

degger discusses in a text how, extrapolating from an object belonging to a subject, youcan describe somebodys personality.

So I performed that exercise. At the time I wasnt very happy with what I was doing, Iwasnt producing, I wasnt connected to my artistic practice. So the first thing I did, at thattime, was to pick up a mask that I put on to sleep everyday. So I talked about the situationof sleeplessness and about insomnia, of not knowing what would happen before fallingasleep and the difficulties to surrender, to abandon myself to sleep.

After working for many months, Ive asked the same thing of many people I know, Iveasked them to do the same exercise, a bit of introspection -- I dont know, I havent ex-amined it yet. The last object Ive chosen was this painters handbook, where theres achromatic circle. In the last few months, Ive been working, somehow doing these eighty-four still lives with their respective stories, all of people I know. And this has been my lastobject. In a way, it has helped me to understand what was happening to me in the last sixmonths. I found that very appealing.

On the other hand, there is the white background, the shadow and a very direct discourse.

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Without metaphor. I wanted to go directly to the object and rescue, above all, the contem-plation of it. Ive quite a fetishist relation to objects, as if I hog them... This started when Iwas a little girl and I missed school, so I stayed the whole morning and afternoon sniffingaround, looking at my mothers cupboards and telling myself my familys stories, takingthe object as a kind of starting point for that.

I think that objects whisper a lot of stories. Thats where I wanted to go back to. The white

background builds a very direct relation. I believe that this project works in relation tothe narrations in this book done in the style of an inventory and the still-lives withoutbackground that have no context. This guitar can belong to a friend of mine called ElFlaco" or it can belong to anyone at all. The world may believe its an object that belongsto me. It can tell such a minimal story as Flacos" account, but it may tell the spectatorsor whomevers.

Gabriela Schevach: You dont have a purist relation to painting. Each of these images thatyou paint become meaningful in relation to a story. They are just an isolated fragmentthat refer to a little world that surrounds the object.

GR: Right, I believe I dont like to paint unless I know where Im heading to; I cant paintwithout thinking of an idea or something to tell. I dont create images or visual essayswithout knowing where they go. In general, they consist of intuitions at the service ofreflection.

In fact, the paintings dont have a background color. Ive been asked about that a greatdeal because they look like contemporary drawing. They dont have the doughy look orthe artists gestural thing. In fact, that doesnt interest me. It wants to be strongly realis-

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tic; though, at the same time, if you look closely, you realize that Im neither so obsessivenor so meticulous. Some gestures begin to appear, but they dont play the main part.

This project started from my need to paint and to look for an excuse to do that. Ive beena drawing teacher for the last six years and Ive found myself in a situation where certainschools suggested me to take contemporary art to the class, but I defended (certain tra-ditional practices). One of the exercises I do with the pupils is always successful: I make

them observe and draw the houseplant. I realize we cant let this idea go. It has to dowith contemplation and with starting to... Im fascinated to remember that the cave men,who believed that in the representation of mankinds hunting the ox, they believed thatbecause of this representation, the situation became a ritual. Im in love with such ideas.

On the other hand, on the other side of the exhibition hall, there are [paintings of] a Span-ish handbook from the Franco era with a very behaviorist, pedagogical approach, verytypical of those years, where the narration is very funny, but also very gloomy at timesfor being too direct. On the one hand, I read those things and I feel on the hinge." I reallyenjoy it, but no.

What I want to do with the trade union, with the painters inventory and with the hand-book of twenty-four practical suggestions for a painter is to recover the spirit of thepainters of a time in which taking out their easel and their paint box to the village or thehamlet was a fascinating moment.

Nowadays we visit these museums or galleries to view works and in reality we dontknow, in my opinion, the richest part that has to do with the artists workshop, how he/she has fun preparing the bag and the beer to take outdoors and which music he/she

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chooses to paint with and the whim of deciding that this is fascinating and I choosethis for painting because for me it tells a story." Or to give other people, who dont paint,the possibility that I do it for them, if they want. I am very much in love with the disciplineinherent in that. Thats also why I have the idea of the union. I want it to reflect on all this.

And a person I didnt know came the other day to the opening and told me: I like it be-cause you tell me your secrets." I hadnt realized that before, but Im really exposing my-

self: I depict myself dressed as a painter, well, in a context thats imaginary because Imnot from La Boca. Then theres also my studio, my objects, my painters handbook. WhatI like is that this work came about in a very honest way. I remembered the first exercisesyou do at school, where, if you say its art, its like opening a book that tells the story ofyour life: This is mom, this is dad, this is me and we are like this.

Gabriela Schevach: So all this also implies taking painting out of the white cube to statethat it isnt an isolated fact. On the other hand, the objects (that youve painted) are iso-lated, fetishized, they stand against a white, empty background. The way in which youdisplay it makes me think a series of things that underline the isolation very explicitly,

and I end up imagining the rest.

GR: I like to listen to you because I keep forgetting those parts. You plan the emptiness,which the spectator is going to complete afterwards. But then, when the exhibition isready, Ive forgotten those empty spaces, but I like them because they are the spaces thatdont let the work close in itself.

Actually, this Painters Inventory has been prepared for the little white cube of the OficinaProyectista. Thats an amazing gallery because you enter the building from the beginning

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of the 19th Century and you have to take a lift to the sixth floor, all full of offices and yourealize that all those people, lawyers, public notaries, etc. take their trades and profes-sions really seriously. Suddenly you enter this small room and see the Painters Inven-tory. In the room the size of a small office, the pictures didnt look like they do here. Thewalls, from bottom to top, are full and they seem to be falling on you. It has an envelopingeffect, more like an installation.

Here [at Centro Cultural Recoleta], its clear that, actually, these pictures dont work sepa-

rately, that they function as a whole and that, in fact the quantity is essential becausethey comprise eighty-four stories. Id like this to continue to grow and that the projectwork as a unity. And thats related to the idea that a minimal story is equivalent to an-other minimal story. Maybe that is, in turn, related to what you say; because Im not in-terested in the value of one painting, but in the value of a whole project, in which paintingis employed as a medium.

I like to observe things from that specific place: To re-invent and study them. Since Ivepainted my studio, I know it corner by corner, each detail of it. That fascinates me becauseI remember myself as a kid, when I bought picture cards and I was looking at them at thisdistance [very near]. I really looked at everything; I took great delight in the visuals.

Gabriela Schevach: And you must still remember those images because, when you dofocus on something in that way, it remains in your memory.

GR: Absolutely.

I go around my homes. I remember I walked around and around looking, watching. Now,

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some time ago, my parents house was sold and, in my head, I made a visual journeythroughout the whole house.

Some nights, in my head, I do it again so that I dont forget anything.

I really like that stuff.

Interview by Gabriela Schevach for JuanelePhotographs Gabriela Schevach and Gachi RosatiPaintings Gachi Rosati

Design by Rick Powell

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SHOES

NUMBER: 05SEX: FeminineAGE: 27

I bought them the day I arrived. At 25, with these shoes, my first time in New York City in seven days forthe first time...


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BOOK

NUMBER: 80SEX: FeminineAGE:29

Parramm gives me good advice to paint outdoors. I defend painting not just as a trade, but also as ameans of thinking. I am looking for people to found the First Union of Argentina Painters, if you are inter-ested, you can write to me at: [email protected].


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BINOCULARS

NUMBER: 75SEX: MasculineAGE:28

This object was given to me as a present by my friends for my last birthday, some months ago, so thatswhy it doesnt have so many looks yet. But other memories come to my mind: When I was teenager we


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were on holiday with my family. We were at the beach and we saw how a guy was looking through bin-oculars. The man, sculptural and wearing a slip, was looking at other peoples bodies, he was in a voy-euristic" disposition. I remember all my familys condemnatory attitude, of absolute disapproval. We wereindignant by his look, an insolent and provocative look mixed with his suspiciously gay appearance, alsocondemned by the whole family. They must still remember that episode.

Another incident with binoculars happened also during a trip, this time to Bariloche, only a month ago.My wife and I were in a boat full of tourists, going to the Victoria Island when we saw the most outstand-


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ing guy among the 250 passengers. He was a freak, sitting next to a window; he observed the landscapewith his binoculars. The guy looked mentally retarded, he was drooling a bit and at the same time waswhispering some incomprehensible thing to himself. Little by little we got closer and we cornered him.

We sat at his side and we greeted each other by moving our heads. The object was an absolute attractionand I couldnt stop myself from asking him to look through, which he accepted easily, but it was a mistake,he felt invaded, ill-treated and in a low voice he said I like to look at the mountain peaks." He ended thephrase and left his seat, excused himself and went to the 60 year-old women, that we felt phobic about...


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Afterward, we climbed to the boats terrace, expecting that he would also come up with the binoculars andlet us look at the peaks, as he had done before, but he didnt turn up. I end with a reflection from this trip:

Theres nothing worse than being denied the access to look through binoculars.


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juanele interviews argentine artist gachi rosati

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