Porter and his “Unfinished Tales”: the world shattered

The Ruth Benzacar gallery presented “Unfinished Stories” by Liliana Portera new series of works where a violence is expressed that, In today’s Argentina -even in today’s world-, it acquires a dimension linked to reality. The fiction of a catastrophe, the disasters of broken objects and piled up and also broken chairs, transmit sensations that are confused with the reality of the tragedy of a country in crisis and the news about wars.

In the immaculate spaces of the immense white room and on a platform, everything is shattered. There is a crystal chandelier with some lights still on, the hands and some clock parts scattered next to the collapsed Donald Duck. There you can see the presence of some characters of minimal size, such as the head of a ceramic doll with Japanese features or a Muslim looking at the portrait of a Renaissance monk.

The installation remembers that other destruction, that of “The Man with the Axe” who broke a grand piano and hundreds of objects in an exhibition that a little over a decade ago reached Malba and also Ruth Benzacar. When the artist was consulted about that character, she answered: “It destroyed everything in its path, it is a metaphor for time, for memory, for what is built, destroyed and rebuilt during life. Now everything is broken. ‘The man with the ax’ was already there, he broke everything and now it’s her turn. “She has to sweep.”. And there the sweeper is so tiny, with its broom and an immense amount of crockery or broken plates in front of it. The quantity far exceeds its capacity.

The character belongs to the series called “Forced labor”, when the endeavors of some short characters of just a few centimeters became excessive. Looking at his efforts, Porter observes: “You can realize that they will never be able to fulfill their purpose. But the good thing about it is that she herself is eager to accomplish it and only ignorance of the magnitude of what she intends to do gives her the energy.”.

Porter’s art lies in the selection of characters. And right there, on the stage, a man appears with a destructive-looking pickaxe that brings to mind the title of the exhibition. “Unfinished stories” It takes us back to the beginning of this text, to the relationship between the fictions of art and the violence of real life that, far from concluding, is strengthened.

Lucid and sophisticated, the artist poses with her “cast” of dolls and toys, the circumstances that man goes through. In collaboration with the Uruguayan artist Ana Tiscornia, she presents a video where phrases cut from books appear such as: “What will be of me?” or “Although it seems strange”. With apparent innocence, multiple meanings overlap, the characters dialogue and dazzle the viewer with their expressiveness and the intensity of the feelings they express.

The Spanish theorist Estrella de Diego observes: “The artist presents stimulating proposals for a world and about a world that needs to be narrated anew. That’s why Porter breaks it, disorganizes it, even assaults it, displaying extraordinary acuity at every step. In her brilliant narrative games, in that world of apparent trifles, there lies relentlessly a subversive line that breaks the gaze and the calm, which announces at every step a certain luminous possibility of disobedience in the spectators as well..

Porter settled in New York in 1964.. There he met Luis Camnitzer and José Guillermo Castillo and together they founded the famous New York Graphic Workshop. Apparently, the level of self-criticism was “fierce.” Thus they came to the conclusion that the engraving was “too locked into the technique, forgetting about ideas or new proposals.” And a tide of texts tells the story of the revolution that the three created. From then on, the young artist’s conceptual games, full of humor and irony, arrived at MoMA and consolidated her international fame.

When the Twin Towers blew up, Porter lived less than ten blocks away and had his personal experience with a catastrophe. He soon moved to the Hudson Valley, two hours from Manhattan. From there, with Ana Tiscornia, program for 2024 an exceptional year. Added to the Benzacar exhibition is the collective one from the Proa Foundation that arrived from Milan with Andrés Duprat and after the middle of the year, a large exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts curated by the Mexican Humberto Moro. Meanwhile, in Spain it continues with two exhibitions. And for June it is being prepared with a large installation at the Dia Art Foundation. Moro invited her to the beautiful house that the American minimalist, Dan Flavindesigned in the Hamptons, the seaside paradise where powerful New Yorkers vacation.