Juan Cavallero- "WOE: Globalized Sadness"

Juan Cavallero

WOE: Globalized Sadness

point of contact

punto de contacto

Point of Contact Gallery Staff: Miranda Traudt Managing Director Rainer Wehner Preparator Kendall Harter Assistant Director Meghan Ferrucci Connie Flores Gallery Assistants Tere Paniagua Executive Director Cultural Engagement

Cover Image: Marrakech, Marruecos 100 x 140cm

Juan Cavallero

WOE: Globalized Sadness

September 16 - October 22, 2016

This exhibit at Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse, New York is made possible thanks to the generous support of The College of Arts and Sciences, and the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University.

WOE: Globalized Sadness / Juan Cavallero Cecilia Medina Curator

“The clocharde woke up from a dream…and discovered that Célestine had gone in the middle of the night taking with him the baby carriage full of some cans of sardines…Toto and Lafleur were sleeping like moles underneath their burlap… The clocharde daintly removed the successive editions of France Soire covering her, and scratched her head a bit…Wrapping up in a black overcoat that reached down to her ankles, she went over to the newcomer…”

Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar

Vagabond, beggar, poor, destitute, needy, miserable, homeless, prowler . At times, more poetically described as globetrotter, bohemian, wandering, nomadic, transhumant. Although more politically correct: person in a street situation.

Inquiring, imagining, interpreting…Each image is an invitation to ponder the mystery of the other. The other that we do not perceive, because in our haste to meet our commitments we do not stop to gaze at the urban landscape that surrounds us.

If there is anything that can be credited to contemporary photography, it is the capacity to make real what has been photographed. That enigma, that point of view, transforms into a disturbing image that stirs our sensibility and emotions.

For Juan Cavallero, “that gaze uncovers the needs, the yearnings, the frustrations and successes, loverelated or not, of the observed.” Today, his gaze falls on those beings, invisible to most people. By giving

them an identity we are forced to recognize them as equals and to find in each of us the needs, frustrations and yearnings that live on the street.

Susan Sontag states in her book Regarding the Pain of Others, that there should not be a supposition of us when the subject matter is the gaze over someone else’s suffering.

But who are us? Here and now, gazing at Cavallero’s photographs, us is the viewer. But in the place where the images were captured, us is all of us who walk the streets. Nevertheless, each one of us is alien to what happens there. We do not know what it is to feel cold, hunger, desolation.

The images of Woe: Globalized Sadness question us about human existence. While the quote about Cortázar’s “la clocharde” presents us a poetic image of an experience in the city, each one of Juan Cavallero’s portraits show the crudeness of days and nights on the street.

If in those images we find common elements of posture, the organization of objects, ways to carry a few belongings, ways to occupy space, we should include that there is something that justifies it. The photographs were taken in different countries. This is a global problem.

Quoting André Bazin – an influential French film critic and theoretician- we know that “the reality of a cinematic image is what is outside of the field. The image owes its power to the fact that it was extracted from the world that is not in the image but builds its force.” That world involves us as inhabitants of the planet and invalidates any possible escape to another place. At least so far, there is no oxygen to allow our existence outside of it.

The intention of the artist is to call our attention to a reality that in Susan Sontag’s words, begs of us “This is what human beings are capable of. Don’t forget it.”

Venecia, Italia 140 x 200cm

WOE: Globalized Sadness / Juan Cavallero Cecilia Medina Curator

“la clocharde se despertó de un sueño…y supo que Célestine se había marchado en plena noche llevándose el cochecito de niño lleno de latas de sardinas…Toto y Lafleur dormían como topos debajo de las arpilleras…La clocharde retiró delicadamente las sucesivas ediciones de France Soire que la abrigaban y se rascó un rato la cabeza…Arropándose con el sobretodo negro que le llegaba a los tobillos, se acercó al nuevo…”

Rayuela, Julio Cortázar

Vagabundo, pordiosero, pobre, mendigo, desvalido, necesitado, mísero, callejero, merodeador. Otras veces, más poéticamente descripto como trotamundo, bohemio, errante, nómade, transhumante. Aunque políticamente más correcto: persona en situación de calle.

Interrogar, imaginar, interpretar cada imagen es una invitación a pensar en el misterio del otro. Ese otro que no advertimos, porque en nuestro apuro por llegar a cumplir con los compromisos no detenemos la mirada en el paisaje urbano que nos rodea.

Si algo se le atribuye a la fotografía contemporánea es su capacidad de volver real lo que ha sido fotografiado. Ese enigma, ese punto de vista, se transforma en una imagen perturbadora, que nos sensibiliza y emociona.

Para Juan Cavallero, “la mirada pone al descubierto las necesidades, los anhelos, las frustraciones y los aciertos, amorosos o no, del observado”. Hoy su

mirada está puesta en estos seres invisibles para la mayoría de las personas, porque darles entidad nos obligaría a reconocerlos como iguales, y a encontrar en cada uno de nosotros necesidades, frustraciones y anhelos que viven en la calle.

Susan Sontang planteó en su libro Ante el dolor de los demás que no debería suponerse un “nosotros” cuando el tema es la mirada ante el dolor ajeno. ¿Pero quienes forman ese nosotros? Hoy y aquí, hablando de las fotografías de Cavallero, nosotros somos el público. Pero en el lugar en el cual las mismas han sido tomadas, nosotros somos todos los que transitamos las calles. Sin embargo, cada uno de nosotros es ajeno a lo que allí sucede. No sabemos qué es sentir frío, hambre, desolación.

Las imágenes de Woe: Globalized Sadness nos interrogan sobre la existencia humana. Mientras la descripción de “la chocharde” de Cortázar nos presenta una imagen poética de su transcurrir en la

ciudad, cada uno de los retratos de Juan Cavallero muestran crudamente el día y la noche en la calle.

Si en las imágenes encontramos elementos comunes, de postura, organización de objetos, modos de llevar sus pocas pertenencias, modos de ocupar el espacio, debemos concluir que hay algo que así lo justifica.

Las fotografías fueron tomadas en distintos países. Se Trata de un problema global.

Citando a André Bazin -influyente crítico de cine y teórico cinematográfico francés- sabemos que “el real de una imagen cinematográfica es lo que está fuera del campo. La imagen debe su potencia al hecho de ser extraída del mundo que no está en la imagen pero construye su fuerza”. Mundo que nos involucra en cuanto habitantes del planeta e invalida cualquier huida posible a otro lugar. Al menos hasta ahora, no hay oxígeno que nos permita vivir fuera de él.

La intención del artista en esta exhibición es llamar nuestra atención sobre una realidad que en palabras de Susan Sontang nos interpela “Esto es lo que los seres humanos somos capaces de hacer. No lo olviden” Paris, Francia 85 x 120cm

Cecilia Medina Cecilia Medina was born in Temperley, Buenos Aires, Argentina and studied Management and Art History at Universidad del Salvador where she confirmed her main interests: curating and appraisal.

In 2012 Media completed an Intensive in Appraisal and Connoisseurship Decorative and Fine Arts at New York University, USA. In the same year she became a member of AAA Appraisers Association of America’s New York. Since then, Medina has been actively appraising private collections.

Media earned a Master’s degree in Curating from the Buenos Aires University in 2014.

Simultaneously, she studied Curating at NODE Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin, Germany.

Today Medina is an independent curator and has curated exhibitions in New York, Berlin, Tokyo and Buenos Aires at Museums, Non Governing Organizations, and private Institutions.

New York, USA 100 x 150cm

Venecia, Italia 150 x 150cm

Buenos Aires, Argentina 140 x 100cm

Paris, Francia 140 x 100cm

Buenos Aires, Argentina 190 x 150cm

Florencia, Italia 100 x 150cm

New York, USA 100 x 150cm

New York, USA 85 x 120cm

Buenos Aires, Argentina 140 x 100cm

Salcaja, Guatemala 100 x 140cm

Marrakech, Marruecos 100 x 140cm

Avignon, Francia 230 x 100cm

Paris, Francia 150 x 150cm

Guatemala, Guatemala 100 x 100cm

Paris, Francia 100 x 100cm

JUAN CAVALLERO

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1941 Juan Cavallero was born in Buenos Aires, in 1941. In 1957, he went to the American Art School to study Comic Strips with Hugo Pratt, Alberto Brescia, and Miguel Ángel Borisoff. He began residing in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1960, where he also studied drawing, painting, Arts and Visual Communication at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes of Rio de Janeiro.

Throughout the years, Cavallero has directed and produced cartoons and documentaries, illustrated children’s books and magazines, taught design, and illustrated for the journal El Nacional of Venezuela, Columbia Records, CBS, Phillips, Tolima, and Odeon.

Cavallero has operated his own design studios since 1968. His designs have also been influenced by his time spent in France, Italy, and Venezuela as well.

His first solo show was in 2007 at the Palais de Glace, introducing his works on: design, pictures, paintings, sculptures, poems, and drawings.He showed his pictures of homeless people from around the world at the Photography Biennale El Festival de la Luz, in 2016.

Exhibitions: 1969 Collective exhibition in the room of the

Deliberative Council of Buenos Aires 1977 Drawings at Ruth Benzacar Gallery,

Talcahuano street, Buenos Aires 1980 World Chronicles. Drawings. Alberto Elía

Gallery, Buenos Aires 1984 Artists from Rocha. Cavallero, Estela,

Larreta, Longhini, Robirosa, Michel and

Macció. Organized by Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires 1984 Expomarca. Logotypes. Buenos Aires

Cultural Centre 1984 An integration attempt. San Telmo Foundation 1984 Day of Contemporary Argentine plastic arts,

literature and music within the frame of the

Electro Acoustic Music Festival 1985 Belgrade 1985, Yugoslavia. Illustrations 1985 Advertising Photographers. Organized by

1988

1988

1989

1989

2003

2004

the Advertising Photographers Association, Recoleta Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires Advertising Photographers. Organized by the Advertising Photographers Association, Recoleta Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires Graphic Designers. Patricios Bank Foundation, Buenos Aires Advertising Photographers. Organized by the Advertising Photographers Association, Recoleta Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires Advertising Photograpghers. Organized by the Advertising Photographers Association, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires Argentine Industrial Design. Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires Argentine Graphic Design. Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires

Publications: 1988 Fernando Fader. Benson & Hedges Cultural Editions 1996 Luis F. Benedit. National Museum of Fine Arts 1996 With the Eyes Open. Nora Correas. National

Museum of Fine Arts 1996 Jorge Gamarra. National Museum of Fine Arts 1997 Burle Max, Lyrical Landscapes. Iris Editions 1998 Ricardo Longhini. Ricardo Longhini. Recoleta

Cultural Centre 1998 Cristina Piceda. Cristina Piceda. Recoleta

Cultural Centre 1998 The Story of the Parks in La Pampa. Silvina Ruiz

Moreno de Bunge. El Ateneo Publishing House 1999 Velox Collection of Argentine Painting. Banco

Velox Editions 1999 Cándido Portinari. Banco Velox Editions 1999 Velox Collection of Latin-American Paintings.

Banco Velox Editions 2000 The Big Break. Kenneth Kemble 2001 Ernesto Pesce. Fundación Vittal Editions 2003 The Sky’s the Limit. The Story of Aerolíneas

Argentinas. El Ateneo Publishing House

2003 2004

2005 2007

Jorge de la Vega. El Ateneo Publishing House Tigre and the Delta’s Green Islands. Silvina Ruiz Moreno de Bunge. Camalote Editions Ruth Benzacar. Espigas Foundation Alfredo Prior. Vasari Publishing House

Awards: 1982 Report and balance of Massalin Particulares S.A. 1983 First Award at Buenos Aires Stock Exchange 1984 Mention Award for the FV Stand at Expovivienda 1968 Chosen Artist for the Braque Award 1968 Chosen Work at the 57º National Room 1968 Second Award in Painting, Argentine Hebrew

Association. XV Annual Contest of

Encouragement for Young Artists 1968 Eduardo Sívori and Matea Vidich de Sívori’

Award for the Work Men on their Heads No. 1 1969 Chosen Artist for the Braque Award 1970 Chosen Artist for the Braque Award 1993 Avisa Award of Graphic, Association of

Distribuitor’s of Graphic Media 1995 Award of Best Stand at Exposanitarias.

2006 Best Design, Accessories Line Dominic FV at the

International Industrial and Graphic Design Award

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