For most of us, the words ‘pop art’ conjure up graffitied images of Ché Guevara and enormous coke cans. Fundación PROA’s new exhibition of Argentine and Brazilian pop art bears all the familiar hallmarks of the movement but relocates the focus to the southern cone, where familiar bold fonts and cartoon images meet a carnal, visceral movement rooted in the wounds of dictatorship and repression.

Claudio Tozzi & Roberto Jacoby interpret Che Guevara in 1968 (images courtesy of PROA)

This is a brutal yet beautiful exhibition, located deep in the heart of La Boca. Curated by Paulo Herkenhoff and Rodrigo Alonso it charts the links between Argentine and Brazilian pop art in the 1960s and showcases a movement which synthesises the political, social and cultural violence of the era as well as the roots of hope and revolution.

“Ideological clashes, military regimes, resistance struggles the dependence on foreign capitalism, urbanisation and the distinctive popular protestsi n these countries – this is the starting point for this fervent aesthetic and political study,” says Adriana Rosenburg, president of PROA.

“For the first time we are bringing together 59 artists from Brazil and Argentina and more than 150 works, photographs and documents from this movement.”

Western audiences have become increasingly inured to the stylised cartoon images and bold colours which define pop art and it’s easy to forget the political context behind the images which now adorn our aprons and sofa cushions.

For North American and British audiences in particular, for whom Lichenstein’s stylised spots reign supreme, the Coke cans and Ché Guevara images have lost their political and cultural reference points. Yet for Latin American audiences, these are powerful symbols of social and political change, and central to the pop art movement.

“South America produced two key symbols in these years, one local, in the form of Ché Guevara, who represents change, liberation and social revolution and another international, in the form of Coca-Cola which appears in general as a symbol of American imperialism and economic domination,” explains Rosenberg, in literature accompanying the exhibition.

'La civilización occidental y cristiana' by León Ferrari (images courtesy of PROA)

The first room of the show is dedicated to these more familiar manifestations of the movement. It is filled with irreverent subversions of political and cultural imagery. The middle of the stylish room is consumed by a giant model plane suspended from the ceiling with a crucified Jesus attached to its wings. This piece, “La civilización occidental y cristiana” by León Ferrari, is flanked by a series of images of the Kennedys and a playful coke bottle installation.

However the second room introduces us to the darker, carnal themes of Argentine and Brazilian pop art. This work in this space is body-centred and deeply political, with references to torture, repression and social pain. Antonio Dias’ ‘Glutāo’ is typical, depicting a blood red figure with a set of abstract organs on display, brining to mind disturbing hints of physical pain and punishment.

The centre of the room features two disturbing sculptures, one resembling a giant misshapen sack and the other a garish knot of intestinal woollen tubes. The colours of the works here are less brash than the familiar cartoon style and have been created in a range of textures and mediums. As well as flat poster style pieces jammy canvases, thick with murky oil paints line the walls.

Organs on display (images courtesy of PROA)

The third room continues this trend. Its walls are painted black and eerie noises drift from a video playing in the corner. This room features unsettling installations like Ivens Machado’s white tiled slab, plain apart from a light bulb in one corner and a bullet hole in the other with a dark trickle running from it. In another corner is a black veiled chair with spikes on the seat.

Violence – physical and political – lie close to the surface of these works and this movement in general. There are four rooms in total, displaying a wide range of styles and forms of pop art but all have been chosen to reflect these underlying themes and all display Argentine and Brazilian pop art at its politial best.

The exhibition has the added benefit of its PROA setting. An established art venue since 1996, the stylish building boasts panoramic views of La Boca’s industrial landscape and sprawling ports. The gallery is well known for its interesting take on contemporary Argentine art and also boasts an excellent library, bookshop and modern minimalist cafe with a roof terrace.

‘Pop…’ will remain at PROA until 16^th September when the exhibition will move to the Oscar Niemeyer museum in Curitiba. In 2013 the show will relocate to the Bergamo Gallery of Contemporary and Modern Art before ending up in the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro.

Entrance to the exhibition costs $12, for more information go to http://www.proa.org/esp/ or call 4104.1000

Louise Bourgeois contemplating Germinal in 1967. (Photo by Studio I. Bessi Carrara, courtesy of PROA Museum)

Disturbing, haunting, troubling, touching and beautiful are words that come to mind. The art of Louise Bourgeois spans almost the whole of the 20th century, but due to sexism in the art world, she only became well-known in the second half, with a stunning retrospective in 1981 at the MOMA in New York. The artist lived a troubled life and her self-described autobiographical work puts her phobias and anxieties on full display. Born on Christmas day in 1911 in Paris, she moved to New York in 1938, and she died on 31st May 2010 at 98. Just one year on from her death, over 45,000 people have seen her exhibition at Fundación PROA museum in La Boca.

The exhibit, ‘Louise Bourgeois: el retorno de lo reprimido‘ (the return of the repressed) at PROA museum runs until 19th June and then moves to Brazil in July. Curator, Philip Larratt-Smith, compiled this show as the notes from her therapy sessions recently came to light and spotlight her troubled mental state. In the capital of psychoanalysis, this theme makes perfect sense.

The work of Bourgeois focuses on sexuality, human interactions and troubled family dynamics. Her father’s affair with her English governess gravely affected Bourgeois and this can be seen in the exhibits entitled ‘Cells’, specifically ‘Destruction of the Father’.

The intimate piece: Destruction of the father (Photo courtesy of PROA Museum)

In this work, there is a large rectangular hole cut out in the wall and along the floor and ceiling, large bulbous masses sprout, covered in red fabric surrounding a scary dining room setting. The red light in the exhibit gives the impression you are looking into a body cavity. She had some serious problems with her father and expressed herself through her art. He was constantly disappointed in her as a child, and was a domineering man with an explosive temper, never mind the constant infidelities.

Another piece in ‘Cells’, is the ‘Red Room’. You come upon a circular arrangement of panels, which forces you to peek through the cracks to see a sparse red bedroom. The bedspread is blood red with red pillows and a white pillow with ‘je t’aime’ embroidered in red thread. You never get a good look at the room because you are forced to spy around the panels and through the cracks and you feel very much the voyeur Bourgeois forces you to be; spying on the bedroom where parents’ sexuality is usually hidden behind closed doors.

The explanation on the wall states: “In the present work Red Room (parents) she reconstructs the scene of a child voyeur who spies on adult desire. Red is the colour of blood and passion present on the scene centrally focused on the bed – the key of life, birth, death, sexual encounter, and home.”

These themes are a constant in Bourgeois’ creative art and feminine touches are felt all throughout the exhibit. Bourgeois adored her mother and her death in 1932 spurred Bourgeois to abandon her mathematics focus at the Sorbonne and focus on her art work instead. She studied at Académie de la Grande Chaumière and École des Beaux-Arts, drawing on her father’s infidelities as well as her feelings about motherhood for inspiration. Feminine touches can be seen all throughout the exhibit; the use of embroidery, knitting, but most of all, representations of breasts.

The piece ‘Maman’ (not the spider outside) in the Red Room is a frightening representation of women’s breasts. In this piece, the breasts double as the teeth of a mother’s mouth, giving a terrifying view of a feeding. They are painted in blood red and the symbolism of literally drips from the canvas.

Maman stands outside the PROA (Photo courtesy of PROA Museum)

The more famous piece, ‘Maman’ sits out front of La PROA at the entrance to the museum. This frightening representation of motherhood is softened by the care that we see the spider takes with her egg sack underneath. The sharp hard steel edges of the spider’s legs do not make one think of a warm and inviting and caring mother.

The main exhibition room on the first floor is full of statues in various media. Some are made of stone, others bronze, while others are knit wool. For the most part, the scale of the statues is a lot smaller than the photos make them out to be. Some of the figurines are surprisingly small in stature, the piece ‘Seven in bed’ was not to human scale at all.

Bourgeois makes human figures that she knit herself over the years. The ‘women’s work’ of embroidery and knitting are interestingly woven into works of art full of self-doubt, fear, insecurity and intimacy issues, turning the normal view of femininity on its head. The embroideries are on hand kerchiefs and tapestries, which one usually associates with domestic bliss, but the words sewn in describe a woman full of fear. Her anxieties manifested themselves in agoraphobia and issues surrounding family dynamics.

Her relationship with her sons was strained and ultimately resulted in their estrangement. This can be seen in her work ‘He Disappeared into Complete Silence’, a series of nine engravings each with a drawing and accompanying text. This work is on the back wall of the very first room of the whole exhibition. The last panel, ‘lamina 9′, tells the tale of a troubled mother-son relationship. The mother worries about the state of the world and the dangers it holds for her child. He resents the smothering and leaves her, ultimately leaving her to die alone, never knowing his mother’s fate.

Freud played a heavy role in Louise Bourgeois’ life. She went to therapy to work through her issues and used the intensely creative outlet of her varied art pieces to express her feelings. The exhibit leaves a lasting impression on the viewer and you find yourself coming back to her pieces in your mind after seeing her mind on display.

Right next to the colorful, lively avenue Caminito in La Boca stands Fundación Proa, one of Buenos Aires’s most modern and serene art galleries, which is now hosting the exhibit Urban Spaces, a collaboration by five German photographers.

The 45 large-scale photographs represent the works of Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth, who represent five artists of the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

Image courtesy of Fundación Proa

Thomas Struth, Cerro Morro Solar, Peru, 2003

The Urban Spaces exhibit includes photos taken over the course of eighty years by different photographers, focusing on the transformation of the concept of a city with contemporary culture at the points of view of the five artists.

The striking photos are a product of the artists’ collaboration of ideas as well as some individual works from their careers and while they studied under Bernd and Hilla Bucher, who transformed the importance of the city into an interpretation by the artist.

The concept was a result of dialogue between the artists and the curator, showing contrasting interpretations of the urban space.  The images blend critical detail with sentiments that are associated with each city.  The artists focus on the relationship between the human and the space that surrounds him, as well as the anthropological and social factors that affect the interaction.

Viewers stand in front of gigantic detailed prints of these amazing photos and find themselves engulfed in each scene. One could admire Andreas Gursky’s panorama of a vast rock concert in Mexico City for hours, studying the details of each person in a crowd of thousands.

Image courtesy of Fundación Proa

Andreas Gursky, Tote Hosen, 2000

Images include cityscapes of early 20th century vintage Paris to the rural slums of Peru to flashing lights of modern Hong Kong.  There are also some shots of Buenos Aires landmarks such as inside the exquisitely adorned Casa Rosada, which astounds both the visitor and local.

Occupying four separate rooms, the exhibit is sure to spark interest in any spectator but not bore those who don’t consider themselves art aficionados.  The images from around the world will awe any traveller, offering a journey to distant, intriguing cities for only ten pesos (six for students).

When you visit Fundación Proa, be sure to visit the bookstore, which offers a wide selection of books on Latin American art and the history of Argentina through images.  Afterwards, go up to the gallery’s café for an elegant lunch and delicious coffee, overlooking the water and bustle of the Caminito.

The exhibit, which will last until the end of July, is surely worthwhile for anyone craving a bit of culture. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am to 7pm, located at Av. Pedro de Mendoza 1929. They offer 45 minute guided tours at 3pm and 5pm each day, and an additional tour at noon on weekends.  Email [email protected] for group accommodations and visits in English.  For more information visit www.proa.org.

‘El Consultorio del Psicoanalista’, Leandro Erlich

Upon entering Fundación Proa’s newly expanded and renovated gallery, everything transforms. As the glass door gently shuts on la Boca’s riotous colour, clashing tango scores and noxious river smells, a hushed, rarefied space opens up a different kind of spectacular experience.

Erik Satie’s gentle piano music ushers us past the pristine white reception into a darkened exhibition room, where a screen shows disoriented protagonists coming and going in a strange illusory space. These members of the public stare at their own ghostlike reflections in glass, which, detached from reality, appear projected onto the scene of a typical psychoanalyst’s office beyond.

Further through the building, we pass a diverse selection of video works from around the world, brought together in an initiative by the Whitechapel Gallery London. These include flickering super-8 reels revealing CIA agents’ double lives, a documentary showing a hypnotic clothing production line, a childlike plasticine animation, and an interview with philosopher Noam Chomsky, in which the sound is muted from time to time, as questions are asked.

Finally, as if in the completion of a cycle, we arrive at the very same installation space in which the dislocated actors of the first video were filmed. The tides turn, for having accepted the role of passive ‘watcher’ for the first part of the work, we now become its protagonists.

Argentine artist Leandro Erlich’s ‘El Consultorio del Psicoanalista’ confronts us with a spectral mirror-image of ourselves, projected onto the scene of an office containing a leather couch, a psychoanalyst’s chair and a formal desk, in front of heavy, dark wood bookshelves. A psychological play ensues in which we see our phantom ‘doubles’ sitting in various positions, moving between the role of psychoanalyst and patient and entering into new relationships with the other strangers who have found themselves part of this illusion.

Still from ‘Jean Factory’, Ali Kazma

“People act differently in institutional frameworks,” says Chomsky, in Cornelia Parker’s film interview elsewhere in the gallery, and we recognise this as we smugly admire our prowess from behind the grand psychoanalyst’s desk of Erlich’s installation.

Chomsky’s point extends beyond psychoanalysis, however, to the role conflicts of those who sit in other important offices of power. He points out that while someone in the role of a father might want to protect the long-term welfare of his children, the same man, in the role of politician or business boss, may make decisions that are detrimental to the well being of society. “You can be one thing at home,” he states, “and elsewhere you can be consciously destroying the world in an institutional role.”

Erlich’s work leads us to understand such role conflicts and dual identities as being tied up in the everyday spaces we find ourselves in. In previous works he destabilised the domestic realm, making a living room with mirrors that don’t reflect, and a disorienting carousel wheel containing the various spaces of a house. By de-naturalising domestic and institutional settings, he makes us think about how they subtly define the terms of our daily social relationships. While one way of acting might seem normal in one place, it would be out of place in another.

“The mirror interests me because of its optical simplicity and its conceptual richness and complexity,” Erlich says of his repeated use of the motif in his work. In the context of ‘El Consultorio del Psicoanalista’, the mirror hits on key psychoanalytic ideas. Freud’s concept of ‘narcissism’ and Lacan’s ‘mirror stage’ both relate to our formation of an ego ideal, through looking at our own image.

Still from ‘Chomsky Abstract’, Cornelia Parker

Erlich’s piece renders us as both the watcher and the watched. Even after leaving the show, this notion seems to follow us into the gallery’s corridors, bookshop and café, since the very design of the new building reflects its inhabitants in glass and frames space in such a way as to allow us both to observe and to be observed.

As we walk up the staircase we are on show in the main exhibition room. We later watch chefs in the café, neatly framed by an oblong window, and spy on the bookshop from the mezzanine above.

“The auditorium is the place from which the spectator watches,” says Fundación Proa’s president Adriana Rosenberg on the exhibition’s concept. “In the contemporary world any space can be transformed into an auditorium.” This idea remains relevant not only throughout the architecture, but as we look beyond into the barrio itself, with the glass facade and the luxurious balcony providing new vistas onto the river front.

Fundación Proa’s La Boca setting seems to be greatly celebrated by the gallery, despite the obvious disconnection between its churchlike spaces, and the outside clamour. Its lines and architecture are embraced in Facundo de Zuviría’s abstracted photographs, which are on display in huge books, collaged together with images of the gallery’s architecture, as if to mend any disjuncture.

Photo from ‘Proa en La Boca’, Facundo de Zuviría

Artist Erlich himself has a special connection with La Boca. In his first ever conceptual work, he planned the construction of an obelisk in the barrio with the same dimensions as the one in 9 de Julio but in rust coloured steel. Although never completed, it was an important start to his subsequent analysis of space and dislocation. “I was looking to bring the most important symbol of the city to its margins, to decentralise it and redefine it,” he says.

While most of the city’s art institutions populate the centre and the richer barrios, Fundación Proa also beckons us out towards the margins, where the clean, stylish lines of its architecture frame its spectators against the backdrop of industrial horizons, clashing colours and an iconic river.

‘Art in the Auditorium’ runs until 26th April 2009 at Fundación Proa, 1929 Avenida Pedro de Mendoza, La Boca, Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 8pm, admission $10, or $6 for students, 11 4104 1000, www.proa.org