An emotional territory, displayed at home

No matter how hard you try to write a text, to understand this exhibition, you need to visit it, explore it, linger over each card, each possible scan of a code that opens up a series of definitions about each participant in this large collective to the visitor's knowledge. That said, it is essential to state some facts that give substance to a collection that occupies one floor of the Casa Nacional del Bicentenario on Riobamba Street, plus another floor with the so-called In Situ Prize. Two floors that condense 200 paintings, sculptures, installations, textiles, drawings, ceramics, and photographs by 120 artists from Buenos Aires, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, Catamarca, Entre Ríos, Jujuy, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Salta, Santa Fe, and Tucumán.

A House. The House. The Domestic Becomes Territories is the first public exhibition of works from the Abel Guaglianone and Joaquín Rodríguez Collection , open until mid-July. Curated by Analía Solomonoff , who directed the Rosa Galisteo de Rodríguez Provincial Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, her vision was instrumental in guiding the selection of a collection of Argentine federal art . As stated at the opening, this is the first collectors' show with such a breadth of territories, visions, materials, and personal gestures that can be brought together in a single exhibition.

To emphasize this shift from domestic to public space , the same color—a deep gray—was chosen as the walls of the collectors' home, a large space filled with hanging works. This interest began 25 years ago, focusing on modern abstract art.

Successive trips throughout the country, following the proliferation of new art fairs , from those with more tradition such as MAC (Córdoba), to fairs such as ArteCo (Corrientes), FAS (Salta), MicroFeria de Arte (Rosario), a.362 (Chaco), or Plateada (La Plata), gave rise to exchanges where that desire to collect ran into what Joaquín and Abel call "connectionism." This neologism allows us to decant that each of these pieces that are now in the room was part of an exchange of ideas , conversations and new ways of understanding the possible connections that exist in art.

On one side, the artist and his poetic universe, mediated by those who interact as sellers and buyers, on the other. Uniting these worlds, recognizing their possibilities, and connecting them to a stage of the artist's professionalization , wherever he lives, is a value that makes this art-filled house, now on public view, so interesting.

The other value is that it is not a monotonous journey; each materiality has some part of the territorial roots from which it was conceived. As the curator noted in the presentation, "there was no curatorial cutoff that had to do with sensitive thought." The goal was to ensure that "all these voices were represented to find a narrative that allows us to find solid ground with a perspective that proposes three moments: abstractions, natures, and bodies."

However, it doesn't lead to a geographical journey; rather, it connects the sensibilities of different people who explore reinterpretations of their traditions , territories, iconic images of their land, and the history of Western art from different perspectives. Solomonoff left another key in the curatorial text: "the exhibition is an emotional geography," since it not only involves different residential spaces but also many moments of humor, which is another key to A House. The House .

"I think this exhibition, in a way, suggests returning to contemplation, encouraging it. A work of art catches your attention, makes you stay, makes you ask who the artist is, why that work," Joaquín reflected at the opening.

Rodrigo Shiavoni , a Cordoba artist, uses compacted earth on paper in Y “leads living and leads dead”; Carlos Garnica , from La Plata, places the word “Art” in a work in pen on cardboard; Gustavo Nieto, from Tucumán, states in another work: “I renounced the need to convince others”; “Dissolution of Contemplation” suggests an oil on canvas by Edgar Murillo , from Jujuy.

Romina Postigo from Salta uses the “I am” on a dense canvas that also includes the clarification “as your soul feels it”; Mónica Rojas paints lush nature, expressing an idea of ​​paradise; Mariana Casas from La Rioja reinterprets ceramics by creating a colorful totem pole; Leonel Collazo from Santa Fe uses bisque ceramics in “Monumento al Aguará Guazú”; Gaspar Núñez from Tucumán, on the other hand, deforms the gesture of a head in a chrome-plated plaster cast obtained from a flexible mold.

From a respect for a landscape tradition, as in the work of Daniel Fite from Buenos Aires, to a festive representation of nature marked by the river in César Bernardi's "El Noya." From an interplay of traditions in Alberto Ybarra from Corrientes, where a pseudo-Poseidon embraces an alligator, to a reference by British artist Tracey Emin , ranging from "All the People I've Slept With" in the work of Manuel Molina from Córdoba, to "All the Ideas I've Slept With."

A work by Salta native Clara Johnston that bears the word "In Situ" inscribed on it gave rise to the project of the same name, which has been running since 2022. It is an award to fund artistic projects from all over the country, excluding Buenos Aires City. On the third floor of the Casa, you can see, as Joaquín explained, "41 winners from different editions of the award, including 27 individual artists, 14 collective projects, and one curatorial project."

Some videos explain the projects of the Relatos Visuales collective in Misiones; or the Chorizo ​​gallery in Resistencia, Chaco, in addition to the Proyecto Púrpura in Santa Fe. The Proyecto Calle (Street Project), a collective that provides cameras to homeless people so they can record their surroundings, and the Proyecto Espuma (Foam Project ) by Rosario native Nicolás Biolatto, who recycles cooking oil to produce soaps using molds inspired by the city's fountains and monuments, have created new opportunities for those they target.

The Buenos Aires Gallery Network and Espacio Barraco in Rosario also foster dialogue between art and community, promoting inclusion and reflection. Eugenio Martínez , a Wichí artist from Salta, works with ceramics that reflect his ancestors; while Lisandro Maranzana went from selling work at traffic lights to joining a gallery. For many of these groups and individuals, meeting these two "connectionists" represents an opening to professionalization and recognition in the art field.