Galería Isla Flotante
2024

In "Las Vueltas", Valentin Demarco takes us on a journey through time along a route without signs, transforming the gallery space into a field for rewriting history. Delicate silver craftsmanship, recovered objects, installations inspired by minimalist principles with a Buenos Aires twist, and an audiovisual piece come together in this exhibition that advocates for a modern, provincial, and decidedly unresolved narrative. Demarco's artistic research has incorporated silversmithing for nearly a decade, operating in this series of works as both a formal resource and reflective material engaging with multiple conceptualizations.

Figures like Jorge Cafrune, Egle Martín, Héctor Vázquez Brust, Raffaella Carrà, and Dante Emiliozzi –famous or not– star in or inspire small scenes that raise questions about transcendence and life as we strive for it. Similarly, in a counterfactual game, they reimagine alternative or reparative events.

The exhibited objects and installations showcase the complex relationship between art, craft, and design. Take, for instance, the ornate gearshifts adorned with striking silver and bronze knobs. Demarco revives a fashion trend from Olavarría in the 1960s, where luxury horse accessories were repurposed for cars, symbols of progress and desire.

Interestingly, these accessories never became traditional objects. Here, silversmithing and automobilism coexist as symbols of Argentine identity and aspiration, both rural and urban, while engaging in a contradictory dialogue between manual and industrial production.

Tradition and industrialization are integral to the local imagination, particularly the vision of Buenos Aires Province from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. The video "Yapeyú" –featuring Raffaella Carrà, Jorge Cafrune, and the Ford Falcon Angostado– combines these elements, introducing complexity to Argentine identities.

Demarco's production occupies the oscillation between art and design, craft and industry, utility and futility. His originality lies in the dialectic between obsessive manual labor and dense conceptual frameworks.

His aesthetic pursuit seems to escape imperfection, instantaneity, and randomness, yet calculation and obsessive concentration allow whimsy and anecdote to seep in. Technical skills imply knowledge and expertise, whereas industrial production emphasizes technological advancements and mass marketability.

In rural Argentina, however, tekné and industrial production converge through culture and social aspirations. Valentín Demarco brings together both paths in "Las Vueltas" with complexity and naturalness.

Photo credits: Muerta de arte

Galería Isla Flotante
2024

Photo credits: Muerta de arte