Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000 Page: 43
112 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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ings held together by magnets, a fabricated artifice. This is
true of any work: despite its apparent solidity it is always
at the same time a hybrid composite in formation. It goes
on making itself with respect to the list of possible affects
of each material used. A given list will demand certain
materials, which Tunga artificially incorporates or selects
from the environment in which the work is made. In those
spurious couplings new works are made ad infinitum.
There is, however, a permanent virtual work actualized in
the unpredictable contours forming each of the works in
their actuality.
If there is a mystery in this work it lies in the work's
impassable virtuality, from which becomings always await
us, the very mystery of life as creative energy. It is not a
question here of representing life: simple representations,
however original, tend to be inoffensive. It is rather a ques-
tion of submitting life to experimentation. That is what is
strange about this work: there is an undeniable ethical force
which, if we let it, tears us from sameness and launches us
into process, an ethical force that affirms life's transfigura-
tive strength.
There is a famous phrase of Mario Pedrosa's which has
resonated for several decades, in which he defines art as "an
experimental exercise in liberty."35 This statement, made in
relation to the neo-concretists Lygia Clark and H6lio
Oiticica, could trace a line that links them to their prede-
cessors in the anthropophagic movement and to countless
contemporaries-some of their own generation, especially
Glauber Rocha in film; others of the following generation,
for example Julio Bressane, also in film, and the poet-com-
posers of Tropicalismo, with their incredibly refined pop
music. Tropicalismo was born under the sign of this link, a
"neo-anthropophagy," according to Caetano Veloso.36 Each
of the creators in this lineage incorporates the "banal" in his
own way, affirming an inventive and exuberant aesthetic
that impregnates daily life in Brazil and that has never been
inscribed in the official system of culture. They not only
bring this aesthetic to the artistic scene, but mix it in with
the most experimental and sophisticated erudite references
from the so-called hegemonic centers. But this line of the
"experimental exercise in liberty" does not end with these
artists: it continues to re-actualize itself, extending to and
linking yet other works in the present. The presence of this
lineage in Tunga's work is clear; he was schooled in the cul-
tural effervesence of 60s Brazil, combined with the revolu-
tionary Chile of Allende (where he was initiated into the
Latin-American neo-Baroque), and a Paris still contami-
nated by May '68. A singular formula for reactivating this
anthropophagic/neo-concrete/tropicalist mark of Brazilian
culture is articulated in this artist's entire work.
Culture in Brazil thus evolves through alliances,
devouring and contamination, not through linear filiation,
which contradicts certain psychoanalytic interpretations
that, by uncritically borrowing the European model of sub-
jectivity as a standard, insist on the idea that Brazilians lack
a solid filiation, a qualified founding father.37 The map of
these alliances and contagions is an infinite rhizome thatchanges its nature and course according to the inter-breed-
ings that take place in the great factory of our anthro-
pophagic culture. One image of that rhizome could be theengendradas en la agitaci6n invisible de sus amalgamas,
cuyas direcciones, crecimientos y ritmos son impredeci-
bles, como un rizoma que sigue su curso sin control. Esta
es la dinamica y cronogendtica condici6n de la obra, mis
perceptible en las instauraciones, como suele Ilamarle el
artista: por definici6n, instaurar es recrear de nuevo a trav6s
de un m6todo por medio del cual el artista produce "las
nupcias contra natura,"32 donde el reino humano, animal o
mineral copulan o se devoran entre ellos, generando mun-
dos y seres iLnicos, nunca vistos. El mismo m6todo repeti-
do en otro contexto genera ain otros mundos, otros seres,
siempre inicos.
Lo que logra Tunga es la virtualizaci6n del arte. Esta es
quizas la Ilave de su formula. La obra no es s6lo lo asimil-
able a trav6s del espejo-ojo. Recudrdense los Tacapes
(Clubes), que han aparecido frecuentemente desde 1986,
recurriendo en las innumerables versiones de los
Lagarte/Lagartos/Lesarte,33 y que ahora retornan en esta
exposici6n: lo que es aparentemente mis s61lido y mis
primitivo se ve como un agregado de pequefios monticulos
de limaduras de hierro unidos por imanes, un artificio fab-
ricado. Esto mismo se puede comprobar con cualquier otro
trabajo. A pesar de su aparente solidez, simultineamente la
obra siempre es un compuesto hibrido en gestaci6n. Sigue
form~ndose segtn una lista de posibles efectos de cada
materia empleada. Una determinada lista exigir, ciertos
materiales, que Tunga incorporard artificialmente o que
seleccionar, dentro del ambiente en el cual se hace la
obra. En esos acoplamientos ilegitimos surgen nuevas obras
ad-infinitum. Sin embargo, una obra virtual permanente se
actualiza en el fuero de los contornos impredecibles que
delinean cada una de las obras en su realidad inmediata.
Si existe un misterio en esta obra, esta en esa virtuali-
dad impenetrable, donde el devenir siempre nos espera; es
el misterio mismo de la vida como energia creadora. Ya no
se trata del problema de representar la vida: una simple
representaci6n, por m~s original que sea, tiende a ser
inofensiva. Mas bien se trata de someter la vida a la exper-
imentaci6n. Eso es lo m~is extrafio de esta obra, pues tiene
una fuerza 6tica innegable, que si la liberamos, nos arran-
ca de la semejanza y nos lanza en un proceso, donde una
fuerza 6tica afirma la fuerza transfigurativa de la vida.
En una frase famosa de Mario Pedrosa que reson6 por
varias d6cadas, 61 definia el arte como "el ejercicio exper-
imental de libertad."34 Esta declaraci6n, que alude a los
neoconcretistas Lygia Clark y Helio Oiticica, podria trazar
una linea que los asocia a sus predecesores en el
movimiento antropofigico y a innumerables contempor,-
neos, algunos de la misma generaci6n, especialmente al
cineasta Glauber Rocha, y a otros de la siguiente gen-
eraci6n, como por ejemplo el tambidn cineasta Julio
Bressane y los poetas-compositores del tropicalismo con su
incredible y refinada misica pop. El tropicalismo naci6 bajo
el signo de esta conjunci6n, un "neo-antropofagismo,"
segin Caetano Veloso.35 Cada uno de los creadores de este
linaje incorpora "lo banal" a su manera, afirmando una
est6tica inventiva y exuberante que impregna la vida diariaen Brasil y que nunca se ha inscrito en el sistema oficial de
la cultura. Ellos no s61lo aportaron esta est6tica a la escena
artistica, sino que la mezclaron con las referencias msARTL!ES Fall 2000 43
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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/m1/45/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .