Agustín Jais (Buenos Aires, 1985).
Platforms Club Cultural Matienzo (2008-ongoing) Collaborative endeavor for transformation through cultural action. Together, a group of 100 club members run an independent venue for the arts, cultural, and community life in Buenos Aires, which hosts a daily program of activities in its 3,280-ft premise including music, performing arts, literature, visual arts, cinema, design, and education. It also hosts an online radio station and a bar. CCM is a company for the creation and production of cultural contents, both on and off the club’s premises; an umbrella organization for artistic, cultural and social projects; and an open, interdisciplinary community of 100 people from activists and artists to managers, technicians, educators and students, active in the development of local and regional networks of activism and collaboration. See: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube. PDF, Issuu. [AJ: founder, member of coordination & content boards, head of communications & design, projects & productions both leading & soldiering].
· Matienschön (2011-ongoing) CC Matienzo’s contemporary arts team & exhibition space. A team of curators, artists, producers & designers that develop contemporary art projects: commissioning and curating site-specific exhibitions, new media & festivals, exchanges and residencies, dossiers, etc. See: Website, Instagram, Issuu.
· LET IT VJ (2012-ongoing) Festival for new media, music & realtime art. 16 editions (+ 6 short events), 120 hours, 250+ artists. See: Facebook, Website.
2-person projects
Water my plant (with Denise Lara Margules, Mestizo Arts Platform, 2016/17) An artistic research into cultural ecologies towards the creation of alternative institutional
relations between Belgium and Argentina. 10 cultural organizations are linked through exchanging scale models of their buildings, that help trigger experimental collaborations between its managers. The artists moderate these exchanges while documenting the process in different media, from video to embroidery, resulting in an installation and a lecture performance. See: Website, Trailer.
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Soulseek/2016 (with Denise Lara Margules, Matienschön, 2015) One night-only relational installation based on a jewish, Benjamin-ish reading of the P2P network "Soulseek" to conjure energies for next year. A ritual table with bread, embroideries, texts & objects. See: Website, PDF.
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Punk Love
(with Laura Preger, Costado Galería-ArteBA 2012) Music video for an open call on Magnetic Fields-inspired pieces, then submitted to Costado Galerías' call for subtitled videos. See: Vimeo.
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Casas
(2012) Photos and drawings. See: Website
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Collective projects
Carpa Rosada (Paraguay) (with Alejandro Simón López, Marcos Perearnau, Matías Laje. Se Alquila/Estado, Asunción, Paraguay, 2016) Citizenship in a tent: a research in national history derives in a context-specific, phantom institution hosting a program of experimental activities. In this iteration, a pink tent is installed as a fake MERCOSUR embassy in a market in Asunción, on the day of the bicentennial of Argentina’s Declaration of Independence. The performative installation sought to bring history to the present through a post-colonial lens, by means of artisanal operations over historical documents and a tight schedule of activities, from a survey on gender violence to audio performances. See: Website.
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Carpa Rosada (Matienschön/public space, 2015) Citizenship in a tent: a research in national history derives in a context-specific, phantom institution hosting a program of experimental activities. In this iteration, installed during the month of presidential elections, a research over a failed bill of law gives way to a political & poetical camp to re- & co- think citizenship. A (queer, nomad) tent, a table for group talking and making, idiosincratic documents & hacked symbols form the site for talks with guests, official festivities, a radio, a Halloween reading night, an elections bunker, arts labs, a group show, etc. See: PDF, Website.
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Ensayön
(Matienschön, 2016) Group show by Matienschön team around its history and identity as a project. [AJ: task boxes]. See: Website
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Día uno
(PANORAMICA Festival, Espacio Telefónica, Buenos Aires, 2013). With Luz Peuscovich, Pablo Jais, Fermín Echeveste, Maxi Russo, Mauro Alberelli, Manu Aguilar, Sergio Fasani and Juan Aranovich. Live audiovisual performance. The idea: a collective creation based on the shared learning of accesible technologies. The story: a fire on communal houses gives birth to a new dawn. The setup: The result of live-editing nine simultaneous layers of animations and found footage was projected on four screens. Analogic visuals were juxtaposed to them, by means of a joystick-controlled, rotating overhead projector, like a lighthouse adding analogic light to the projected pixels. A four-piece band added live music to the mix. See: Website [AJ: idea, co-direction, digital visuals].
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The hug
(CC Parque España, 2013) Interactive installation. See: Website [AJ: idea, direction, things].
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Planta · Limbo
Solo projects
Presents to where it's at
(Hamiffal, Jerusalem, 2017) To encourage an artist collective to pursue the management of a cultural center, I've collected and illustrated stories from managers of artist-run spaces around the world. Also, an astral chart of the space and a 100m-radius correspondance between Hamiffal and Matienzo. See: Flickr.
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The way out is collective
(Casa Xitla, Mexico DF, 2017) A map of significant slogans from current demonstrations in Latin America, created as a result of interviews with the participants & staff workers of a residency for Jewish Latin American artists in Mexico City (and a call to a mediaactivist collective based in Buenos Aires, given that many of the artists didn’t know much about popular movements in their home countries). The signs where fixed to pencils and installed in the ground. Viewers had to lift them up to see the inscriptions. See: Flickr.
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Minidigital
(2013-ongoing) Drawings in cellphones, tablets and notebooks, made during various project meetings, afterwards anonymously sent to its participants. See: Web samples.
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Assembly
(Matienschön, 2015) Digital drawing (MS Paint, 60x80cm), made during a political assembly held in the campsite of the installation "Carpa Rosada". In the assembly, Club Cultural Matienzo decided to openly support Daniel Scioli in the ballotage against Mauricio Macri. After Scioli lost the election, Carpa Rosada invited artists to occupy the exhibition. I printed and installed the drawing. See: Img, Carpa Rosada PDF.
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Little models of democracy
(Matienschön, 2015) Video (3’). Recording of a live performance using 2 downloaded PNGs. Installed at the closing event of the exhibition Carpa Rosada. See: Video, Carpa Rosada PDF.
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Temporada
(2012-2014) Photo series, mostly abroad, yearly. See: Temporada 2014, Temporada 2012.
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VJ Tony Rhonda
(2009-ongoing) VJ persona. Live visuals & mapping. See: Garrison Institute 2015-16, Arcos da Lapa 2015, Marder @ CCG San Martín 2012-13, Día uno @ Festival Panorámica.
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2014 Diaries
(2014) Sequence of short videos. From precarious digital animations & smartphone music to edited situations on love, art & holidays. See: Complete video, "Quereme" sequence.
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Ruptura y reconciliación (2012) · Public library (2012) · My house is your house (2013) · Reposi (2015) · more
Projects in collaboration
Los Persas, una campaña desmesurada
(de Baró-Cutró con Agustín Jais, ciclo Tan Cerca, 2017) Live online performance. A re-reading of Esquilo's tragedy in the form of a newsroom. See: Video.
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Love will tear us apart
(dir. Maia Minovich, MARTE/Club Cultural Matienzo, 2016) Performance. An online survey about love is transformed into a series of poems, music and live visuals. See: Trailer, Video loop. [AJ: live visuals].
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Emergencia del deseo
(dir. Belén Charpentier, El Porvenir Festival, 2015) Relational performance. A play as an assembly as a plaform for collective agency. See: Website. [AJ: live data visualizations, based on decisions made by the audience].
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Emperatriz IV
(dir. Lolo y Lauti, CETC-Teatro Colón, 2013) Performative installation. A walk in the shape of a fertility ritual. The audience in groups of 12, each accompanied by an usherette, was guided in the dark through 4 installations, each representing the different stages before insemination. First they laid down on hot wooden structures, then they went through a hallway where they heard a prayer, then they were given soup to drink and finally they went inside an inflatable sculpture. See: Website, Lolo y Lauti. [AJ: stage design/installations, with Sergio Fasani and Florencia Henke.]
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Curatorial Cemento: del under al indie, 1985-2016 (Club Cultural Matienzo, 2016) A documentary exhibition, a zine, 4 shows, 5 talks, a minifestival and a podcast concerning the legacy of the nightclub “Cemento”, a major yet conflicting landmark of Buenos Aires cultural history. See: Website, Zine (1st edition), Youtube
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La primavera que no conocemos ("The spring we don’t know of", Matienschön, 2016) 10 visual artists and 17 djs, musicians, performers and dancers turn an exhibition space into a neverending nightclub. See: Website ·
ööööööö (Matienschön, 2016) 7 simultaneous art events. Works by Yevgeniya Baras, Avital Burg, Laura Preger, Lucas J. Arias; LP release show by Guo Cheng; musical performances by Eva Shin; zines release, etc. See: Website ·
The Repair Club (Matienschön/public space, 2015) Three urban platforms/actions resulting of a residency leaded by a77. A club for repairing objects to foster sustainability, architectural workshops for kids, a treehouse platform. See: TXT, Exhibition view. · Lucas DM: Xn (Matienschön, 2015) Site-specific audiovisual installation that interferes notions of space through physical iterations of generative geometries. Activations: Live performances with guests, a workshop for children on drawing in space. See: PDF, Website. · COZA: Un piano fantasma ("A phantom piano", Matienschön, 2015) A temporary sound & graphic studio for DIY-hacked instruments around which concerts, experimental sound workshops, zines, prints & other activities happen. See: Website, PDF, Piano Fantasma @ Malba. · Fachadas en crisis + 15/20 (Club Cultural Matienzo, 2011) 10 years after, a videoinstallation by VolumenExpress (Germany/Norway), a performative season of 15 commissioned pieces and a day-long event reflect on 2001 Argentina’s crisis. See: Ñ, Youtube. · Murga Belga / MAF Buenos Aires (Matienschön, 2012) ARG-BEL coproduction. A documentary exhibition about the recent spring of murga bands in Belgium and Europe and the community-based cultural collective that iniciated it. Alongside, a mini version of the Antwerp-based urban arts festival Mestizo Arts Festival presents a curated program of short videos from Argentina and Belgium. See: Website · Federico Lamas: Banderas de conveniencia (Matienschön, 2014) Solo show. Prints, a videoinstallation, a zine and a ping-pong show around patriotism. See: Website +more El otro castillo: experimental videogames · Pablo Boffelli: Esa idea no se sostiene! · Peschek/Bollati: Fictions · Ángeles Ascúa: Elegía · Séverine Hubard: Et que ca mousse! · Sonia Basch: Amigos y personas que no conozco · Lofilulu
Art-related experiences
Teaching
Digital Culture
(Escuela de Fotografía Creativa, 2015-ongoing) Undergraduate course. See: Website.
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Touch/Multiply
(With Laura Preger, Club Cultural Matienzo, 2017) 3-month laboratory on contemporary arts. Part of the year-long Artist-Manager Program. See: Video.
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The Photographic
(With Laura Preger, Club Cultural Matienzo, 2012-2014) 3-month seminar/workshop on contemporary arts & photography. See: Website.
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Vjing & mapping
Skill sessions: Asylum Arts New York (2015-16), Escuela de Fotografía Creativa (2015-16).
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Talks
Shared Shapes
(Hamiffal, Jerusalem, 2017. Collective initiatives in arts, culture and activism in Latin America. See: Guidelines.
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Pulse Transitienetwerk Cultuur - RE:CULTURE
(Beursschouwburg, 2016). Co-operatives in the cultural field: panel with co-operative expert John Restakis. See: Website.
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Seminar: Communications in Cultural Institutions
(Fundación PROA, 2015). Case Study: Club Cultural Matienzo. See: Website, Video. [AJ: Speaker, with Belén Charpentier & Juan Aranovich].
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Management of the Real
(Témenos, 2016). Presentation of Lucinda Ra at the Congress of contextual arts, culture and education. . See: Facebook . [AJ: Moderator]
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CIDAC / Cultural Management Seminar
(Fund. Lebensohn, 2014-15) Workshop: Communications for cultural projects. See: Program . [AJ: Speaker, with Belén Charpentier].
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Texts
Hiperafectivas: Lolo y Lauti por Agustín Jais · Notas sobre Bombones · Tallar, elevar, reparar · Blog
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Networks
Asylum Arts · ROI Community · Mestizo Arts Festival · SISMO · Emergências
Design & media
Publications · Cultura Unida · Formación · More
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Press
Clarin · Si! · Leedor · Ñ · Télam · SOY · La Razón · La Curandera · Los Inrocks · Publicable · Cultra · 2ème lieu
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Bio
Agustín Jais was born in Buenos Aires in 1985, where he lives and works as an artist, curator and cultural practitioner. His studies combine university and private studies on photography and visual arts, industrial design and technologies, curating and management. The foundations of Agustín’s cultural practise lay in building collaborative platforms for the creation and circulation of cultural "things": organizations, technologies, ideas and stories. His work takes form as context-based multimedia projects, developed mostly in collaboration, that experiment with institutional dynamics, community building and the collective re-learning of accessible technologies. Agustín is co-founder of Club Cultural Matienzo, an independent organization that runs a venue for the arts, culture, and community life where each year 800 artists perform for 150K visitors. He co-directs Matienschön, Club Cultural Matienzo’s contemporary arts space, where he has curated 20 exhibitions by national and international artists. In 2012, he founded the new media festival LET IT VJ, that has so far presented 250 artists in its 16 editions. Agustín presented individual and collective projects at CC Juan de Salazar (Asunción), wpZimmer (Antwerp), CC Parque España (Rosario), CETC– Teatro Colón, Espacio Telefónica - Festival Panorámica, ArteBA and CC San Martín (Buenos Aires). He participated in residencies at Hamiffal (Jerusalem), wpZimmer (Antwerp), Garrison Institute (New York) and Casa Xitla (Mexico DF), and was selected for 2017' ROI Summit. Agustín is Professor Media and Digital Culture in the Undergraduate studies in Photography at EFC Andy Goldstein, and visual arts teacher at Club Cultural Matienzo. He has lectured about collaborative iniciatives and communications for cultural institutions at Beursschouwburg (Brussels), Hamiffal (Jerusalem), Fudación PROA, Fundación Lebensohn & Casa Témenos (Buenos Aires). See: CV.
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Contact & links