51 years after Sculpture, Foliage and Noises, the first open-air exhibition organized by the Center for Art and Communication (CAyC), the artist and theoretician from La Plata, Carlos Ginzburg, activated at the MUNTREF Headquarters at the Immigrants’ Hotel, Km 0 BIENALSUR, a work tribute to the work of 1970: MYCORHIZES.

Curated by Diana Wechsler, BIENALSUR’S Artistic Director, on Friday, November 19, a special BIENALSUR production was presented at the Immigrants’ Hotel Headquarters of the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) that pays homage to the project Sculpture, Foliage and Noises, made in 1970 in the Plaza Rubén Darío in the City of Buenos Aires by the Center for Art and Communication (CAyC). The multidisciplinary art organization centered on the concept of systems art, then headed by Jorge Glusberg, had Ginzburg, Víctor Grippo, Clorindo Testa, Jacques Bedel, and Luis Fernando Benedit as some of its leading figures. Sculpture, Foliage and Noises was its first open-air exhibition, seed and antecedent, also, of the formation of the Group of 13, and constituted a moment for the introduction of a concept that would be key in the poetics of his art: the ‘social context’.

On that occasion, Ginzburg presented the Network of Trees action, in which he used posters and tied several trees in the square with white ribbons to poetically signify that they could communicate through foliage. 51 years after its completion, the artist –who was born in the city of La Plata in 1946 and has lived and worked in Paris since 1972– took possession of the atrium of the MUNTREF, which is Km 0 of BIENALSUR, with a concept similar to that of 1970 (it is a version almost formally analogous to the original), but reformulated and adjusted to the scientific knowledge of the 21^st century, with an ecologically different sense. His work MYCORHIZES. Trees communicate with each other through an ‘ecological internet’ formed by the root-fungus symbiosis, focuses on one of the most urgent problems of our time: environmental sustainability.

This reversal of Ginzburg’s work –which is part of the Environmental Awareness curatorial axis, under which in 2021 BIENALSUR has also presented exhibitions such as Radical Ecologies, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Boca; Landscape in focus. Perspectives from the present, at the Emilio Caraffa Provincial Museum of Fine Arts in Córdoba; the installations of The Water Office, at the MUNTREF Immigrants, and Amphibious Laboratory of the Rio de la Plata in Tecnópolis, among others–, is made with recyclable materials and arose from a recent discovery: there are certain fungi that generate symbiotic links with the roots of trees, through which these can connect with each other forming a kind of “ecological internet”. These symbiotic associations between fungi and plant roots are called mycorrhizae, mycorhizes in French.

“It is an honor to receive Carlos –who has not worked in Argentina for a long time– here at MUNTREF and within the framework of this third edition of BIENLASUR, because this has to do with what we always propose, which is to try to recover the best of Argentine art”, said the General Director of BIENALSUR, Aníbal Jozami.

Within the framework of the Ginzburg activation, the last BIENALSUR 2021 inauguration in the City of Buenos Aires, the book Carlos Ginzburg. Philosophy and ready made by other means, recently edited by Hugo F. Romero, was presented. With a prologue by Horacio Zabala and a design by Argentine artist Sergio Moscona, the publication offers a review of the work of the artist born in La Plata from 1966 to the present, also narrating his extraordinary journeys.

“Almost the entire artistic life of Carlos is included, not all of it because it is very broad, but for the same reason it has a particularity that is that each chapter ends in a QR code; It is a book that will continue to be created,” said Romero.

Carlos Ginzburg has developed an intense work as an artist and theoretician. Throughout his career, he has worked with art critics and historians such as Jorge Glusberg, Germano Celant, Pierre Restany and Severo Sarduy and has had individual exhibitions at 3e Rue Galerie, in Paris; Susan Conde Gallery, in New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, in Los Angeles; Carrillo Gil Museum, in Mexico City, among other spaces. He has also participated in group exhibitions at international institutions such as Fondation Cartier, Wurttemburgischer Kunstverein, Slought Foundation, MoMA PS1, Moderna Museet, and Camden Arts Center, among others. His work has been acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Center Pompidou, the National Fund for Contemporary Art in Paris and the Reina Sofía National Museum, among others.

MYCORHIZES. The trees communicate with each other through an ‘ecological internet’ formed by the root-fungus symbiosis can be visited free of charge –like all the exhibitions and installations that are part of the Km 0 BIENALSUR– until the end of December, from Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., prior reservation through the Museum View MUNTREF mobile application (available in Google Play Store and Apple App Store) or by email to visitasmuntref@untref.edu.ar.