Centro Cultural Contraviento inaugurated Blackness, the new theme that will guide the exhibitions.
In this context, visual artist and writer Gustavo Charif (1966) displayed a wide range of works in the main hall of the Cultural Center.
In front of an audience curious about Charif's work and his vast and peculiar speech, the artist spoke with Rosario cultural manager, Lila Siegrist, and shared his thoughts on art in general and his work in particular.
“Conformist art that doesn't question anything is mere decorative and a scam”, he said as part of his artistic thinking.
According to Charif, “art is the possibility of not interacting with the other.” “In art, everyone says what they want and what they must. If not in art, where else?,” he reflected.
The artist
Charif is an artist difficult to categorize. He often defines himself as stateless due to his vast experience in different cities and cultures around the world.
With a long career spanning several disciplines, he can be defined as a very broad and eccentric artist who experiments tirelessly.
When explaining his artistic process, Charif stated: “I don't make many decisions, everything just appears on its own.”
“The most interesting things come out during crisis, as a reaction, because in freedom everything is already served,” he said.
The exhibition consists of different works, from oil paintings on canvas, a triptych collage, engravings in black ink, texts from a fictional story and about the concept of blackness, and even a 15-minute digital short film.
The exhibition
- “La exposición negra” [The Black Exhibition] (Oil on canvas - 55 x 42 cm).
- “El sistema de la caja negra” [The Black Box System] (2024). Triptych on Blackness (Oil, acrylic, pencil and collage on canvas - 110 x 180 cm).
- “Los grabados negros de Tulumba Yago” [The Black Engravings of Tulumba Yago], subdivided into three:
· “Los dibujos negros de Tulumba Yago” [The Black Drawings of Tulumba Yago] (2024), text on the homonymous fictional character created by the artist himself.
· 22 drawings (21 inks on 30 x 21 cm paper, and one on 50 x 35 cm paper).
· “Biografía de un enigma” [Biography of an Enigma] (2024), digital short film.
- “Lo negro en su nigérrima negrura” [Blackness in its Blackest Blackness] (2024). Text printed on a black panel with white letters.
