Persistence of Desire

Artist list

Fabiola Ahumada, Alejandra Bahamón, Ana Calbucci, Clara Cisterna, Mónica Diaz Pinto, María Laura Egea, Ani Flys, Paola Francia, Lorena Gallegos, Lidia Godfrid, Holland Houdek, Paola Iglesias, Patricia Iglesias, Lorena Jarpa, Meta Joanknecht, Cecilia Kesman, Marisa Kesman, Ji Young Kim, Mar López, Luz Ángela Medina, Renata Meirelles, María Rosa Mongelli, Stephie Morawetz, Caro Moya, Györgyi Mátyók, Solmaz Niazi, Yael Olave, Natalia Piderit, Wanda Romano, Carmen Romero, Natalia Romero, Verónica Sánchez, Vivian Urmeneta, Liu Yang, Jeanine van der Linde

The Appearance of Things or the Desire in the Hands.
for Patricia Iglesias Scepanovic
Textile Artist / Contemporary Jeweler

I realized the role an artist can play in highlighting the traumas of an era and initiating a healing process. This has to do with medicine or what people call alchemy or shamanism.
/ Joseph Beuys

Material quality, Surface, or appearance of things is the definition of materiality. On the other hand, material pertains to matter, as opposed to the spiritual and abstract, and matter is anything that has mass and occupies space.

A material is an element that can be transformed, adopting all kinds of forms and experiencing all kinds of changes. This capacity of matter is what interests the artist, wanting to use it as the basis for their works.

For object-based artistic creation, material support is essential to realize ideas. Understanding its characteristics is necessary for the creator, who must comprehend the qualities, limits, and possibilities of modification offered by the chosen material.

Materials are distinguished by their manipulation processes: malleable or ductile materials—easily altered by hand—or rigid and resistant ones, requiring tools and techniques for modification. There are also materials that, after an almost alchemical transmutation through fire and high temperatures, become liquid and can be shaped however the artist desires. Traditional materials are known as noble and have been used since antiquity to create objects meant to last over time, unlike the objectives of prehistoric peoples, who used nearby elements not for permanence but for use.

The language of materiality consolidated with the emergence of Arte Povera, distancing itself from the traditional idea of sculpture built for eternity and introducing materials from diverse origins and behaviors. Since then, materials have become crucial to the conception of the work, often prevailing over form. Today, some artists use organic materials like rice or milk, while others consider time and atmospheric changes as fundamental elements in the transformation of matter. Some work with the idea of the ephemeral as an expressive element in their creations. In Latin America, particularly in the Southern Cone, based on what I have observed from our calls for submissions, where we encourage a process of exploration and experimentation, the choice of materials comes from the immediate surroundings, both from the territory and the domestic space. This generates relationships beyond the visual or plastic, with materials emerging from investigation, such as gauze, smoke, plastic, paper, goat leather, found wood, tea bags, banana peel, corn husk, algae, horsehair, wool, discarded clothing, and waste elements, among others. These materials reflect the culture and concerns of the artist, who builds narratives where the materials become the idea itself, with no difference between matter and form, idea and language.

The use of material and experimentation are part of the artist's language. The desire is in their hands, transforming to communicate what happens to them and to challenge us. Arthur C. Danto, in "After the End of Art," writes that art can resemble anything, made of any material, presented in any way.

We aim to open possibilities toward a more organic than linear reading, valuing material research that invites reflection on the tension between narrative and portability in the exhibition of pieces.
 
 
The Language of Objects.
For Lorena Jarpa
Experimental Artist / Contemporary Jeweler / Cultural Manager / Engraver.

If it's hard to love modern objects, it's because it's impossible to recognize the human hand in them, the mystery of craftsmanship. These things are owned, used, and discarded. Their decorative beauty can hide the waste and trash accumulated in places we don't see, but which nonetheless threaten to overflow.
/ Chilean psychoanalyst Constanza Michelson says in her essay 'Things Break'.
 
At first glance, an object is just a volume in space, devoid of value until it's given one. What makes an object valuable?
In a homogenized, standardized world, where difference is rare and imitation is seen as a way to belong, to integrate, many people's choices are manipulated by consumerism, leading to a pragmatic and nihilistic life. This has limited our ability to recognize ourselves and distinguish our most profound and honest desires. In this context, the value of things is often disguised or nullified.

Psychoanalyst Constanza Michelson says, "A world of things without cause can make our lives obsolete: things shape our inner territory." She adds that if so many things fail to generate affection, it's not because they break, but because they are commodities. They don’t create a home or reflect humanity, no matter how much design they carry.
The objects I have devoted hours, days, and years to, these "symbolic universes" we, as a community of creators, propose, have a "cause," as the psychoanalyst says, because they manifest through the senses. These objects take on a new function and value; they aim to be seen as extensions of identity and subjectivity, installed in and outside the body, displayed in galleries or intimate spaces. They propose and convey themes and materialities that reflect the artist's countless points of interest. They are provocative, engaging the senses, questioning portability, breaking boundaries, and challenging technique. They connect the inner world with the material universe, becoming a language—a whole formed by an idea, a reflective and constructive process intertwined with perception. They seek to answer paradigms, outline experiences, or express social concerns. Everything converges in object creation, exposed to be interpreted by the observer from their subjectivity. These objects are not just for contemplation but to interact with the body, space, and observer—a connection and a form of hosting.

During my more than twenty-year career, I have observed how contemporary jewelry has branched out from its initial phase into various approaches and discourses, always revealing new possibilities and creating a different order, perhaps to reimagine what is left outside, as Jacques Derrida suggests, thus delineating an "inner territory" (C.M.). A territory nourished by the principles of art, forming a counterproposal. Each artist rethinks the object and its re-signification in constant movement.

The creators of portable objects have established themselves globally, demonstrating, more than other artistic expressions, the capacity to unify through a shared language. They engage in ongoing dialogues across borders and disciplines, converging toward a common purpose, using reflection to understand our heritage, identity, our passage through life, and our future.

I quote Constanza Michelson again when she says, What's important is the objective that justifies it, which can be perverse, banal, or noble. To give meaning, hopefully, one that is longed for.

Here, the language goes beyond communicating; it's a manifestation of human traits, a response, growth. There is an internal conversation that is externalized in the object, full of poetic charge, guided by a discursive search based on each creator's diverse intentions. A second question arises: why does this need to expose the object with all its process persist? Observing the scene and its actors, it's clear that there is an intense search for being and purpose—an imperative need to project and leave a legacy that keeps existence and experience alive. These declarations are provocations, full of meaning, forming a narrative through the emotional function the creator imprints in the process of fixing an idea in an object. These are "things with causes."

Finally, as part of the curatorial process, we will focus on those objects with causes that take us out of the programmed being—pieces that offer an overflowing approach. We seek creators who connect with this opportunity to "unleash" the imagination and let expression flow.