Rapainú
New Doors to Understanding Smallness

29.07.24 23.08.24

Present in ´ace thanks to the Semillero 2024 grant (in collaboration with the Williams Foundation), Rapainú is an artist from Córdoba who lives in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. He grew up in a rural area of virgin forest and trained as a self-taught artist. Little by little, he saw how various factors were degrading the ecosystem that surrounded him. This motivated him to dedicate himself for years to community land activism. Today, with his work, he seeks to touch a subtle fibre that generates reflection on our relationship with nature.

During his Production Residency, Rapainú worked on his series New Doors to Understanding Smallness. This series is based on images of medicinal plants taken with an electron microscope that turns them into abstractions, or, at least, into multifocal images belonging to other realms.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In my work I investigate what emerges between the simultaneity of realities, taking as a starting point the relationship between the human species and its environment as a fragile and geologically ephemeral space/time. The visual translation of this conceptual search are my images printed on chlorophyll, my research on ethnobotany with native plants, and the video performances in which I use the body as a channel of encounter with the landscape.

BIO
Rapainú
1990 | Córdoba, Argentina
Lives and works in Córdoba and Ushuaia, Argentina

EDUCATION

2017 | Open Government and Citizen Monitoring Training Programme. Universidad Católica de Cordoba, Argentina
2017 | Diploma in Political Innovation. Asuntos del Sur, Latin American Network for Political Innovation.
2014 | Diploma in Regional Integration and Sustainable Development. OLAGI and Latin American School of Intermediate Governments, Córdoba, Argentina.
2013 | Workshop Documentaries in Nature by Paul Reddish. International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba.

EXHIBITIONS
2024 | Éxtimo Presente. Galería de Arte del Museo Marítimo de la ciudad de Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
2023 | Paisaje. Museo Municipal Virginia Choquintel, Rio grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
2023 | OPEN Buenos Aires 2023. Edificio La Prensa (Casa de la Cultura), Buenos Aires, Argentina
2021 | Festival Internacional de Artes de Río de Janeiro. Río de Janeiro, Brazil
2021 | Athens Digital Arts Festival. Athens, Greece

RESIDENCIES
2024 | Proyecto ´ace, CABA, Argentina
2023 | Residencia Amiga. Tolhuin, Tierra del Fuego A.I.A.S, Argentina
2022 | Residencia Epecuén, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2020 | Residencia Demolición/Construcción, Cabana, Córdoba, Argentina
2019 | Residencia Interactivos Arte y Ciencia. SILO, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

AWARDS
2024 | Semillero fellowship. Fundación Williams y Fundación ´ace, Argentina
2023 | Open Buenos Aires award. Fundación ´ace, CABA, Argentina
2021 | Beca de creación. Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Argentina
2019 | Beca de creación. Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Argentina