For the fifth episode of «Conversas Diversas,» we invited Augustin Rebetez (Switzerland) and Etcetera (Argentina) represented by Federico Zukerfeld. The artists share short excerpts of recent videos from installations, plays and film, these works provoke and evidence the problematics of the international art context, public limitations, and the need for art to reach and touch more people. Confrontation is used as a tool to intertwine the artistic and political realms. The artists share their dreams and desires for collective discussion.

Artists bios

Augustin Rebetez (Switzerland, 1986) works in various media including painting, photography, video, sculpture, music, installations, and theatre. The Swiss artist constructs a multifaceted body of work that defies categorization. Since 2009, he has exhibited his work all over the world including the Sydney Biennale, the Rencontres d’Arles, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Daegu Photo Biennale, the MBAL, the Tinguely Museum in Basel or the Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale. He received different awards, including the Vevey International Photography Prize, the Swiss Art Awards, or the Prize Fondation Latour. In 2019 he did two major solo shows in São Paulo and Milano, alongside curator Adelina von Fürstenberg. In his vibrant exploration of total art, he collaborates with many performers, punks, models, musicians, and friends, as well institutions such as Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne, where he created three different pieces, or the NGO Art for the World, amongst others. In 2018, he released a series of twelve stop-motion shorts with director and clown Martin Zimmermann, entitled Mr. Skeleton. And in 2019, his first DIY feature movie called La Grande Lune. He has published several art and photography books (RVB Books, Actes Sud) and also different artist books. He is part of the band Gängstgäng and the music collective Chruch. Often abroad, he is based in a small village in the Swiss countryside, where he uses his big house as an atelier and an open art residency. Since 2020, he is working on a site-specific project in the region of Neuchâtel.

Etcétera is a multi-disciplinary collective created in Buenos Aires in 1997. It is made up of artists with a background in poetry, theater, visual arts, and music. Its original purpose was to bring artistic expression closer to places of social conflict and shift these problems to cultural production spaces. These experiences take place at contemporary art venues such as museums, galleries, and cultural centers, but also in the streets, at festivals, during protests and demonstrations, using different strategies including contextual and ephemeral public interventions. In 2005, together with other artists and activists, they founded the International Errorist movement an organization that seeks to consolidate error as a life philosophy. The co-founders of the collective, Loreto Garín Guzmán, and Federico Zukerfeld, are responsible for coordinating all activities, archives, and other initiatives since 2007.