Projects Lo que pasó ayer (What happened yesterday) (Manofim Festival, Jerusalem, 2020) What Changed Yesterday is a participatory walk that merges two territories at the same time: Jerusalem and South America. Following a path across West Jerusalem, the tour engages in a conversation with a dozen landmarks of artists' involvement in the struggles for Memory, Truth and Justice in Buenos Aires and Santiago. At each point, the tour connects the sociopolitical climate here and there, exposing the participants to translations between two seemingly unrelated spots. A virtual, multimedia version of the tour was also presented at Manofim Festival 2020. More. · Where People Kiss (Matienschön, 2018) A Ferris Wheel is installed for a gallery's 10th Anniversary. The cabins are scale models of 36 exhibitions that happened in that same room, each made by the original artist. Next to it, a video based on footage from vernissages, a scale model and a series of texts. More. · Water my plant(with Denise Lara Margules, Mestizo Arts Festival, Belgium, 2016/17) An artistic research into cultural ecologies towards the creation of alternative institutional relations between Belgium and Argentina. Ten cultural organizations were linked through exchanging scale models of their buildings, that helped trigger experimental collaborations between its managers. Moderating the exchanges and documenting the process in different media, from video to embroidery, the duo of artist-managers reflect on how do we do things in the world of institutionalized culture, how we could do them, and who cares about it. The result of this 16-months project was presented in October 2017 in Brussels and Antwerp as a performative installation and a series of context-based events: exhibitions, a participatory walk and a lecture performance. View dossier. · The Pink Tent(Se Alquila/Estado, Paraguay, and Matienschön, 2015/6) Citizenship in a tent: a research in national history derives in a context-specific, phantom institution hosting a program of experimental activities. First, a political & poetical camp is installed during the month of presidential elections. Based on a research over a failed bill of law, citizenship is reimagined around a tent that stands for the Presidential Office, alongside idiosincratic documents, hacked symbols and a tight program of activities. A year later, the tent is installed as a fake regional embassy in a market in Asunción, on the bicentennial of Argentina’s Declaration of Independence. This time, the performative installation sought to bring history to the present through a post-colonial lens, by means of artisanal operations over archive documents and a full diplomatic agenda. See: Website, Dossier. · Works Dikduk Javerim (Kol HaOt, 2021) Song, feat. Orly Noa Ravinyan. View more
· Tohu & Vohu (2021) Video for the virtual exhibition "The Ararat Collective's Guide to Surviving the Pandemic". View exhibition.
· Horn (2020) Nine short poems in English, with originally composed soundtrack. Written in Chile, Buenos Aires and Israel and self published in Jerusalem. Listen to soundtrack
· Tower of song (2020) 96 vector drawings. View more · The Gray Suite (2020) A drawing and a poem, based on the Argentine's President visit to the World Holocaust Summit in January 2020. More. · Irreverent children (2020) Interventions on found postcards. More. · Old & new friends in one broken pencil(2020-21) Drawings, in process. View more. · Foul (2019) IEDs drawn in TrazoSyphon, an extremely limited software designed for live collaboration, while watching Israeli TV series. See: Zine. · Tea Syphon (2019) Drawings in TrazoSyphon, an extremely limited software designed for live collaboration.
· Hannah (2019) Drawing in TrazoSyphon, an extremely limited software designed for live collaboration. · 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. The signs where fixed to pencils and installed in the ground. Viewers had to lift them up to see the inscriptions. See: Flickr. · Log (2013-2017) Drawings in cellphones, tablets and notebooks, made during project meetings. See: Web samples. · Little models of democracy (Matienschön, Buenos Aires 2015) Animation based on the weekly round walks by Madres de Plaza de Mayo at the square opposite to Argentina’s Presidential Office. The video was created as a live performance, intervening a modified open source illustration. Presented as part of the project Carpa Rosada, that put forward researches on the history of civil institutions in Argentina with a speculative approach to citizenship. · Season (2012-2014) Yearly photo series. See: Season 2014, Season 2012, Season 2007. · 2014 Diaries (2014) Sequence of short videos, precarious animations and smartphone music. · Reposi(2015) Website. · Photography 2005-2020Bidud (2020) · Casas (2012) · UV (2015) · Río mojado (2013) · Temporada 2014 · Coco (2013) · Blumen (2012) · Magnéticas (2011) · Tocan (2015) · Gewerben: Lieben (2012) · Nocturnos (2007/9) · Barcelona sin (2008) · Corrientes, 2007 · Temporada 2007 · Filatelia (2005) Exhibitions and performances Territorio LODO (Festival LODO, Buenos Aires 2018) The project "Water My Plant" is presented in Buenos Aires, algonside context-specific works by Belén Charpentier and Baró-Cutró. Water My Plant is displayed as a series of videos and scale models, plus a performative storytelling. See: Project dossier, Exhibition views, Exhibition website, Performance script. · Water My Plant: Premiere (Mestizo Arts Festival, wpZimmer, Antwerp, 2017) Performative installation. See: Project dossier, Installation views, Video excerpts, Performance script. · Water My Plant: Detectives (Mestizo Arts Festival, Brussels 2017) Exhibition and participatory walk, part of the project "Water My Plant". The walk connected 3 cultural institutions in Brussels and one in Buenos Aires, borrowing from genres such as film noir, procession, touristic tour, personal journal, recycled games and collaborative videomaking. See: Project dossier, Installation views, Video excerpts, Performance script. · Presents to where it's at (Hamiffal, Jerusalem, 2017) To encourage an artist collective to pursue the management of a cultural center, stories from managers of artist-run spaces around the world are collected, illustrated in cheap wrapping paper, presented at the center's co-working table and finally given as presents to the host collective alongside a talk about collective initiatives in art and activism in South America. View more. · 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 and objects. See: Website, PDF. · Day one (PANORAMICA Festival, Buenos Aires, 2013). 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. · Ruptura y reconciliación a dos aguas (2012) A performative reading of a poem among three audiovisual channels and an performative act of reconciliation. See: Text, Trailer. · CollaborationsLos Persas, una campaña desmesurada (Tan Cerca, 2017) Live image manipulation for Baró-Cutró's online performance. A re-reading of Esquilo's tragedy in the form of a VJ-ed newsroom. See: Platform. · Love will tear us apart (MARTE/Club Cultural Matienzo, 2016) Live visuals for Maia Minovich's performance. An online survey about love is transformed into a three-piece band of poetry, music and live visuals. See: Trailer.
· Emergencia del deseo (dir. Belén Charpentier, El Porvenir Festival, 2015) Live data visualizations for Belén Charpentier's relational performance. A play as an assembly as a platform for collective agency. The audience, sitting in the stage, decide what they should work on after the play is over; the decision-making process is followed on the screens. See: Website. · Emperatriz IV (CETC-Teatro Colón, 2013) Stage design and realization for Lolo y Lauti's 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, from laying down on hot wooden structures to gping inside an inflatable sculpture. See: Website.
· Platforms Club Cultural Matienzo (2008-2018) Collaborative endeavor for transformation through cultural action. A group of 100 club members run a venue for arts and community life in Buenos Aires, which hosts a daily program of activities presenting 1000 artists for 160K visitors yearly. Matienzo is a company for the creation and production of cultural contents, both on and off the club’s premises; an umbrella organization for artistic and social projects; and an open, interdisciplinary community of artists, technicians, educators, professionals and students who work to develop local and regional networks of activism and collaboration. Website, Instagram, English PDF, Issuu. · Matienschön (2011-2018) Artist-run contemporary arts space. For 8 years, the team commissioned, curated and produced 100 site-specific exhibitions, interdisciplinary festivals and residency programs. Furthermore, it published dossiers and organized events and workshops. A platform for emerging artists, Matienschön fostered collaboration, interdisciplinarity and civil participation through art. Website, Publications. · LET IT VJ (2012-2017) Festival for new media, music & realtime art. In its 16 editions, spanning 120 hours, it presented the work of 250 national and international artists. LET IT VJ helped tighten the community of new media practitioners while offering them a platform for experimentation and collaboration, and for visibility to general audiences. Facebook, Website. Curatorial Seder e-Tarbut (Virtual project, 2020) A Zoom passover dinner, reimagined by 7 artists from the Río de la Plata. See: Instagram.
· Imágenes guardadas (YoNoFui, CC Matienzo & CELS, 2018) The creative resistance strategy of a photography workshop for imprisoned women, facing prohibitions from the penitentiary system. See: Website.
· E-III-3 (Plinio Villagrán Galindo, CC Matienzo, 2018) A reconstruction of the Mayan city Kaminaljuyú, posing questions on human and cultural rights and urban development. See: Website. · El Penúltimo Humano (K.A.K., CC Matienzo, 2018) The Belgian performative collective worked together with local artists to create a new project. See: Documentation. · Restitución (Sebastián Hacher and Mariana Corral, Club Cultural Matienzo, 2017) Through embroidered photographs, texts, audiovisual pieces and a series of activities, the exhibitions attempts at restituting the soul of the Mapuches, in the context of the genocide perpetrated by the state and its current continuities. See: Photo album, Text, Facebook page. · 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: Photos, Zine, Youtube. · Fachadas en crisis (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: Photos, Video · Murga Belga(Mestizo Arts Platform, 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: Texts +more Santiago Ortí: Todo
· Federico Lamas: Banderas de conveniencia
· COZA: Un piano fantasma
· ööööööö
· La primavera que no conocemos
· Lucas DM: Xn
· Andy Fasoli: Lo que piensan mis amigas que hago todo el día
· 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
· Vero Gatti: Hábitat
· Lofilulu · Design commissions· Texts Critical Absorption ·
La dimensión política del formato ·
Tallar, elevar, reparar ·
Cemento ·
+more Music non stop ·
Esa idea no se sostiene ·
Bestia ·
Notas sobre bombones ·
· Media Clarin · Si! · Leedor · Ñ · Télam · SOY · La Razón · La Curandera · Los Inrocks · Publicable · Cultra · 2ème lieu· Bio
Agustín Jais is an artist, curator and cultural producer born in Buenos Aires in 1985. He studied photography and arts, industrial design, creative technologies and cultural management.
His work takes form as context-based multimedia projects that engage with relational dynamics, institutional processes and collective agency.
He presented individual and collective projects in Israel, Belgium, Paraguay and Argentina, and was selected for residencies in Jerusalem, New York, Brussels, Antwerp and Ciudad de Mexico.
In Argentina, he founded and was director of a cultural center and platform for transformation through cultural action, an independent art space and a new media festival. He acted as curator for dozens of exhibitions, with national and international artists as well as projects regarding democratic processes, cultural histories and vulnerable populations, in collaboration with Universities and Human Rights organizations and which toured nationwide.
He was Associate Professor of Media and Digital Culture, and lectured internationally about collaborative iniciatives and the intersection between Art and Human Rights.
Since 2020, Agustín lives in Jerusalem, where he is a resident artist at Art Cube Artists' Studios. See: Resume, Professional CV.· Statement
I’m a multimedia artist, curator and cultural agent. Most often than not, my work:
- revolves around human interactions and collective agency, i.e. relational anxieties, the dynamics of mission-driven organizations and the relations between culture and civil society.
- comes out of the interaction with specific territorial or institutional contexts. Artworks are used as props to create interactions or as documentation of shared actions, as well as to enable storytelling.
- uses video, photography and new media; drawings; and objects, texts and activities. Most times these media are presented in combination, taking final form as performances, installations and publications.
- explores accessible technologies as well as media and procedural restrictions, and operates in dialogue with existing cultural artifacts.
- sometimes blurs boundaries between art practice and curating, by activating networks of collaboration and looking to manage the real. Other times however, I indulge in observation and learning.· Contact & Links
Email: agustinjais (at) gmail.com · Instagram · Behance · Vimeo · Youtube · Linkedin