Unpublished photos of Minujín, Siquier, Clorindo, Macció among others, in a surprising exhibition
A Swiss man arrived in Buenos Aires 30 years ago and unknowingly left behind an intimate and unique record of the 1990s art scene , combining portraits of modern artists in their later years with emerging artists , who three decades later are among the most sought-after.
Gian Paolo Minelli , a Swiss photographer, was born in Geneva, but his Spanish has the accent of Switzerland's Italian canton. Today, he directs the Casa Suiza de La Boca , a space for artist residencies, and has just opened Archivo 1995. Buenos Aires, a meeting with 30 artists at the Larivière Foundation . This work, for which he recovered his archive, took portraits of artists in their studios and in places of their choice, where they posed at the photographer's request for three minutes, in an act that is now interpreted as a small performance.
Among those portrayed are Pablo Suárez, Marta Minujín, Pablo Siquier, Marcelo Pombo and Miguel Harte, Clorindo Testa, Rómulo Macció, Luis Welles, Nicolás García Uriburu, and a long list of established figures.
Clorindo Testa, Margarita Paksa and photographs by Gian Paolo Minelli, Marcia Schwartz, photographs by Gian Paolo Minelli. Photo: courtesy Larivière Foundation.
Minelli met curator and project manager Laura Buccellato, who collaborated three decades ago by providing him with the artists' phone numbers and hosting him at the Institute for Ibero-American Cooperation in Spain, which she co-directed. She also recommended that he study their careers before visiting them . The goal: to create a book with their photographs and the curator's texts.
“We chose 50 artists, and then the book was made up of 30 , and he also took notes, met the artist and wrote down their story, saw them, went to the studio, walked around the city, got to know the places —in other words, the artists were his guides to get to know different territories,” Buccellato recalls.
Rosana Fuertes photography by Gian Paolo Minelli. Photo: courtesy Larivière Foundation.
Even though he was unknown at the time, Minelli gained the trust of personalities such as Rómulo Maccio, Clorindo Testa, Raúl Lozza, Nicolás García Uriburu and Jorge Gumier Maier.
First , they opened the doors of their studios to be photographed there. Then they accepted the Swiss photographer's second proposal: choose a spot in the city, go there at night, and pose for his lens for three minutes. Everyone agreed to the experiment, except for Marta Minujín, who couldn't handle her anxiety—"Buy a better camera!" she shouted at Minelli when he tried to stand still for three minutes.
“Buy a better camera,” Marta Minujín shouted at Minelli when he tried to endure three minutes without moving.
“ I had the opportunity to revisit and shed light on material that had been stored away. So, for almost a year, I worked with an assistant and brought all the material here, because it was in Switzerland, all the negatives. All this material is the 6 x 4 centimeter negative. We digitized all the material, and the idea here was to show the richness of those moments,” Minelli comments about the exhibition that just opened at Larivière.
Juan Carlos Distefano photography by Gian Paolo Minelli. Photo: courtesy Larivière Foundation.
Among those who posed for long-exposure photography, Minelli recalls a few stories. Oscar Bony, who eventually became his friend, was going through his very early stages of creating bullet-pointed works. He and Minelli asked permission to take photographs among the remains of the AMIA , where the perforated walls align with the artist's works.
Something similar happened with Víctor Grippo, who asked him to go to Puerto Madero, then considered the edge of a port. He asked to pose next to what was a soup kitchen, in keeping with his works that combine food, alchemy, and the family table.
Pablo Siquier photography by Gian Paolo Minelli. Photo: courtesy Larivière Foundation.
Clorindo Testa wanted to stay close to home: he suggested the photographer pose at the subway station below his studio, at the intersection of Callao Avenue and Santa Fe. Jorge Gumier Maier chose the Retiro train station, where he used to go to study the iron ornamentation that decorated the platforms, whose curves and spirals he later used as inspiration for his works.
"I was doing this, which was a casual, nocturnal encounter in the city, where long exposure was very important to me. I mean, a plate camera, a tripod. That is, the presence of the person in front of the camera for several minutes was important. So it was, as they say now, like a nocturnal, intimate performance, because there was the camera, me, and the artist ," the photographer recalls.
Marta Minujin photography by Gian Paolo Minelli. Photo: courtesy Larivière Foundation.
The vast majority of this material remains unpublished until today . Some of the photographs in the series were purchased by collector Eduardo Tedesco; the rest were stored in Minelli's archive in Switzerland . When Larivieré proposed an exhibition to him two years ago, he went looking for the contacts he had saved.
This material was brought back to light and reinterpreted as archival and research material, showcasing the artists' intimate lives, their works appearing in the background, or particular moments in their careers that, as in the case of Oscar Bony's photos, are early indications of the series of works with shot glass.
Victor Grippo photography by Gian Paolo Minelli. Photo: courtesy Larivière Foundation.
“At the time I made it, all the artists were active, producing . When I made the exhibition in 1997, they were also producing; they were very healthy. Unfortunately, 18 of them are no longer with us . So, this material also becomes a document, a study material, an informational material,” he maintains.
When he works as a curator, Minelli prefers to design exhibitions with a small number of works on display . This principle was difficult to implement for this exhibition. He resolved this dilemma by showing the photographs in contact format, but in medium size. This mounting decision allows him to display a large number of works without overwhelming the viewer.
The Swiss artist's photographs hang side by side or in sets like double-entry paintings. He also placed them in glass cases so that the viewer can imitate the photographer's pose when looking at his miniatures in the studio.
Archive 1995. Buenos Aires, meeting with 30 artists by Gian Paolo Minelli, at Fundación Larivière (Caboto 564), Thursday to Sunday from 12 to 7. Until October 11.
Clarin
