Marginal stardom
Parallel to the festive spirit of contemporary art cosplay displayed in a series of poster-like pictures, a discomfort appears that takes the form of shame, joke or hysterical giggle.
Thinking these images only as celebratory denies the power of the discomfort derived from the peripheral reappropriation of the artist / star that fluidly embodies the role of postmodern hero. This reappropriation not only serves as a demarcation of the way of being an artist there, where art has already been introduced “in the open circuits of the bank”, but it is useful to ask us about our Third World reality. To imitate the artist / star in our country, where the art market strives not to disappear, reveals the utopian fantasy of the myth of an artist who lives a life free of impositions, a company of himself, achieving success thus understood by the neoliberal spirit.
Embodying in itself the lumpen stardom, Luciana Ponte (who has been cultivating the field for years with her project lalulula.tv) explains the dematerialized existence of the artist turned profile, of the self become password. Inserted in the world of hyper-connectivity, the subject (mortals and artists alike), builds his identity by activating the aspirational gear, crystallizing in an “I am” that inhibits the field of experimentation and its possible derivatives. These portraits in key meme, although they represent a specific stereotype (sexy, intense, political, etc.), lend themselves to being destroyed by the joke, hacking, or at least ridiculing, the artist’s idea as a work.
Text: Sol Ganim
Thanks to the photographer: Gonzalo Maggi
And to the models:
Belén Romero Gunset as Marina Abramovic
Gabriel Chaile as Damien Hirst
Matias Ercole as Jeff Koons
Natacha Voliakovsky as Cicciolina
Luciana Ponte as Joseph Beuys
Laura Ojeda Bär as David Hockney
Lucas Ardu as Yayoi Kusama
Galería Big Sur
Carlos Calvo 637
November 2014.
Buenos Aires.
