Title: Uruguay: A Common Ground

Artist: Alejandro Cesarco, Magela Ferrero

Curator: Clio E. Bugel

Venue: Giardini

According to Clio E. Bugel, the curator for A Common Ground by Alejandro Cesarco and Magela Ferrero, there are three inextricably related working hypotheses on which this exhibition for the Uruguay Pavilion is based. The first is the fact that affectivity remains a central axis in contemporary local artistic production. The exhibition puts forth two antithetical notions of this idea: one extreme is the personal diary, a written and visual work in progress by Magela Ferrero; and another, the discourses and metadiscourses about language, that somehow substitute the declarations and longings for love in Alejandro Cesarco’s constant need to shed light on what is said. The second hypothesis is that the common ground is expressed through the way in which the artists choose to retell issues from their own personal history. The third and final hypothesis is that the common ground ends up being, above all else, an affective space that many of us avoid for the sake of prudence, prejudice, or vanity, provoking a flight or infinite race forward, wherever that may be.

The need to call upon a shared territory is key to this work, with Venice as the gathering place for these two Uruguayan artists. However though these hypotheses may be inextricably linked to the work, it is particularly hard for the viewer to comprehend it, and one is instead left feeling slightly deflated and confused.

Emily Burke