Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000 Page: 32
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finally, its appearance in Catia, Borges' natal neighborhood
in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1998.
Der Himmel Senkte Sich reads on many levels, with sev-
eral narratives running parallel to each other. I would be
discreet if I were asked to classify this piece in terms of
Modernist or Postmodernist, if painterly or sculptural. In
any case, what is important about it is the way in which text
and metatext overlap each other. The way in which the
story of the biblical flood is transported simultaneously
into the past and into the future; how the biblical narrative
runs parallel to Borges' own story and that of the spectator;
how time experienced by the spectator, as s/he walks from
room to room, becomes fictional time; how the spectator,
while reading and being read, alters the space with her
presence but also experiences space as matter, as delicate
relations between objects and canvases, between work and
presence; a presence that is engulfed in the particular
time/space relationship of the piece.
In September 1995, while visiting Jacobo, who at the
time was returning from teaching at the Internationale
Sommeracademiefiir Bildende Kunst in Salzburg, Austria, he
talked about his project for the next summer. The
Residenzgalerie Museum had proposed him an exhibit that
would be accommodated in eight of the gallery rooms.4
The work was to be based either on a topic relevant to the
city of Salzburg or on some work from the museum's col-
lection. Borges had chosen from the Museum's collection
the five paintings by Kaspar Memberger depicting the
story of Noah's Arc and The Flood, a work commissioned
by Salzburg Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Von Raitenau in
1582 and based on the four paintings by the Italian
Renaissance artist Jocopo Bassano.5
As we talked, I started to get involved in the project. I
began to prepare a scale model of the rooms allocated by
the museum according to their ground plan. Meanwhile,
Borges researched the flood story as it appeared in other
mythologies such as the Atra Hasis, Gilgamesh,
Amilavaca, the Nahuatl poetry, etc. Jacobo kept a sketch-
book where he recorded ideas about possible distribution of
the space, entrances and exits, runways and sequences. As I
completed the work on the scale model, we started to
research materials and forms relating to Jacobo's ideas. I
worked with him at transforming these ideas into materi-
als and spatial concepts. Soon, the scale model became too
small for our investigation and within a month, we were
working in natural scale. We worked large canvases and
figures, collected materials from the surrounding woods,
carved figures out of tree trunks, and molded others in
resin or fabric. The story of the flood turned out to be a
flood itself. Painted canvases hanging on walls, stairs, and
balconies invaded the house. The investigation opened like
an estuary, each ramification taking its material, form, and
space. We had already filled Jacobo's studios and the mate-
rials, collected and produced, piled everywhere in Jacobo's
habitat. Quickly we realized that presence is not pretense.
That in order to be there,'at the moment where it happens
to be,' the exhibition Jacobo was proposing, demanded itsown space. The first ark appeared.
On a flat piece of land carved on a side of the moun-
tain where Jacobo lives, with scaffolding pipes, clamps,politico, porque la l nea se cruza muchas veces haciendo
que la obra trascienda su propio espacio con un sentido de
presencia que pocos artistas logran. Explorar6 este hilo a
trav6s de la producci6n de Der Himmel Senkte Sich, tal
como fue primero creada en La Montafia, luego colocada
en Salzburgo, Austria, en 1996 y, finalmente, a trav6s de su
aparici6n en Catia en 1998, el barrio donde Borges naci6,
en Caracas, Venezuela.
Der Himmel Senkte Sich puede leerse en varios nive-
les y tiene narrativas paralelas que la atraviesan. Yo seria
discreto si me pidieran que clasificara esta pieza en t6rmi-
nos modernistas o posmodernistas, pict6ricos o escult6ri-
cos. En cualquier caso, lo importante es c6mo el texto y el
metatexto se sobreponen uno al otro; c6mo la historia
biblica del diluvio es transportada simultineamente entre
el pasado y el futuro; c6mo la narrativa biblica corre para-
lela a la de Borges y a la del espectador; c6mo el tiempo
del espectador, a medida que se desplaza de sala en sala,
se convierte en tiempo ficcionado; o c6mo el espectador,
mientras lee o es leido, altera el espacio con su presencia
a la vez que lo experimenta como materia o como deli-
cadas relaciones entre objetos y lienzos o entre obra y pres-
encia; presencia 6sta que queda sumergida en la particular
relaci6n espacio-tiempo de la pieza.
En septiembre de 1995, mientras visitaba a Jacobo
Borges --quien regresaba entonces de su trabajo pedag6gi-
co en el Internationale Sommeracademie for Bildende
Kunst de Salzburgo, Austria--, 61 me habl6 de su proyecto
para el pr6ximo verano. El Residenzgalerie Museum le
habia propuesto una exposici6n que seria montada en
ocho de los salones de la Galeria.4 El trabajo se basaria o
en un tema pertinente a la ciudad de Salzburgo o en una
obra o artista de la colecci6n del museo. Borges ya habia
escogido de esa colecci6n cinco pinturas de Kaspar
Memberger que representaban la historia del Arca de Noe
y el Diluvio, un trabajo comisionado en 1582 por el
Arzobispo de Salzburgo, Wolf Dietrich Von Raitenau, inspi-
rada en las cuatro pinturas sobre el mismo tema del rena-
centista italiano Jacopo Bassano.5
Mientras conversibamos, comenc6 a involucrarme en
el proyecto. Empec6 por preparar un modelo a escala
reducida de las salas designadas por el museo, de acuerdo
con el piano de planta. Paralelamente, Borges investigaba
la historia del diluvio, tal como aparecia en otras
mitologias como la Atra Hasis, Gilgamesh, Amilavaca, la
poesia Nhuatl, etc. Borges mantenia un libro de bocetos
donde documentaba ideas sobre posibles distribuciones
espaciales de proyecto, entradas, salidas, recorridos y
secuencias. Cuando complete el trabajo en la maqueta,
empezamos a investigar los materiales y formas en relaci6n
con las ideas de Borges, y trabaj6 con 61 para traducir estas
ideas a conceptos materiales y espaciales. Rpidamente la
maqueta se nos hizo pequefia para seguir la investigaci6n,
y antes del mes, ya estbamos trabajando a escala natural.
Elaboramos grandes lienzos y figuras, recogimos mate-
riales de los bosques circundantes, tallamos figuras en tron-
cos de ,rboles, y moldeamos otras con resina o telas enco-ladas. La historia del diluvio se convirti6 en una verdadera
inundaci6n. Telas pintadas se colgaron en las paredes,
escaleras y balcones, invadiendo toda la casa. La investi-32 I ARTL!ES Fall 2000
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Angelini, Surpik & Hernández, Abdel. Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000, periodical, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228058/m1/34/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .