Transformation and Synthesis

How can I create a work that insists on not being photographed? It is a question that arose from reading a text by César Aira: On contemporary art (2010).

Aira (2010) talks about reproduction in works of art: “The work of art always implied its own reproduction” (p. 2). However, this statement simplifies the work to “something that can be reproduced”, but I feel that many more aspects come into play in the work than just reproduction, such as perception and memory.

You could say that photography is a “perfect” example of reproduction, and I think no one could deny it. However, by the same token, memory or perception cannot be photographed; You can’t photograph a concept. It’s not enough. From this lack arises a kind of race between “the work and the technical possibility of its reproduction” (Aira, 2010, p. 2). It is a race in a straight line, forward, where work and reproduction are side by side. However, it seems that the work is always one step ahead, if it wants to be considered a “work of art.” Due to the perfectionism of reproduction techniques, such as photography, the artist has the task of ensuring that in his work there is something that escapes that “perfect technique”.

I find it interesting to think a little about the reason that leads us to perfect the techniques or mechanisms so much. Why do we tend to go towards something that is so far from who we are as people? We are imperfect beings. No matter how many times we press the space bar we want, we do not achieve a perfect image, because there is always something above it that reminds us. This lack, a concept highly developed in various areas such as psychology, ends up generating a different story than the one the work can tell.

In the desire to tell these stories through a text that accompanies the work, one ends up distancing one from the other and a third space is generated, which is the conjunction of the work and the text. This space takes elements from both the work and the text, elements that are unique and, at the same time, are the lack of the other; something that perhaps we should consider more as humans.

Then a question arises: When is it a work and when is it a reproduction? It seems difficult to differentiate. It seems prudent to bring a quote from Aira: “Perhaps the work of art was always that, an entity of precarious or ambiguous existence, suspended between before and after, subservient to a script that hides its beauty and charm like a secret” (Aira, 2010, p. 3). This ambiguous concept was one of the pillars on which I based the work, and without realizing it, it crossed me in a profound way.

Today there is no room for ambiguity; everything is 0 and 1, black or white, left or right. But perhaps we should think about whether the human being is not ambiguous. Clearly it is. People are full of imperfections, and it is precisely these imperfections that make us irreproducible and unique. So why are we going in a direction in which perfection is sought in something that is not? I see it as something inhumane. For this, art worked and works as a reminder that what is incomplete, imperfect and irreproducible is part of what is human.

Up to this point you could say that we have been talking about “art” more generally. But I would like to delve a little into “contemporary art.” By adding the word “contemporary” we are somehow suppressing time to just one, the present. How do we reproduce the present?

Contemporary art, by detaching itself from time, leaves us with an interesting concept: that of “the undone.” The work itself could be considered done, but if it is considered done, it would remain in the past, locked in eternal time. “But what is done continues and will continue to be the necessary support for what is not done, which is lodged in its material like a secret story. Literature, or literature as I understand and practice it, could be the silver bridge laid between what is done and what is not done, which establish a mysterious and suggestive asymmetry between them” (Aira, 2010, p. 5). The concept of “what is not done” in art responds almost immediately to what is done, but what is “done” still has a lack, something that was not done, and I think that is where the fun lies: thinking about what we do not do in order to do something. Or maybe how hard we go to get something done, who knows.

I would also like to talk a little about the technical aspects of “contemporary arts”. It could be said that, traditionally, the technique needed to be perfected in order to create a “sufficient” work. Today it is not like that. The technical took a backseat due to the expansion and easy access to information, something that in the past was for a few, and today is for large numbers. However, because “contemporary arts” are contemporary, it is difficult to sit still on the technical; It is always constantly changing, and if one does not adapt to the changes, one should reconsider whether it is “contemporary art.”

To finish, I would like to do a brief review of everything I experienced when making this work. At first, I came across a concept that has been mentioned lately: freedom. I was given the freedom to do whatever I wanted. What a complicated task. I had nowhere to go. Contrary to what one might think, limitations, such as a slogan, end up helping. But, faced with this situation, I had no choice but to search in a place that perhaps I would not have thought of at first: to search within myself for something to pull from. In that great sensitive adventure, one can meet another person whom one did not know very well, but who was somehow there, waiting, like a painting or sculpture in a museum, living in the past and future at the same time.

That “person” that we all have inside likes to go out from time to time, in different ways and by various means. I consider art to be one of them. With this work I was able to discover a little of that person that I have inside, someone who will accompany me for the rest of my life, just like this work. For this reason, I would like to be able to convey the idea that the question leads to places that perhaps we did not know existed. Places that may be interesting to reach and to do so you have to go through a process.

Now I have to thank you for giving me your time, either to read this or to press all the keys on the keyboard in search of some action. I hope I have been able to provide space for reflection, both for you and for me.

Thank you so much.

References

Aira, C. (2010). About contemporary art. [Editorial Grijalbo-Mondadori].