Consumiendo contemporaneidad

If the contemporary is present, and the present is an instant, can the work be appreciated twice in the same way? Can two people be spectators in the same way of what they are seeing? If I frame what I see in a single image, is that image the work or just a fragment? Consuming contemporaneity forces the viewer to stand in front of the camera as a work to be appreciated in a present and unrepeatable way, as if we were talking about contemporary art.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

The work takes as inspiration the text “On Contemporary Art” (2013) by César Aira, where it is argued that contemporary art, in its desire to be irreproducible, is encapsulated in a present moment. Following this line, “Consuming contemporaneity” seeks to provide a unique experience in each execution by incorporating random elements. The music, for example, alternates between widely recognized pieces by Bach and less conventional ones by Lofium, a Lofi artist. In the same way, the actions and movements of the images vary, which introduces a dynamic of constant change.

The viewer also plays an active role in it, since they start the action with a simple click, while their image appears on the scene through the camera. This turns each interaction into a unique piece, since the actions in front of the camera are integrated spontaneously and difficult to replicate.

Finally, the work concludes with a black screen and a reflective text (also random) that seeks to generate questions in the viewer about what they have just seen. This conclusion becomes a subtle invitation to refresh the page in an impulse to try to relive the experience, even when you know that each repetition will be, in essence, different from the last.

Literature

AIRA, César. (2013). _“Sobre el arte contemporáneo” en Sobre el arte contemporáneo. Buenos Aires: Literatura Random House, pp. 576-590.