Inauguration: August 20th
Visiting hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Contrary to the popular expression of “give and take”, the exhibition proposes, from the perspective of art, an alternative economy to that of the traditional model so deeply rooted in our post-Fordist society. In a world driven primarily by social, emotional, and financial profit, "givers" appear as a strange species that helps and collaborates with others without expecting anything in return. Accordingly, the dynamic of “give and give” enables sustainable and long-lasting emotional bonds rather than short-term gains. Inspired by the possibilities of generosity in today's society, this exhibition aims to challenge the inflexibility of the prevailing neoliberal order by encouraging both dynamic flows and other frameworks from which to establish connections by making tangible gestures. Thus, several of the works in the exhibition result from the artists' commitments outside the art world. The artists who are part of Give and Give collectively connect geographically divergent economies and raise questions about their social, industrial, and emotional heritage within the framework of our global society. Charlotte Crevits and Tommy Simoens
Give and Give is a project selected from the Open Call 2020 and is presented at BIENALSUR 2021 with the support of the Ministerio de Turismo y Cultura, Secretaría de Cultura, of the San Juan Government.
Photograph: ©️ Onroerend Erfgoed
About the work "No bread no ashes" by Rirkrit Tiravanija Tiravanija is an Argentine-born Thai artist who lives between New York, Berlin and Chiang Mai and his work carries the tension of his nomadic life by combining different cultural contexts. Rather than insisting on a specific reality or truth, his work creates open contexts in which people reach their own conclusions. The strength of his work lies precisely in this ephemeral and elusive quality that escapes definitions: Tiravanija uses everyday materials in new settings to give the viewer a perspective, both banal and profound, on the fleeting nature of life. For this exhibition, the artist proposes to bring back to the surface one of the most significant works in the history of Argentine art: the performance "Construction of a popular oven to make bread" by the Argentine artist Víctor Grippo (1936-2002), held in the Roberto Arlt Square in the city of Buenos Aires in 1972 together with the artist Jorge Gamarra and with the collaboration of the rural worker A. Rossi. A performance that consisted of installing a rural practice in the heart of Buenos Aires to bake bread and distribute it among passers-by in an act of socializing food.
In San Juan, Tiravanija revives this work -which was censored and destroyed the same day it was carried out- as a tribute to Grippo, installing five rural ovens in different public spaces in that city. The ovens will be lit and used by San Juan bakers who will distribute the bread to the neighbors. In Grippo's words: “Bread, ashes, death… and life. Which of the two will manage to transform the other?" The first three ovens that are part of the play "No bread no ashes", by Tiravanija, will be located at the access to the Museum of Urban Memory, the Flea Fair and the entrance of the Bicentennial Theater. They will be put to work with a bake of bread once a week. The first one will be held on Sunday, August 22 at 11:30 a.m.
BIENALSUR / MPBAFR Video Program
Curatorial Work BIENALSUR - Florencia Battiti (ARG) with the collaboration of Violeta Böhmer (ARG)
BIENALSUR works in each of its editions from an extensive Open Call, free and international (without predetermined themes or formats or any other limitations such as trajectory, age or origin of those who participate). In 2020, we received more than 5,500 projects from artists and curators from more than 100 countries. It is from the Open Call that the curatorial axes emerge and which organize conceptually the different routes of each edition and the works that make up the exhibitions, actions and different presentations of BIENALSUR are selected throughout its vast cartography.
In this same way was the BIENALSUR Video Program also created, and presented at the auditorium of the Franklin Rawson Provincial Museum in San Juan with a special selection of works that will be screened within the framework of the Give and Give exhibition on Saturday 21 and on Sunday 22 of August (at 5pm), and thereafter on the third weekend of each month (at 6pm).
More information about the BIENALSUR Video Program at Franklin Rawson, program and functions dates: in this link
INGRÁVIDO, by Carlos Herrera (ARG)
October 2021 - March 2022
Associated exhibition
Within the framework of the BIENALSUR 2021 projects, Carlos Herrera and his work Ingrávido will be present at the Franklin Rawson Provincial Museum of Fine Arts. The experience to be carried out in the province of San Juan between the months of October 2021 and March 2022 involves territorial work, anthropological development, and the practice of linking with the craft materiality and the work of the local population.
The project includes an exhaustive fieldwork in the San Agustín de Valle Fértil area, with trips between the towns of La Majadita and Astica. The link with local producers, artisans, animal breeders and residents of the area will be the nutrient and meeting point with the reality of a region enriched with a dazzling nature. The collection of objects and elements from this context will be the central material for the construction of a sculptural work that will be located at the entrance of the Franklin Rawson Museum as a result of a collaborative and situated project. The human bond and the possibility of sharing with the inhabitants of the region are key to achieving this task. Nature, animals and the landscape will accompany this kind of memorabilia that the artist will reconfigure in his creative universe to express its desire.
There are those who like to imagine what will become of the world when much of what we know in the current stage of civilization (tools, languages, landscapes) gets reduced to ruins, remains and isolated pieces. When everything that is familiar to us, in some way, is a museum object. In this sense, Ingrávido plunges us into a kind of enigmatic collection of vanitas, where that moment seems to be happening at the present time.
