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video installation / 2 channel / 17′ 12″ / 2005
Fri-Art – Centre d’Art Contemporain / Fribourg, Switzerland 2006
With the collaboration of: Andriana Meyer, Gino Batiston & Victor López
In 2003 and 2004, at the height of the economic crisis in Argentina, Victor López found that he could no longer survive as an actor. In that situation, he preferred living in the streets to engaging in other work. He placed himself on the edge, so to speak, of artistic action and in a situation of forced marginality. López intervenes in the city without any tool other than his own body. His action is transformed into his life, and his life is action itself.
[English] [Spanish] Statement below
Photography
Video stills
[English]
Deleuze proposes herd contagiousness as the prime principle of becoming-animal. A flux of rhizomes in the shape of intermediations and multiplicities bound by ties that are no longer those of kinship but rather of partnership. A second principle of Deleuze, however, seems to indicate the opposite: “where there is multiplicity, you will find an exceptional individual and it is with him that an alliance must be forged for becoming-animal. The exceptional individual has many possible positions in the group: sometimes he has a privileged rank, sometimes he is outside the group, yet sometimes he runs away and gets lost as an anonymous entity in the collective manifestations of the pack. In short, every animal has its anomalous counterpart.”
In 2003 and 2004, at the height of the economic crisis in Argentina, Victor López found that he could no longer survive as an actor. In that situation, he preferred living in the streets to engaging in other work. He placed himself on the edge, so to speak, of artistic action and in a situation of forced marginality. López intervenes in the city without any tool other than his own body. His action is transformed into his life, and his life is action itself.
This is a record, extending over several days and nights, of the relationships that López established in the street with persons who live there permanently, crowded places, bus stations, squares, squatter sites, soup kitchens for the poor, territories. López is the Deleuze’s anomalous counterpart, and it is through him that we have a contagious contact with heterogeneous zones. As a result, fluxes operate, rhizomes on the basis of which we gain access to the pack and the personal stories of its members: what these individuals say and do reveal subjectivities.
Drifting: The actor Víctor López is not performing in a representation: he totally eliminates the character and tries to reach the person that is in the process of being. He is performing his own drama. Action in close touch with context wipes out the boundary separating the artist from the public and transforms him into an involved social player. We suggest the twin metaphor of city and desert, a mythological chronotype of our contemporary world as an enlarged zone for art. Drifting is a creative act. The images of a subjective camera provide the spectator with a tour, a quasi kinetic experience that reproduces the meaning of drifting in action.
[Spanish]
Deleuze propone el contagio de manada como el primer principio del devenir animal. Devenir rizomático en forma de agenciamientos y multiplicidades en relación ya no de filiación sino de alianza. Un segundo principio deleuziano parece decir lo contrario: “allí donde hay multiplicidad, encontrareis un individuo excepcional, y con él es con quién habrá que hacer alianza para devenir animal. El individuo excepcional tiene muchas posiciones posibles en la banda: a veces tiene una posición privilegiada, otras fuera de ella, otras huye y se pierde anónimo en los enunciados colectivos de la banda. En resumen, todo animal tiene su anómal”.
Durante 2003 y 2004, en plena crisis económica argentina, Víctor López ya no puede subsistir como actor. Ante esta situación, prefiere vivir en la calle antes que realizar otras tareas. De este modo, se coloca a sí mismo en el borde de una acción artística y una obligada marginalidad interviene así en la ciudad sin otra herramienta que su propio cuerpo. Su acción de caminar se transforma en su vida y su vida es la acción misma.
Este es un registro de varios días y noches sobre las relaciones que López estableció en la calle con personas que permanentemente habitan en ella, en lugares de tránsito, terminales terrestres, plazas, lugares de okupas, comedores para indigentes, territorios. López es el anómal deleuziano por medio del cual entramos en contagio con zonas heterogéneas. En consecuencia se operan devenires, rizomas desde los cuales accedemos a la banda y a las historias personales de sus miembros: lo que estos individuos dicen y hacen revelan subjetividades.
La deriva: El actor Víctor López no se desenvuelve en una representación: elimina totalmente al personaje e intenta dar alcance a la persona que va siendo. Interpreta su propio drama. La acción en estrecha relación con el contexto borra la línea que separa al artista del público y lo convierte en un actor social implicado. Aqui Planteo el binomio ciudad-desierto, cronotipo mitológico de la contemporaneidad como zona ampliada del campo artístico. como dice Jodorovsky, La deriva es un acto creativo.