"Blood and Sun": An exhibition that unravels meat as a national symbol

Argentine culture and idiosyncrasies are vast and complex. However, there are themes with which it is inextricably linked, such as soccer and, of course, meat , which is why a large part of the world believes that the citizens of this country spend their days grilling , as if such a level of abundance were possible.

And while national identity and livestock farming cannot be separated, behind that union are complex political decisions and social behaviors that require a great deal of mental gymnastics to unravel. These decisions go beyond stereotypes and were addressed by an artist —recognized for his long career in the field of urban art —who brings this eternal debate to the table.

Last year Francisco Díaz Scotto (aka Pastel ) invited Joaquín Barrera to see a work he was presenting in the back room of Valerie's Factory at arteba and which at the time he understood as an experiment , although in reality it was the germ of Sangre y Sol , his first solo exhibition in a gallery in Buenos Aires.

Barrera felt that behind that painting there was a great background to investigate with a contemporary perspective and that it fit like a glove in this sociopolitical present.

As the months passed, the encounters between artist and curator intensified around the following question: What does painting meat mean in Argentina? This included understanding the economic, political, and symbolic disputes that the use and consumption of this commodity has brought to our society for so many years.

Questions about identity also arose in an attempt to understand the scenario that triggered this construction, although the answer seems to be an urgency to dominate the land and obtain more power and money, leaving the 19th-century Pampas plain at the center of a long battle.

There is a work by the Uruguayan painter Juan Manuel Blanes that features a yellow, almost golden, and eternal sky, accompanied by a flat landscape and a gaucho on horseback, giving directions with his face slightly hidden by his arm. In the background, barely visible shadows show his possible companions. The customs and traditions of the time, the worker, and everyday life were some of Blanes' favorite subjects , and he went down in history as one of the most important River Plate artists of the 19th century.

Díaz Scotto did not see "Gaucho in the Countryside" in person but through a catalogue , a simple action that connected them beyond the barriers of time, as the painting itself has a very particular history, having been rediscovered in England, after having belonged to a Spanish aristocrat.

Between one thing and another, it ended up in the hands of heirs who sent it to public auction for a record price, subject to market speculation and the doubts surrounding each country's national heritage. However, in Blood and Sun, it takes on another identity , as Scotto liberates the landscape through a game of imitation and appropriation.

“Francisco recovers, honors, and vindicates, as well as reveals not only his talent for depicting the Pampas plains, but also that of Juan Manuel Blanes, the Uruguayan painter who created some of the works that became emblematic of an era and a country that was just beginning to forge its identity,” Barrera observes.

The collection of works in the exhibition can be understood in stages , with this landscape being both the beginning and the end of the story. The primary source that nourishes the rest of the story .

In the first group of paintings, the flesh is displayed in extreme close-up , becoming almost abstract, where the focus is on the quality of the colors and the power of the brushstrokes.

Then it appears as a tangible asset , meticulously dismembered in the refrigerator , that environment antagonistic to the countryside, white, neat and cold, which Díaz Scotto knew in person since there is one in front of his workshop that he dared to visit (is it a coincidence or did the landscape repeated through his window become his greatest inspiration?).

Thirdly, there is meat as a commodity , which enters the family home as a desirable good. These are images reminiscent of a catalog or cookbook photo , where cuts are displayed on a table with an oilcloth tablecloth reminiscent of pop art or even the "kitsch" aesthetic of the 1990s, where everyday aspects took center stage (for example, in some of his works, Jorge Gumier Maier created a fusion between 1940s Concrete Art and the aesthetics of his aunt's house).

They are classic still lifes crossed with supermarket advertisements, although there is something shocking about them.

Returning to the beginning, if La Pampa was the great territory of the national dispute , then it also deserves to be the setting for this exhibition, recovering its identity without forgetting that the great battles for dominance of a rapidly developing country took place there.

Ultimately, an annex dedicated to the archival research work that Díaz Scotto and Barrera discovered after much searching and tracing reveals material ranging from documents to period photographs, old banknotes and films , which provide a theoretical and historical framework for Sangre y Sol. It is the part of the iceberg that was not visible.

Blood and Sun , by Francisco Diaz Scotto (Pastel) at Valerie's Factory, Wednesday to Saturday from 3 to 7 pm at Vera 1350.