Driving an ism presented contemporary Argentine artists in dialogue with examples of modernist abstraction and their respective ‘isms’.
Driving an ism was a journey through time to create a dialogue with modernism. It showcased the privileged place of abstract art and different ‘ism’s accompanied by works that introduced a new approach to abstract art, returning them to the body and time of greatest influence. Through different media such as performance, painting, installation, sculpture, photography and drawing, the later artworks pushed the isms around: driving them into corners, shoving them off balance and shrugging them off entirely so as to open up new spaces for different modes of seeing and acting.
One of the central ideas of Driving an ism was that contemporary abstract art, in general terms, is anchored in intangible phenomena where the body is non-existent in a way not dissimilar to the financial market or the internet. The fusion between abstract forms and the body does not necessarily address these issues but it does propose a more human way of understanding the contemporary world.
Driving an ism was also the embodiment of a thought process. During the week before the exhibition was set up the artists and curator took part in a laboratory at the Museo to reflect on the different artworks, their relationships and the concepts they represented. The laboratory continued for the three and a half months that the exhibition lasted and a free leaflet was published featuring texts by the artists afterwards.
Artists featured:
Ernesto Ballesteros, Martín Bernstein, Sofía Bohtlingk, Jimena Croceri, Flavia Da Rin, Tomás Espina, Mónica Girón, Bruno Gruppalli, Martín Legón, Juane Odriozola, Florencia Rodríguez Giles, Alan Segal, Luis Terán, Juan Tessi, Osías Yanov and Rosario Zorraquín.
