By Guillermo Vega Fischer
As soon as we have crossed the door of the Ruth Benzacar gallery in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Crespo, the music emanating from a video invites us to approach a large screen. There we see Unfinished Tales, an audiovisual piece created by Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia in 2022, and whose title gives its name to the exhibition. From the first moment, one is immersed as in a theater of small situations, where the fantastic coexistence of the minute with the immense is surprising. Small everyday figures, tiny found objects such as toys, ornaments, plates, inhabit the very white space of the gallery rooms, or the extensive surfaces of fabric of the same color in which threads, stains, objects, these small beings, contrast. The artist herself describes them as “a cast of characters made of inanimate objects, toys and figurines that I find in flea markets, antique stores and other strange places. Objects have a double existence. On the one hand they are mere appearance, insubstantial decorations, but, at the same time, they have a look that can be animated by the viewer, who, through it, can project the inclination to give things an interiority and identity”.
Indeed, Porter's work involves the viewer in a way that few current creations do. Each work offers us a microworld, a micro scene, fostered by the dialogue between apparently unconnected objects. Watery blue stains on paper transform into impetuous waves when faced with a toy frigate. Other drops of ink, also blue, but on a sheet of Rivadavia school notebook, are the spill that a woman - a tiny figurine - must clean up. The title of the exhibition is very appropriate, they are all, Unfinished Tales. Porter does not want to induce us into complex and finished dramaturgies, or into intricate intellectual digressions with chewed-up philosophical conclusions. On the contrary, these inconsequential figures pose simple everyday situations, but they emotionally lead us to reflect on the incomprehensible human condition. In this regard, it reminds us a lot of the films of the Swede Roy Andersson, as in A Dove Perched on a Branch to Reflect on Existence, where short scenes occur, apparently unconnected to each other, and it seems that nothing happens, but in reality, everything happens.
We take advantage of the circumstance of the current exhibition of her work in Buenos Aires, to dialogue with the artist.
Hilario: We observe this duality that we mentioned, that of the immense coexisting with the minute, always present in your work. A small object on a large canvas, or a woman of just a few centimeters facing the titanic task of cleaning up a mess of meters and meters, what meanings does this have in your work?
Liliana Porter: Perhaps it is a metaphor that reflects our fragile condition in the face of the enormous unknowns of reality that exceed our possibility of understanding.
Hilario: Let's remember that your first steps, at the beginning of the 60s, were with engraving. Since then you have moved through drawing, photography, painting, video, installation, public art, to finally arrive at the theater, as happens with Taming the Lion and other doubts, the theatrical piece that you presented with Ana Tiscornia in 2017 in the Second Biennial of Performances in Buenos Aires, Do you think that theater was an inevitable path, to which your “theatrical vignettes” -using your own words- had to arrive?
Liliana Porter: I think that doing theater was the result of a natural evolution in my work. It was a challenge that was resolved in a very happy, truly very pleasant experience. I really like teamwork, and I was lucky to work with very prepared and sensitive people.
Hilario: We already mentioned the video art Unfinished Tales and the performative piece Taming the Lion and Other Doubts, both created with the Uruguayan artist Ana Tiscornia. How do you, or both of you, experience collaborative creation?
Liliana Porter: Although basically our work is individual, we have developed several lines of collaborative work in video, theater, works on paper, prints and installations. As we have shared the workshop for many years, we deeply know each other's work. That makes collaboration easy. We always find it a very pleasant and fun experience.
Hilario: Your work emanates calm, tenderness and humor, qualities that contrast with conceptual asceticism or visceral expressionism, aesthetics most frequently used by local contemporary artists. Do you agree with this assessment? How do you perceive the local art scene, and your work in dialogue with it?
Liliana Porter: Taking into account that a recurring theme in my work is the simultaneity of dissimilar situations, it is natural for me to perceive the different expressions generated by different contexts. I believe that contrary statements can coexist and be really valid.
We invite you to tour this wonderful exhibition, Unfinished Tales, at the Ruth Benzacar gallery, Juan Ramírez Velasco 1287, City of Buenos Aires. It is available until April 20.
The reflection of a character in a hand mirror. Porter animates these objects in Unfinished Tales. Photograph by the author.
Another wonderful character, a lady weaves a tulle, just a detail of the large central installation in the Ruth Benzacar gallery. Photograph by the author.