Giovanni Carmine’s visit to Buenos Aires [AR]

Director of the Kunst Halle St. Gallen and curator of Unlimited section at Art Basel, Giovanni Carmine [CH] spent a week in Buenos Aires [AR], in July 2022, during Gaspar Libedinsky‘s [AR] exhibition at the Museo de Arte Decorativo.

Intitled «Casa Tomada», the show is a retrospective of the artist and architect’s work, conceived as an immersive and interactive exhibition, which takes over the museum’s halls, courtyards, and gardens. Therein lie some central themes of Libedinsky’s work, such as transforming the everyday into the extraordinary and valuing seemingly unimportant objects.

In «El Origen de las Especies» (the origin of species), an installation at the museum’s hall, broom’s heads are transformed into a sea of red corals, through which visitors can walk. «Mister Trapo» is formed by twelve outfits, made from cleaning cloths and arranged in the ballroom. And «Arquitectura para el Cuerpo» (architecture for the body), one can see woollen cloths being transformed into resting shoes.

Carmine participated in the program with a lecture on the relationship between contemporary art and other disciplines, such as architecture and public space. He also presented projects at the KunstHalle in Sant Gallen in dialogue with Libedinsky’s proposal for «Casa Tomada».

Finally, the curator made contact with several Argentinian institutions, artists, and cultural practitioners, which should result in future projects.