/ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Arts Collection is Food for Thought

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 8 2004 (IPS) - Ham, cheese, smoked trout, deer meat paté and crackers are just some of the highly unconventional materials used by the Argentine art collective Mondongo for their latest exhibition, and they have clearly served as a "recipe" for success with the public, as well as collectors and museums around the world.

"We chose different materials to reinforce the ideas behind the works, but we don’t like to give explanations about their meaning, because each piece is the result of a long process of discussions among the three of us, and we want to leave the work open to interpretation," one of the members of Mondongo, Manuel Mendanha, told IPS.

The latest collection from the group – which also comprises Agustina Picasso and Juliana Laffitte – is on show at the Daniel Maman Fine Arts Gallery in Buenos Aires until Dec. 6. The title of the show – "What a Big Mouth" – could easily be referring to the dropped jaws of its viewers.

These are works of art unlike any others most of them have seen. The first three pieces are self-portraits of the three artists as children, and while they look like slightly out-of-focus photographs from a distance, a closer inspection reveals that they are actually composed of tiny bits of ham and cheese.

"We work with a vacuum sealing technique using a liquid called polyester resin," Laffitte explained. The artists obtain a variety of colours by freeze-drying the materials beforehand. "We’re continuously experimenting to achieve different shades," she added.

The group also used similar perishables to create a portrait of the White House and a reproduction of a Rembrandt painting.

But they turned instead to plasticine for a series of works recounting the tale of Little Red Riding Hood – although in their version, she runs off with the wolf at the end.

There are also pieces created with bits of coloured glass and feathers, as well as a giant lotus flower crafted from 300,000 chopsticks.

However, the works in the collection that have made the biggest impact are the pornographic images made from cookies. The Mondongo artists downloaded pictures from the Internet which they enlarged and then reproduced with tiny pieces of different flavoured cookies, creating varying shades of beige and brown.

Just days after the exhibit opened, the New York Museum of Modern Art purchased two of their works, while the Tate Gallery in London snapped up several others. The entire Little Red Riding Hood series has been reserved by local collectors. "We have already sold more than 70 percent of the works in the show," said Laffitte.

The three artists, all in their twenties, made their first big splash in 2000 with a series of plaster masks shown at the Recoleta Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires.

In 2002, they were given a show at the Braga Menendez Shuster Gallery, also in Buenos Aires, where the public got a taste of their unconventional approach to materials and subject matter. The exhibit included a portrait of singer Britney Spears crafted entirely from supermarket price stickers, and another of Pope John Paul II made with communion wafers.

But their big breakthrough, according to Laffitte, came after they were visited by a committee from Spain, headed by the secretary of state for Ibero-America, Miguel Cortéz. He asked them to submit a proposal for a portrait of the king and queen of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofia, and their son, Prince Felipe.

"They sent us photographs, we sent them a proposal including the materials we would use, and they gave us the approval to go ahead," she recalled. The portraits were made with bits of glass, reflecting the way the public is distanced from royalty. The value of their works immediately doubled.

The group’s works were shown outside Argentina for the first time in an exhibit at the Casa de America in Madrid from January to March of this year. In addition to the royal family portraits, the show featured a portrait of W alt Disney made from plasticine "worms", among other pieces.

Mendanha has no fear that the group will become the "Mondongo phenomenon". "We just do our work. Whether or not it’s fashionable is of no concern to us. If we can express what we want to express, then we’re satisfied, but we’re not going to work for the market," he said.

While some critics have labelled their work pop art, the artists themselves do not identify with any specific movement or style. "We’re not pop artists, and we don’t feel like we form part of any particular current. We have been influenced by a lot of artists, whose work we like, and not just by modern artists, but by Renaissance artists, too," Mendanha stressed.

In the meantime, visitors to the Daniel Maman Gallery in Buenos Aires continue to view their works with amazement, stepping back and then moving closer again in the search for meaning. But the artists are not worried that viewers will be so fascinated by the form that they will lose sight of the underlying substance.

"We can’t create on the basis of fears, we have to do what we think is right," said Laffitte.

Next year, Mondongo will reach an even wider audience, with a show scheduled to open in January in Los Angeles.