From post-apocalypse to photojournalism: two striking visions at Arthaus

Deep in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires , a zombie invasion is coming to take over. Every man for himself. Between paintings, music, and videos, the accomplished flamenco-punk artist from La Plata, Agustín Sirai , introduces us to a post-apocalyptic universe that he titles An Act of Transformation and Other Scenes of Travel, his first solo exhibition at Arthaus .

In his works, it is common to find scenes filled with seemingly abandoned everyday objects and lush landscapes with a silent air, radiating a melancholic feeling where it is unclear where the owners of these things are or where the David Lynch-esque scenes of leafy forests and ruins come from.

However, these new works also incorporate dark humor, along with an agonizing and bizarre tone. As his friend and artist Mariela Vita says in a brief first-person text, "I think we're friends because you make space to laugh and cry," while explaining that just as she has the need to bring life to everything, even the most mundane objects, he seems to be doing the opposite.

This ebb and flow of sensations is very present in Sirai's work, where not only painting—his faithful companion—stands out, but artificial intelligence also appears as a new resource with which the artist experiments, asking the GPT chat to write a text about his work, which he then paints on one of the columns in the room.

Sirai also presents a video starring "Reanimated corpses without will, ridiculed, dancing one hundred and sixty-six dances, one hundred and sixty-six versions of the same song, one hundred and sixty-six beings that have to do with you, with Argentina and its folklore. One hundred and sixty-six animations generated with your new friend, artificial intelligence," explains Vita, characters that are also present in one of the paintings and that oscillate between the worlds of politics and history.

They are our heroes like Belgrano, idols like Messi, or cultural figures like Marta Minujín, Mercedes Sosa, or Gilda, to name a few of the 166 represented without order of hierarchy but as a large group united by the fact of being Argentinian (and zombie).

Sirai also includes some of the ArtHaus staff, whom he called in one by one to take miniature portraits a few days before the opening, kneeling in different corners and illuminated by an aura-shaped light.

Sirai is the builder of a fragmented narrative between landscapes, interior scenes —such as an unfurnished room decorated with band posters, maps, and a flag, or mountainous landscapes with endless waterfalls —where the real and the imaginary are intertwined through tiny but powerful signs.

In a dark room float images as terrifying as that of a smiling baby who can barely sit with a gun on his lap, a bomb that has just exploded, collapsed buildings like the landscape of a woman walking her dog and other scenes that, like in Sirai's works, seem taken from an apocalyptic story and yet are painfully real.

In contrast, there is bizarre humor, such as images of a fuchsia bra or a scene where two armed police officers and a child pose next to a giant photograph of Pope Francis.

Each of these shots is the result of what Rodrigo Abd , an Argentine photojournalist with the international news agency The Associated Press (AP), sees. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes and in recent years has witnessed war, political and social conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and different parts of Latin America such as Guatemala and Bolivia.

Today, Desvío brings together an opportunity to showcase her work in a different way and share some of the questions she's been asking herself after 25 years of career, as curator Jazmín Tesone explains, among which are, "Why do we photograph? What happens when we decide to pick up the camera and shoot? Do photos have to help us reflect? Does the message have to be clear?"

However, after a 360-degree spin through space and being traversed by these images , there seem to be more doubts than certainties.

The challenge lies in how to communicate and achieve a goal in an era of visual and information overload . If logging into a news site is filled with gigantic advertisements, or social media is filled with photos of refugee children alongside DIY tips on how to create the living room of your dreams, how does someone like Abd alert the world to what's happening?

This new reality seems to contrast with the days of legendary photographs by pioneers such as Robert Cappa, Lee Miller, and Steve McCurry, who left an indelible mark on the memories of many generations.

However, Abd finds a way to stop in his tracks and invites the audience to confront the images without overlooking them . "The combination of everyday life and violence can be brutal, but our image consumption habits surely allow us to assimilate it," Tesone astutely maintains.

Abd remains on the periphery, on the edge, to capture what others don't see , what is overlooked yet devastating. He understands the humor in horror and captures images that reflect tremendous episodes in our recent history that some suffer and others ignore, inviting us not to forget, no matter how fast-paced the world is.

An Act of Transformation and Other Travel Scenes by Agustín Sirai and Detour by Rodrigo Abd can be visited until August 3, Tuesday to Sunday from 1 to 8 pm at ArtHaus, Bartolomé Mitre 434.