Contexto y proposito de la obra: Titulo: Velocidad de lanchas motoras Autora: Benedetta Cappa

Result #1

Contexto y proposito de la obra: Titulo: Velocidad de lanchas motoras Autora: Benedetta Cappa (If: Benedetta Cappa: Bicycle Wheel: Bicycle Wheel), 2014, watercolor on canvas, 21 1/2 x 19 7/8". From the series Autora: Benedetta Cappa, 2013–14. Photo: Steve McNamara. SOUNDING like a track record of events, the title of a work by the Argentinean artist Benedetta Cappa, presented here for the first time, is a nod to the intense intellectual and physical energy that fueled her work. The title suggests that Cappa explored the possibilities of the expressive in the face of all the repression of ideas in Argentina in the decades after the dictatorship. Cappas ambitious paintings, in which she used an amalgam of hard-edge, painterly, and collaged acrylic paint on canvas, hint at the idea of the organic as a way of organizing the world. The artist clearly saw the organic in the world, and, through her use of this language, she sought to comprehend the world from the point of view of its inhabitants. Cappas expressive vocabulary—from brushes, rag, and paint to thread, text, and sound—often evokes the organic, even as it functions in a world built around knowledge. The work in this show, São Paulo (São Paulo), 2014, for example, displayed the active and rhythmic qualities of the organic, as the composition of the sky reveals. In the foreground of this striking image, a pair of sky-blue hands and the word São Paulo appear, as if in a dream, like the organic. The second hand is seen from the top, like a hand of the gods; the bottom hand is seen from the side. In this way, Cappas work reveals the strength of the organic, and reveals its power to be the most powerful force. The body of the mind, which is the foundation of all things, is also an organic force, and the organic mind is the most powerful of all.

Result #2

Contexto y proposito de la obra: Titulo: Velocidad de lanchas motoras Autora: Benedetta Cappa (Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 52 7/8 x 45 5/8". In this show, a picture of a motorbike-cum-bicycle riding on a rooftop was titled Autora: Benedetta Cappa. It was a composite of a previous work, Autora: Benedetta Cappa, 2018, made up of three images, each titled Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa (Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa), 2018. The first was a three-part, unprimed work created for the exhibition and titled Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa (Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa), 2017. It was based on a picture from the exhibition Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa, 2018. The second was a three-part, unprimed work based on the same picture. The third, Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa, 2018, comprised three works, all titled Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa. The first was a composite of three images, titled Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa, 2017. The second was a collage made up of three photographs, all titled Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa. These works constituted a kind of collage, a kind of drawing on paper, a kind of copy. They all evinced a kind of teleological thinking, a kind of considering of the world. For instance, the title Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa, 2018, suggested a future, but the title Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa, 2018, was an alchemical ritual. The last works in the exhibition, titled Autorhythm: Benedetta Cappa, 2018, were sculptures. They were made of materials like galvanized steel, painted aluminum, and copper.

Result #3

Contexto y proposito de la obra: Titulo: Velocidad de lanchas motoras Autora: Benedetta Cappa (Fire: Benedetta Cappas motorbike: fire: Benedetta Cappa), 2014, wood, aluminum, steel, and glass, dimensions variable. From the series Autoridades, 2010–14, the last of which is an autonomous vehicle that could be driven by the driver, this show included several pieces made in collaboration with the artist. Among these was the Self-Portrait with a Ghost, 2012, a work inspired by the work of Salvador Dalí, an artist who was also a fan of Dada and who produced an installation using Dada objects that he had found in the garage. Another was The Sign, 2013, a work featuring an LED-signal sign that emitted a luminous light, similar to the type used by Dalí in his installation. The illumination, which emanated from the speakers attached to the body of the self-portable vehicle, was accompanied by a sound track composed by the New Agey Los Angeles collective, which also included an ambient electronic instrument, the name of which is self-proclaimed, space-age music. Other works in the show included a double-sided video, Autoridades (Self-Portraits), 2012, which chronicled the lives of seven members of the Los Angeles group Autoridades, a group formed in 2010 by the artists (including their de facto leader, Cappas) and two other individuals.The exhibition also included a gallery project titled Autoridades (Self-Portraits), 2015, whose title was borrowed from the title of an interview with Cappas, who discusses the show as a whole. In the course of the exhibition, the artist designed a series of portraits of seven Autoridades, including two by Cappas and two by the artists: one titled Autoridades (Self-Portraits), 2011, and the other Autoridades (Self-Portraits), 2012.

Result #4

Contexto y proposito de la obra: Titulo: Velocidad de lanchas motoras Autora: Benedetta Cappa (Autoromotive: Beads), 1998, is a double-edged work. With this piece, Cappa, who is a master of someones mind, reconstructs the past through the lens of a mad scientist. She places beads in a set of metal rods that move in unison, pulling at the beads and making them vibrate. The beads, like a brain, are very strange things: They are not parts of bodies or brains but rather objects of a sort that can be made and stored, like an object. Cappas work is a kind of mad science, and its most salient feature is its strangeness, as the artist is a mad scientist. The work is also a sort of message, a message that has no final meaning. Cappas objects are all about the process of making. For example, in Autoromotive: Beads, 1996, she uses ordinary rubber beads in a process that is so mesmerizing that it is almost a miracle that these beads have a tail. Cappas objects are hypnotic, as are the objects that she uses in her work. These objects are not to be used or seen; they are to be felt and looked at. Cappas objects are not only objects of making but also of giving, and her objects are meant to be experienced and made into objects. Autoromotive: Beads is a beautiful work, but its message is not."The museum was the first place in Barcelona where Cappas show took place, and the exhibition was divided into three parts. The first part of the show consisted of two pairs of sculptures, Autoromotive: Beads (Autoromotive: Beads) (all works 1999) and Autoromotive: Beads (Autoromotive: Beads), both of which were installed in a small room.

Result #5

Contexto y proposito de la obra: Titulo: Velocidad de lanchas motoras Autora: Benedetta Cappa (Benedetta: Wandering Wind), 2016, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 63". On the occasion of the opening of the second edition of her exhibition Pulsa, titled Pulsa: Sentimentalism in Contemporary Art, the former director of the Museu de Arte Contemporani de Barcelona, Ana Mendieta, made a powerful argument for the contemporary artist. The message of the show was clear: When the whole world is seen, it is more diverse than ever, and not only because we live in a time of globalization. In this light, a movement that emerged in the 80s and early 90s and has been strongly influenced by the present moment, of which the contemporary artist is no exception, seems to be currently evolving from within the fabric of the present moment. In the last decade, the contemporary artist has also expanded his horizons: Today, the formal and conceptual vocabulary of the contemporary artist has been expanded to include a wide range of disciplines and languages, and to include the technologies of communication, data, and computation. In fact, this latest exhibition, titled Pulsa: Sentimentalism in Contemporary Art, was organized by the museums director, Agnaldo Dubinaga, and consisted of six exhibition rooms, each devoted to a single work. A good deal of the works here were based on the figures of the artists friends, but there were also many abstractions, drawings, and installations that gave the exhibition an almost surrealist quality. The exhibition did not, of course, represent the full extent of the work, but rather its most subtle and concrete aspects.A very large room devoted to the figures of the artist, in particular the ones that were included in Pulsa: Sentimentalism in Contemporary Art, 2002–, was dedicated to a work by the artist Ángela Fernández. In the center of this room hung a painting by the artist, depicting the same head on a card table.