SMOKE & MIRRORS
As an old custom in Corrientes Avenue, the viewer is constantly subjected to unmistakable signs that tell their passage through the right place. The timing also is right. Each establishment has its own way of drawing attention, inviting us to a new adventure. In reality the mechanisms are, and will be the same here and in any other in entertainment strip around the world.
In Corrientes, the buildings lose their architectural identity, as they become a backdrop and support to their temporary exteriors. Great neon signs, fake facades with historic reminiscence, ingenious trompe l'oeil that rely on partial darkness, large queues to enter an empty club, any trick is useful to draw our attention.
Smoke and Mirrors confronts the viewer that walks down the street as a great summary of the mechanisms of seduction. It also make a parody of the sad side of show bussines: The exclusion; the show is not for everyone, if the illusion is – It’s even public.
At first sight, it hides any trace of fun or exciting activity. However, the large windows covered with paint, lets through traces of light and visual evidence of space that automatically attract our curiosity. It’s the negation and the insinuation that makes you want to know what is happening in there, through that painted facade reminiscent of a store in process of being remodeled. Lights and smoke. Sound waves that collide against the window, which vibrates and draws even more attention. It is the excuse of an unfinished work that serves as a Machiavellian, confusing marquee. A great device that does not sell anything, it is covered and leads to doubts and expectations. A big smokescreen, container for machines that generate light and noise. From inside, the piece is crystal clear. It consists of a cluster of objects that take advantage of the almost zero visibility outside, curiously choreographed. Useless and shameless from the inside
Through collections of objects and materials of daily use, Santiago Taccetti defines various aspects of our current society. These elements, apparently so far apart from each other, are able to define a specific situation, taking into account their multiple references to make a careful reading. In these sets there are hints to different universes that coexist with the same status, politics and pop in particular.
A VW Beetle manufactured in Brazil was never an exact copy of its German equivalent, nor of the Mexican model. Not even a single model of shoes manufactured in China or Korea. Nor is the phenomenon of the popular acceptance of the Rolling Stones in Argentina in relation to other countries and how it has developed over the years. It is subtle, absurd if you will, but we talk about different landscapes generated by universal elements apparently identical.
Taccetti looks through these generic elements to explain a situation, squeezing all aspects of object-apparently anonymous- that tells us something about context or identity. Looking for accidents or small scars in the global, nothing is exactly the same when it shifts from place to place and it those small details that conform the discourse of his work.
Enrique Giner de los Ríos