Green Manifesto takes its name from a declaration written by Nicolás García Uriburu (Buenos Aires, 1937-2016) in 1971, in which he expresses his desire to denounce the antagonism between nature and civilisation. Taking as its starting point the work of this pioneering artist and activist who, since the 1960s, has denounced the ways in which human action has destructively advanced over the water, earth, flora and fauna of the world, this exhibition highlights numerous artists who, like García Uriburu, have used their work to show that nature, far from being a simple object of domestication or domination, is a living being. The pieces in the exhibition provide us with a natural bridge to a world that, as critic, artists and curator Germain Derbecq wrote about Uriburu’s work in 1960, is filled with “watery, wild or heavenly depths, melodic evocations, dramatic vegetation, [and] harmonious meanders”, one in which authenticity has nothing to do with mimetic representation. On the contrary, the exhibition’s strength lies in allowing these images where realities and dreams meet to confront us with marvellous climates and the exuberance, voracity and vitality of that wild superorganism of which we are part, to show us that form of life that is made up of an endless number of interconnected beings, in which everything flows, is integrated, absorbed and transformed. In these images we can find a representation of a system made of air, water and earth, of feathers, thorns, scales, flesh and blood, in which nothing is inert.
Created between the 1960s and today, the artworks shown in Manifiesto verde are a celebration of painting and of the imagination as an essential means of recognising the vigour that characterises our planet. If the culture of control sought to eliminate fear and amazement in the face of nature, these images restore that world of sensations. Detached from the pursuits of the modernist, romantics and surrealists, from pop and psychedelic art, and from the developments of ornamental or artisanal aesthetics, these works represent the authors’ responses to the dreamlike materials and environments that surrounded them or to which their consciences were guided by their artistic impulses. They bring the full force of the personality of this great living being to the forefront and, in particular, that of the Paraná River and its wetlands, the Littoral, the jungles of Misiones and the Amazon, the landscapes of the Chaco and the Andes, and the visions that emerge from the observations of the infinite horizons and the seas and forests of the south. These are reborn in their paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures to show their richness and essence.
Guest Artist: Florencia Böhtlingk
Curated by: Alejandra Aguado
Curatorial Assistance: Rodrigo Barcos
Exhibition Design: Daniela Thomas and Felipe Tassara in collaboration with Iván Rösler
Production: Edgar Lacombe
