Artists

Argentina

Agustina Girardi
OPEN Buenos Aires

04.08.22 07.08.22

¨ Participating in the Open Buenos Aires was a super intense experience and from which I learned a lot. The different work steps focus on the professionalization of artistic practice at all levels, this had not been possible without the professionals team who carried it out and the group of artists. All of us, from their particular perspectives, generously contribute our experience to feed the projects of others. The plurality of voices was of great help to visualize the strengths and weaknesses of the own production. I highlight, above all things, the emphasis that was placed on collaborative work from the first day in the ways of doing the practice of graphics in the workshop. All this was possible thanks to the valuable human group that was formed during the experience.¨


Agustina Girardi is a visual artist and graphic arts professor. Within the graphic language, she generates discourses to problematize identity, based on the minimal gesture of inking and printing objects from everyday life, installation works, objects and publications. For this reason, her production is not limited to the exhibition in institutional spaces and galleries, but also to the questioning of public space, especially in the street as an LGBTIQ + activist. She investigates different ways of producing visual devices, their uses, appropriations and consumption of images.

ARTIST´S STATEMENT

Everything in my production has a story behind it; what we see is just a moment that was captured in a print or an object. That over time it will become a new story of another moment, whose meaning depends on the new pieces it finds. I am interested in working with layers of information, objects that become discourse incorporating meanings of everyday life, of sexual pleasure, of the night, the party, of the intensity of desire. I am interested in working with layers of information, objects that become discourse incorporating meanings of everyday life, of sexual pleasure, of the night, the party, of the intensity of desire. I focus on the minimal gestures and graphic arts processes to produce a visual language which allows me to explore identity stories.

ABOUT HER WORK AT THE OPEN Buenos Aires

The DirtyTalk piece stems from a phrase engraved on wood: ¨I WANT TO STAY A BIT LONGER¨, along side by a real plastic bag with objects inside. It is a portrait of who could have enunciated that sentence that at the same time was canceled with the strikethrough. Inside the bag, the unexpected finding of a golden text. That golden typography almost represents an obscene gesture, that of gilding something that fleetingly loses its function and ends up in the trash.

In this print series I return to the gesture of gilding phrases wich are stated imperatively and explicitly. They are the reproduction of a desire that ended up in these bags that are now flying in the air. Each bag shouts a phrase that represents the desires of the one who pronounces them. Each print is unique as in Unclassified, a work where the implicit meaning highlights individuality but also the collective. The prints are presented in block mode, one covering the other inviting handling, like the bag that hangs from the painting that disturbs even

BIO
Agustina Girardi
1981 | La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lives and works in City of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

STUDIES
2011 | Bachelor in Fine Arts, Engraving and Printed Art, Faculty of Fine Arts of the National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires. Argentina.
2006 | Professor in Fine Arts, Engraving and Printed Art, Faculty of Fine Arts of the National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires. Argentina.

EXHIBITIONS
2022 | OPEN Buenos Aires 2022, International Meeting of Emerging Graphics «OpenBA», Culture House, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2022 | Sobre las Raves y las fiestas, Cosmiko Gallery, La Plata, Argentina.
2021 | Florencio Molina Campos Provincial Hall 2021 Edition, Emilio Pettoruti Provincial Museum of Fine Arts, La Plata, Argentina.
2019 | National Hall of Visual Arts 108 edition. National Bicentennial House, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2019 |Brazos de pulpo, Casas Conexas Platforms, Museo del MAR, Mar del Plata, Argentina.

RESIDENCIES
2022 | OpenBA grant, Proyecto ´ace, FIG Bilbao and Fundación CIEC, Argentina-España.

AWARDS
2022| Open BA Award, International Meeting of Emerging Graphics, FIG Bilbao, ´ace Project and CIEC Foundation, Argentina-España.
2016 | Honorable Chamber of Deputies Award Province of Buenos Aires, Engraving Discipline,  Young Art Provincial Hall, La Plata, Argentina
2016 | Jury Special Mention, Williams Foundation Young Art Award 2016, Textile Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2014 | Mention of the Jury, Provincial Museum of Fine Arts Hall Emilio Pettoruti Engraving and Drawing, La Plata, Argentina.
2014 | Honorable Mention, Drawing and Engraving, Cultural Institute of the Province of Buenos Aires, Provincial Hall of Plastic Arts Florencio Molina Campos,La Plata, Argentina.

Related Activities

Fellowships, Open Calls

OPEN Buenos Aires – Open Call
International Encounter of Emerging Printmaking

30.05.22 03.07.22

Fundación´ace para el Arte Contemporáneo opens the call for emerging Argentinian artists from all over the federal territory –who work with traditional and digital printmaking (both in serial and variable editions), printed art or expanded field graphic practices / installations– to participate in OPEN Buenos Aires, a professionalization event that includes an exhibition of their works, mentoring by guest curators, demonstrations for the public, a networking day, and a round table, which will be opening to the public from August 5th to 7th.


OPEN Buenos Aires –organized jointly by Fundación´ace para el Arte Contemporáneo and the Arthazi/FIG Bilbao Association of Spain– is part of a larger event: FIG Bilbao’s OPEN PORTFOLIO which has been held in the city of Bilbao since 2014. With its landing in Buenos Aires, this 9th Edition of the OPEN PORTFOLIO FIG, International Encounter of Emerging Printmaking, becomes even more international by celebrating two independent in-person editions: one in Buenos Aires, the OPEN BUENOS AIRES (exclusively for Argentinian artists) and the other in Bilbao, the OPEN PORTFOLIO FIG (for Spanish and international artists).

OPEN BUENOS AIRES will inhabit the impressive Casa de la Cultura-La Prensa building (in the same spaces where the print workshops of La Prensa newspaper used to be) during a week of intense programming, in which the activities will be carried out both for the artists (such as mentoring, portfolio review, professional advice on assembly, networking, etc.), and for the public (such as exhibition of the artists’ works, workshops and demonstrations given by the artists themselves, and talks).

Of all the applications we receive in this first phase, 16 artists will be selected to participate in these sessions in August. On August 7th, the last day of the OPEN Buenos Aires event, an international jury will select: four artists who will participate in the final phase of the program and will travel to Bilbao to exhibit at the FIG Bilbao XI Edition from November 24th to 27th, 2022; two artists to attend the residency offered by the CIEC Foundation of Galicia, Spain in 2023; one artist to attend a residency at the Basque bioDesign Center lab in Bilbao, Spain; and another for a residency at Fundación´ace’s ´acePIRAR Artist-in-Residency International Program.

Likewise, the artists who travel to Bilbao in November will also be able to compete for another residency at the CIEC Foundation and an exhibition space at FIGBilbao 2023. Finally, the selected artists will become part of the traveling exhibition Open Itinera, an exhibition program with multiple venues in the territory of the Basque Autonomous Community, which arises with the firm intention of supporting and further promoting the emerging printmaking work that the Open Portfolio and the FIG Bilbao International Festival of Engraving and Art on Paper has been doing since 2012.

HISTORY OF THE OPEN PORTFOLIO @ FIGBilbao

Open Portfolio was created with the aim of supporting and giving visibility to the work of new printmaking talents and promoting their professional career. This event is a platform for the promotion, dissemination and professionalization of emerging creators. Throughout these nine years, Open Portfolio has given space to more than 150 artists from all continents.

August 05th-07th, 2022
Casa de la Cultura (La Prensa)
Av de Mayo 525, CABA

FELLOWSHIPS
16 participation fellowships of $50.000 each

AWARDS
– 2 First Prizes: two finalist artists at Fig Bilbao Fair November 2022 + AR $250,000 + accommodation in Bilbao
– 2 Second Prizes: two finalist artists at Fig Bilbao Fair November 2022 + accommodation in Bilbao
– 2 residency scholarships at Fundación CIEC, Spain for two months in 2023
– 1 residency scholarship at Basque bioDesign Center, Spain
– 1 residency scholarship at Proyecto´ace, Buenos Aires

NATIONAL JURY–PRESELECTION
Juan Canavesi (Córdoba, Argentina)
Adriana Moracci (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Alicia Valente (La Plata, Argentina)

INTERNATIONAL JURY–SELECTION
David Arteagoitia (Bilbao, Spain)
Director of the Open Portfolio Bilbao and Professor at the Basque Country University
Javier Martín Jiménez (Madrid, Spain)
Resident Commissar at Conde Duque Center for Contemporary Culture, Madrid
Pedro Galilea (Betanzos, Spain)
Director at Fundación CIEC, Galicia

AWARDING JURY
David Arteagoitia (Bilbao, Spain)
Director of the Open Portfolio Bilbao and Professor at the Basque Country University
Alicia Candiani (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Director of the Open Buenos Aires
Pedro Galilea (Betanzos, Spain)
Director at Fundación CIEC, Galicia

Encounters, Exhibitions

OPEN 2022 | Awards
Award Ceremony

05.08.22 07.08.22

Between August 5th and 7th, 2022, we launched OPEN Buenos Aires: international encounter of emerging printmakers at the Casa de la Cultura—La Prensa Building in the City of Buenos Aires. Throughout its 3 days of opening to the public, the selected artists shared their works in traditional and contemporary graphic  and printmaking techniques with the visitors, celebrated the opening of their exhibition, offered workshops, demos and open talks, and, on the last day, 8 artists received the prizes awarded by the organization of the event.

During the inauguration, there were different guided tours by the OPEN Buenos Aires team and participating artists: we began with a guided tour by Andrea Auzmendi for high school students from the Cultural Pass program of the City of Buenos Aires, then María Romero Alves gave a demo of pinhole camera, and Florencia Reisz offered an approach to contemporary graphics through the works of the OPEN artists. Lautaro Parada offered Tarot readings, there was a guided tour for special guests by David Arteagoitia, Director of the FIG Open Portfolio and we closed with a collective toast thanks to the labels provided by Vino El Salvador.

After completing all the activities of OPEN Buenos Aires, the following 8 prizes were distributed, in addition to the 16 participation scholarships awarded to the finalist artists:

  • 2 First Prizes: two artists with a stand each at the Fig Bilbao Fair in November 2022 + $250,000 for mobility + accommodation in Bilbao (awarded to Leticia Barbeito and Agustina Girardi)
  • 2 Second Prizes: two artists with a stand each at the Fig Bilbao Fair November 2022 + accommodation in Bilbao (awarded to Solange Baqués and Lautaro Parada)
  • 2 artistic residency scholarships at Fundación CIEC in Betanzos, Spain, for 2023 (awarded to Mariana Gayoso and Agustín Begueri)
  • 1 residency scholarship at the BDC—Basque bioDesign Center in Bilbao, Spain (awarded to Julián Pesce)
  • 1 residency scholarship at Proyecto´ace, including accommodation (awarded to Florencia Reisz)

The prizes were awarded by a Jury composed of David Arteagoitia (Bilbao, Basque Country, Director of the FIG Open Portfolio), Pedro Galilea (Salamanca, Spain, Vice President and Director of Fundación CIEC) and Alicia Candiani (Buenos Aires, Argentina, Director of the OPEN Buenos Aires and Fundación´ace) based on the quality of the works presented and the activities for the public proposed and carried out by the artists.

Encounters, International Projects, Workshops, Exhibitions

OPEN Buenos Aires | Activities
Workshops, talks and demos by artists

05.08.22 07.08.22

Between August 5th and 7th, 2022, we held the OPEN Buenos Aires: an international meeting of emerging graphics at the Casa de la Cultura—La Prensa Building in the City of Buenos Aires. Throughout its 3 days of opening to the public, the selected artists shared with the public not only their works in traditional and contemporary graphic and printmaking techniques, but they also offered workshops, demos, participatory practices and open talks.

OPEN Buenos Aires is a professionalization event for emerging artists and for the dissemination of graphic and printmaking practices for the local public, whether specialized in these fields or without previous knowledge in graphics in particular or contemporary art in general. As part of the application to the OPEN, it was the artists themselves who proposed different instances of exchange with the visitors of the event, bringing them closer to their techniques, their projects, their portfolios and their working methods.

The activities that the visitors of the event enjoyed are:

  • Guided tour by Andrea Auzmendi (CABA).
  • Pinhole camera demonstration by María Romero Alves (CABA).
  • Approach to contemporary printmaking through the work of the selected artists, by Florencia REISZ (Mar del Plata).
  • Fortune telling by Lautaro Parada (CABA): ask a question and the Black Mallet answers, and take your card as a gift at the end. Poetically appealing to the origins of xylography in the West – used to print playing cards and Tarot cards – the artist offered us a personal experience through his xylographic work Mazo Negro.
  • Participatory workshop on perennial monotypes por Noelia Toscano (CABA), Wenceslao Paunero (Pcia. de Buenos Aires) y Rocío Barzola (Salta): taller de fabricación de tintas con tierra e impresión botánica con la técnica de monotipos.
  • Demonstration on contemporary Gyotaku by Agustina Girardi (La Plata), Jorgelina Buchara (CABA) and Leticia Barbeito (La Plata): Gyotaku is a traditional Japanese method of naturally recording the best catch of the day. Inspired by his processes, this workshop proposed to discover the potential of the things that surround us as possible printable matrices to generate their own discourse from the imprint that they leave printed on paper—the public was invited to bring their everyday objects to print on them and take them with them.
  • Intervened photography by Solange Baqués (Pcia. de Buenos Aires): the artist exchanged with the public her work process and photographic intervention on paper.
  • Infinite patterns workshop by Mariana Gayoso (CABA) and Ale Giorgga (CABA): this workshop approached the notions of contemporary art through graphic experimentation to the public. From the superposition of various materials, textures and graphic qualities, the importance of repetition and fragmentation is recognized, knowing and internalizing what a pattern is and how it is created graphically and continuously (notion of rapport, stamp, impression and stamp).
  • “Processing the digital weaving” talk by Julián Pesce (CABA) and Juan Pablo Ferlat (CABA): memory storage to create repeating patterns, physical and temporary units.
  • Participatory workshop “Building a xilomural” by Agustín Begueri (Córdoba) and Ale Giorgga (CABA).

Encounters, Portfolio Review

OPEN 2022 | Encounters
Portfolio reviews and panels

05.08.22 07.08.22

Between August 5th and 7th, 2022, we held the OPEN Buenos Aires: International Encounter for Emerging Printmakers at the Casa de la Cultura—La Prensa Building in the City of Buenos Aires. Throughout its 3 days of opening to the public, the selected artists shared with the public not only their works in traditional and contemporary graphic and printmaking techniques, but also offered workshops, demos, participatory practices and open talks for the public.

OPEN Buenos Aires is a professionalization event for emerging artists and for the dissemination of graphic and printmaking practices for the local public, whether specialized or without previous knowledge in the field of graphics, in particular, or contemporary art, in general. As part of the professionalization of the artists, on Sunday, August 7th, a portfolio review was carried out by a jury specialized in graphics and engraving, both traditional and contemporary.

The portfolio review was carried out by the national pre-selection jury, made up of Juan Canavesi (Córdoba), Adriana Moracci (CABA) and Ali Valente (La Plata), who over 3 hours offered portfolio reviews, feedback, criticism of works, feedback and professional guidance to both OPEN Buenos Aires artists and independent artists who previously signed up to participate in this free activity. Once the portfolio review was completed, the open conference on contemporary graphics was launched, with the participation of David Arteagoitia (Bilbao, Basque Country, Director of the FIG Open Portfolio), Pedro Galilea (Salamanca, Spain, Vice President and Director FundaciónCIEC), Iratoi Retolaza (Bilbao, Basque Country, guest artist-in-residency and part of the Basque bioDesign Center team), and was moderated by Alicia Candiani (Director of OPEN and Fundación´ace).

Proyecto´ace
Artist-in-Residence International Program

View map

International Airport

Ministro Pistarini- Ezeiza (EZE)
Buenos Aires
45' to 60' trip

Domestic Airport

Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
Buenos Aires

Buses

38, 39, 41, 42, 59, 63, 65, 67, 68, 151, 152, 161, 184, 194 and 168 (stop in the front door)

Subway/Metro

D Line (Green)
Olleros Station (4 blocks, 4')

Train

Mitre Line (either to Leon Suarez or Mitre)
Colegiales Station (1 block, 1')

The Latin America's Paris

Buenos Aires is Argentine Republic's capital city. With 15,000,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest cities in Latin America and one of the 10 most populous urban centers in the world. Its cosmopolitan and urban character vibrates to the rhythm of a great cultural offer that includes monuments, churches, museums, art galleries, opera, music and theaters; squares, parks and gardens with old groves; characteristic neighborhoods; large shopping centers and fairs. Here we also find a very good lodging facilities, with accommodation ranging from hostels to five-star hotels of the main international chains. Buenos Aires also show off about its variety of restaurants with all the cuisines of the world, as well as to have cafes and flower kiosks on every corner.

A neighborhood founded on the Jesuit farms in the 17th century

We are located in Colegiales neighborhood where the tree-lined streets, some of which still have their original cobblestones, invite you to walk. Although the apartment buildings advance, low houses still predominate. It is a district of the city where about 20 TV production companies, design studios, artist workshops and the Rock&Pop radio have been located. The neighborhood also has six squares, one of which pays homage to Mafalda, the Flea Market, shops, restaurants and cafes like its neighboring Barrios de Palermo and Belgrano, with which it limits.

Proyecto´ace
Artist-in-Residence International Program

2024 Open Call #2
Residencies 2024

Deadline
April 30th, 2024

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