Facundo de Zuviría: Siesta Argentina and other modest observations at Americas Society
Facundo de Zuviría: Siesta Argentina and other modest observations at Americas Society
The exhibition snaps right into a familiar framework of ordered photographic thinking that drove many artists to walk their own streets in search of the overlooked.
Comments/Context: One of the critical consequences of an increasingly globalized world of photography is the way that it shows us the broad commonality of our experiences. When we encounter pictures from a far off continent, we inevitably pattern match what we’re seeing against the fabric of our own lives, tallying up both the unique differences and unexpected similarities that we find. Even when time and space are significantly out of synch, we once in a while discover a kind of serendipitous connection that seems to echo across our these usually stubborn boundaries, forcing us to ponder the trajectories of invisible influence or the wonders of independent parallel discovery.
Like countless photographers who have packed up their cameras and walked their streets of their home cities, the Argentinian photographer Facundo de Zuviría has marked his days as a persistent urban wanderer. And while others have memorably shown us the overlooked details and surfaces of New York, or Paris, or Rome, or even Tokyo, de Zuviría has spent his life in Buenos Aires, restlessly pacing up and down its blocks as governments have come and gone and economic vibrancy has ebbed and flowed. And like all great cites, Buenos Aires has its own rhythms, and de Zuviría has spent his photographic career patiently waiting for her to offer them up.
The centerpiece of this show is a set of 36 black and white photographs made in 2001. For those less familiar with Argentinian economic history, it was in this year that facing the pressures of increasing capital flight from the country (created by worries about economic stagnation/recession), the government froze bank accounts in a measure later nicknamed the corralito, thereby preventing citizens from converting their pesos to dollars or withdrawing large amounts in any currency. Not surprisingly, this sudden lack of liquidity (i.e. cash) created a protracted crisis situation, ultimately leading to the devaluation of the peso….
Read the full art review here.
