It is possible that the visitor get his or her stomach turned. But that is not going to be it. The body, that always tends to scatter, also seeks balance.
We are in the presence of three artists that represent the body, the human body as an element and as a metaphor of existence. It is not the Other's body, which can be modeled from one`s look, but one`s own body, the inner perception, what we feel with eyes closed. The emphasis is on the visceral, but again, do not expect the torn muscles of -since we talk about affiliations- Carlos Distefano, Norberto Gómez and Alberto Heredia; nor the turgidity of the Antonio Berni`s ramonas , nor the fiber of Pablo Suarez` chongos. This is a primal body, say pre-verbal. It is the drive of the flesh, of the embryo, of the cancer that ultimately will end up forming some kind of consciousness, an intellect which, by the way, is increasingly decisive in the biological building of humanity. But we don`t need to go that far.
Renart's work operates in the theoretical field, it is a manifesto that advances without brakes through disciplinary boundaries. The Bio-cosmos No. 1 (1962), emerges as a drawing -perhaps a pubis, the origin of the world- that becomes a painting and, from its material plane, jumps into space, lands its claws in the room, scans the panorama and goes for more. His breakthrough is fundamental in the history of Argentine art. The artist wonders how far a work of art can get, and the creature develops authonomsly, adrift, coming to theory from pure experience. No dalliances or speculation.
As Renart, Harte pieces are halfway between painting and sculpture. Wall sculptures, paintings that rise from the floor: clearly his forte is volume, the representation of a degenerate body that reaches moments of great joy and of course, absolute horror. Is there, by any chance, anything gloomier than the anus, the mouth of the abyssal serpent that is the digestive tract? We warned that this could be disgusting. And it is. Harte confronts us with the vertigo of a lush body, without control or censorship. He refers to the material, not so much for the matter itself (polyester resin with fiberglass and putty camouflaged with paint) as for the flowing, the constant transformation of matter. Therefore, Harte´s representation, which is clear, is also relative, when resin, so good for polychrome mimesis, shows itself as it is, translucent and divine. There are also insects, real insects, the least animal incarnation of animals, which are also expressed in their corporeality while fulfilling their interpretive role in a fiction that confuses them with pearls and fairies.
Harte does not give up the narrative, the stigma of the contemporary work of art. Although the curator Gustavo Marrone has chosen his most abstract pieces, in the selection it is still possible to see the remnants of Harte`s earlier work that alludes to pop, comic, science fiction and, why not, surrealism (Fermin Eguia could be another of his parents). Yes, a flood of references, perhaps too many; Harte, as Renart, is elusive and lush.
Furtado, no doubt, is the most placid of the three but, at the same time, no less intense. Her sculptures, which retain the pictorial pleasure of color and brightness, fail to define a form, they are just hints. The same erratic drive of her predecessors but in a calmer tempo. Definitely abstract, their protoforms allow the material to take on his own life. Matter as an entity, denied to any interpretation, to any word. But the material speaks for itself, it is inevitable. The pieces tell about their constructive origin, their course through the world, their history. They have traces of the hands that molded them, they are smashed, broken. Unlike the works that accompany them, that one day by determination of the author were ready, signed, finished, Furtado` pieces remain unfinished and will be never complete. Surely, from their being in this room, they will get scratches and yet continue to be themselves. And of course, others.
It is for this elusive attitude of constant transformation, that Marrone's work becomes relevant. It is a natural offspring that, as it usually happens in these cases, was sought. Harte recognizes Renart as one of his influences. Furtado attended Harte`s workshop. However, production of each of these artists requires a series of wide and varied readings and interpretations. Here there is no DNA test that is valid. Often on a whim one wants to establish an affiliation, name it, draw an historical line. Silence is unbearable. Naming is the human urgency. And Marrone does it tactfully, without violating the polysemy that these bodies proclaim.
The affiliation is then exercised from a double command that alternates between gratitude and independence. One kills the father while they inherit. It is the example of Renart when, holding on to informalism, he breaks with the past and gets out of it into the transformation of things, to end up proposing a comprehensive art that is the conclusion of everything. If asked who they are, Renart, Harte, Furtado don`t say anything, they answer with the body.