Work by Rosario artist was selected by the UN and will be exhibited in Geneva

(By Hugo Lucero) The work of the Rosario plastic artist, Carlos Clementt, “Poverty CEO”, which symbolizes the cry of protest against the economic theory of spillovers, will be exhibited in August 2024 at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland), after being chosen by that organization, among more than 3,000 works from all over the world.

The work was selected in the Economic Justice category within the framework of the #ImagineEquality call, launched by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (Unrisd), on the 60th anniversary of its founding.

The global call to artists was made through social networks under the slogan “#ImagineEquality: Releasing the power of imagination to create a better world”, and it is the first time that a plastic artist from the city of Rosario is chosen by the UN, to exhibit his art internationally.

Members of the UN and international artists participated in the jury and the result of the competition was announced by Unrisd on September 18.

Clementt’s work consists of a painting measuring one meter by one meter, made on sheet metal, with collage and mixed techniques, which will be exhibited in Geneva from August 10 to 20 of next year, according to the Rosario artist, 67, to the Télam agency.

“My particularity is that I paint on unconventional supports, I use material that I find on the street, that others throw away, I redefine it and then turn it into works of art,” explained the artist.

The UN call came two months ago “and then I decided to send a painting that I made in 2021, inspired by the Panama Papers, the allegations of tax evasion and money laundering.”

“All of this produced great indignation in me and in many people and I ended up expressing it in a work that I called “CEO Poverty”, which was now chosen among more than 3,000 works from around the world by the UN,” the artist stressed, talk about his work, a criticism of what is known as the trickle-down effect, which proposes reducing taxes on companies and the most powerful sectors of society to stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society in general in the long term , which in practice does not happen.

“The truth is, I did not expect this international recognition and I am proud that my work has been chosen among countless painters and artists from Europe, Asia, Africa and America,” said Clementt.

In the center of the painting appears “the distorted face of a person screaming” and “that scream that can be associated with the ‘Munch Scream’ – by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch – is one of indignation, it is a protest against the anguish caused by that great lie of the ‘economic spillover theory’,” he said.

In this picture, he also imagines “a world where the concentration of wealth is not in the hands of a few, where those who have the least can cover their needs and do not watch the gold poured out by the powerful,” he added.

Clementt began his career as an artist 30 years ago painting surfboards in Brazil and today, among other activities, he teaches art therapy classes at institutions that treat drug addictions in Rosario.

“I use art so that these people with addiction problems begin to open up and express themselves,” explained the artist and pointed out that the tools he uses to paint the paintings “are not very conventional either.”

“I use a lot of latex left over from house paint, I use spatulas to decorate cakes and those used by house painters, as well as brushes to clean glass,” he revealed.

Within the framework of this competition, Argentina and Cameroon are the only two countries with four artists selected by Unrisd. In the case of Argentina, in addition to Clementt, the works of the Argentine Otto Soria were chosen in other categories, with his work “Sube Baja”; Priscila Freire, with “Hospital Closed”, and Rubén Barrio, with “The Scream of the Dragonfly”.