Mil Veces

In times when everyone wants a work that can be read only once, I prefer one that can be interpreted a thousand times.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

César Aira and Diana Taylor touch on several points in relation to contemporary art and performance, which have led me to reflect on the work under the character of an “incomplete work” in contrast to the endless amount of products that have no other purpose than to become servile to mass consumption and lacking soul.

Cesar Aira explores the idea of ​​ambiguity in art, where the work does not have a single interpretation, but is susceptible to being reinterpreted again and again, in contrast to the logic of immediate consumption and definitive answers that today’s society tends to seek.

In turn, Diana Taylor mentions the radically unstable character of performance, which can support systems of power as well as subvert them depending on who manages them.

Nowadays and, above all, in the digital world, capitalist logic seems to pull the strings and invites us to the immediate consumption of almost any type of product. It asks us for speed, the work must reach the consumer already finished and offering answers, providing clear and concise conclusions, in order to be soon discarded and move on to the next, thus generating repetitive and meaningless content. This goes against the very character of the work, since it does not have to be limited only to giving answers, on the contrary, it is an invitation to conversation and the emergence of new interpretations.

I like to think of the work as incomplete, since in the open work, in the unfinished work, space arises for thought, debate and new knowledge and space opens up for spectators who become an essential part of the process with a contemplative gaze.

“A thousand times” thus becomes a gift that today I give to myself and share with others, from my context and my reality. And I invite those who wish to be part of it, I hope that from their experiences and current realities they can contribute new interpretations, different meanings, different “endings” or manage to open doors to new worlds.

Literature

• TAYLOR, Diana. (2012). “Los nuevos usos de performance” en Performance. Buenos Aires: Asunto Impreso, pp. 88-110.

• AIRA, César. ([2013], 2016). “Sobre el arte contemporáneo” en Sobre el arte contemporáneo. Buenos Aires: Literatura Random House, pp. 11-56. (DAA: 1: 02m).