I would like for you to explain to me
because I don't remember
how this exhibit came about.
I think your memory is more lucid than mine let me see
I don't know about lucid
but I can tell you that I think it began
two years ago that I wrote and spoke anonymously with the foundation
interested in installing a retrospective of your work
and following this they came, your daughter Antonia
came and saw the space at the Neuberger Museum
where we normally have the permanent collection
and she thought the space was interesting
In fact six months
after this which was about a year and a half ago
i went to go meet with you at Art Basel
and we had a conversation,
and you told me that the idea of a retrospective was not
as striking as doing something new.
A retrospective is always looking back retrospectively
and that idea of creating something
and working with students,
it seems to me caught your attention
And you were telling me also that you were in a period of your life
where you felt like giving back which I thought is interesting
because this is a university,
and we kept brainstorming
And later when
I selected the artworks for the retrospective
that presents 30 years
of your career,
after seeing your painting Ellas and
the other painting called El Rincon del Pintor
where there's a self-representation and an image
of a painter painting inside a square space,
it occurred to me it would be absolutely great
to have inside the same gallery,
not as something separate from,
or not as as a definitive project that you're going to make a set number of paintings,
instead it would be better to make something open
and to create a studio inside the gallery.
Then finally we decided
on cardboard because I knew you liked cardboard,
then I discussed it with you and I thought it was an interesting idea,
and if the visitor looks around
they can see that in two weeks
you have completely transformed the space.
I actually have a question for you
Wait let me say something,
because now that you're telling me this what I feel is that
within this exhibit, this space is one more painting.
You are introducing yourself into
into the painting.
This reminds me of a Van Gogh movie where someone enters
into a painting
and this is like putting yourself into a painting
but also putting yourself in a cardboard box.
I think you had a brilliant idea
which also opens up for me
a lot of opportunities to continue thinking about something like this.
So now ask me what it is that you were going to ask.
No but maybe I would say yes
we are entering into a painting
but also into an aesthetic space
in progress
something organic,
as opposed to a painting which is finished and you already know,
although your works are very theatrical
and there are a lot of characters that enter and come out
and also when the work is finished, they're there.
But ever since you started working here
everyday there's something new that appears,
it's like a type of
organic space
and what I also like is
that I still discover, as I'm looking now,
that there's no goal of finishing something.
It feels like it could continue
infinitely,
there are moments when you do something
and you feel it's not the right thing so you take that part away
and you add something else,
so the visitor has the opportunity
to enter during your art process
and in your space and your work
and inside your aesthetic investigation,
and this is what is most fascinating.
No, yeah you're right,
I was mistaken
No, you didn't make a mistake
No, yeah you're right it's a lot clearer what you're saying because
it's something that's alive,
let's say it's a living painting which is permanently changing.
But there must be other things too, but I don't know
The fact that
I can open my intimate space, my own intimate space and exhibit it,
i don't know if it's something that
in other times I would not have been able to do that,
show myself off as if I were at home.
Of course
That is the experience
And how does it feel
with the visitors that arrive
inadvertently
and classes that pass through,
how do you feel about this relationship
and how does it affect your work?
The first sensation has to do a lot with those peeking characters
Those people that look in like this, which I paint
because everyone who comes to visit, they first poke their heads in
and then they enter silently,
and then I go like this and then they step in slowly
and start getting
a little more comfortable
and it's a little slow, I think
the person that's more likely to be intimidated
is the person that comes in, more than myself.
I don't get very intimidated
because they are coming into my house
so from there we generate a calm dialogue,
because you need to take into consideration that people come in
with a predisposition,
with an open heart.
It's a space where you find students,
people that visit with an intention,
they come with an open heart so,
they don't come to fight and argue.
This is not that kind of space,
it's a meeting place, specially with the students
which is what matters,
they come again.
And the students come from different academic departments,
because there is an Art school
but there is also a Humanities and Science Department,
so there are literature students
and dance students,
and I think
they all benefit from your work
because your work has many dimensions,
the theatrical dimension which as a matter of fact
we have shown in the catalog,
and the choice to use the texts of
a very important Argentine writer, which I think you did not know before,
or perhaps you had heard of him but,
that to me was like a preamble to
this interdisciplinary idea
which is represented by the students that come and visit
so I wanted to ask you
returning to the topic of Sergio Chefjec,
what did you think of the novel,
or rather unordinary idea
of asking someone
who is in the field of fiction or literature
to write
the short stories,
rather than having academic essays analyzing your work,
What did you think of this?
Well, this has to be one of the most complete exhibits which I have had
and also most surprising,
this has been a surprise,
to see Sergio's stories,
not only novel,
but also that opens doors for me and which I love…
the fact that Sergio would write about my work is
it had never happened to me, or rather I had never recognized or understood
that this could be a form of critical analysis of my work
because sometimes that word "critical" can be seen as…
it's a strange word…
The position from which the analysis is made,
it can be problematic
Sure, but there is also a subjective part of how he sees me,
so the critical analysis stems from how you are seen…
but also the ways he says it is also interesting
that he says it through a story,
and to choose that writer that you chose,
to me has a poetic sense, and a gaze that to me,
it made me see myself in a different way,
it was surprising and also, there are some he wrote,
Like the story about Saratoga Springs
made me laugh,
he plays with all the elements that my work encompasses,
with serious elements, with poetic and playful elements,
I thought it was a great decision,
and which should be replicated elsewhere,
because it invites other people
to see the artwork in the way that Sergio sees it,
but at the same time he shows them to look at a work of art,
because each has a story,
and which although it may be a static image,
that image can produce in itself a form of animation,
an animation which can be almost cinematic,
because it will be in movement which is created by your own imagination
And the idea should be to invite the spectator to go further and not just stay with Sergio's story
but rather look,
and it helps to understand and it is very didactic in that
it shows the viewer to learn to look at an artwork
with their own personal narrative
and to not be waiting for someone to tell them how to look at it…
yes I think it was a phenomenal idea.
And to use an art history term,
its not an "Exphrasis",
it is not a textual reading of the works that Sergio explores,
but rather this avenue offers us the possibility
to play and to interpret freely,
because your works have that, they are poly semantic,
they have many doors of entry,
and this is why I think fiction
here plays so effectively with your works,
because it has that freedom
which sometimes an academic essay lacks,
because an academic analysis
has to speak from a specific canon,
and has to make a reading whether it be iconographic,
or sociological,
it always has to come from a specific perspective
in which there exists criteria, norms or concepts,
and Roland Bathes, I mention this in the introduction,
he explains that
the writer has a liberty which the historian does not have,
because he has that free praxis,
and this is why Sergio Chefjec's work
has that potential to open these interpretational horizons.
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