Projects
back to Exercises of memory (Ejercicios de memoria)Exercises of memory: Graciela Taquini
Graciela Taquini. Granada (2005)
Based on the videographic testimony given by a detained disappeared for the Argentina Witness Archive, directed by Peter Gabriel in 1999. The main character of the film and story repeats her own phrases about the memory, which are dictated by the director as if she were a prompter, or an exorcist. Granada, bloodstained land, dreamt of land.
Granada is a conflicting film that I developed while preparing a video installation for the Art and Memory Museum in La Plata, for which I chose only the phrases related to the memory of a videographic testimony made by the artist Andrea Fasani, my art history student back in 1979. Andrea then had told me that a year before, in 1978, after the Football World Cup she had been held captive for 45 days. Together with the artist Ricardo Pons we conceived a tenebrist and baroque theatrical light setting and a camera scanning the face. According to Pablo Orlando, this staging of the staging subverts to some extent the category of testimony of a disappeared person, not by questioning the truth but by highlighting meanders and contradictions of the memory. Gonzalo Aguilar believes it does not trust the almost blind trust placed on talking heads and on the lineal reconstruction of
stories. Rodrigo Alonso thinks it incites the victim to re-enact its sayings…a situation is generated that summons the torturer-tortured relationship but that seems to exorcize it at the same time. Another cold night in 1979, they arrested Andrea once again before my very eyes and then set her free. I then experienced the most terrible situation of those years of dictatorship and this work arises form that experience and from my love and admiration for Andrea. Graciela Taquini
More information
“Granada” – Graciela Taquini – 2005 6 minutos – Digital Video, color Direction: Graciela Taquini Camera y edition: Ricardo Pons Main character: Andrea Fasani Prizes: Honorable Mention Salón Nacional 2005. Third prize Mamba/Telefónica 2005 Installed at Gallery La Compagnie, Marsella, France – Instants Festival Video.
About Graciela Taquini
Bachelor’s Degree in History of Arts, Uni-versidad de Buenos Aires. Since the mid 80’s Graciela has devoted herself to the research and spreading of electronic arts through independent initiatives and within the framework of official institutions. She currently works as an advisor for Canal Ciudad Abierta, a Cable Company of the City of Buenos Aires. Her video “Lo sublime/banal” was awarded First Prize at the 15° Festival Video Brasil y “Granada” and an Honorable Mention at Salón Nacional 2005 the Third Prize in Video of Premio Mamba-Telefónica. These two pieces were acquired by the Caixa Forum of Barcelona, España. “Granada” was exhibited as an installation at La Compagnie Gallery in Marseilles in 2005.
Participant artists
Alejandro Schianchi / Carlos Trilnick / Claudia Aravena / Edgar Endress / Eduardo Molinari y Nicolás Varchausky / Graciela Taquini / Guillermo Cifuentes / Gustavo Galuppo / Iván Marino / Julieta Hanono / Leandro Nuñez / Mariela Yeregui / Raúl Minsburg / Ricardo Dal Farra / Ricardo Pons