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.
· 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, Issuu.
· LET IT VJ (2012-ongoing) Festival for new media, music & realtime art. 16 editions, 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 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. See: Dossier.
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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 and 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
Donde la gente se besa (con la participación de 36 artistas. Curaduría: Tam Painé Ciai. Matienschön, 2018) A Ferris Wheel is installed for Club Cultural Matienzo's 10th Anniversary. The cabins are scale models of 36 of the exhibitions that happened in that same room over these years, each made by the original artist. See: Website.
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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
(With Luz Peuscovich, Pablo Jais, Fermín Echeveste, Maxi Russo, Mauro Alberelli, Manu Aguilar, Sergio Fasani and Juan Aranovich, 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
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The hug
(CC Parque España, 2013) Interactive installation. See: Website
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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. 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. 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 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: Full 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
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.
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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.
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El Penúltimo Humano (K.A.K., CC Matienzo, 2018) The Belgian performative collective worked together with local artists to create a new project. See: Website.
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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: Website, Anfibia, Facebook.
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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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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.
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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.
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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: Website
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Santiago Ortí: Todo
ööööööö
La primavera que no conocemos
Lucas DM: Xn
Federico Lamas: Banderas de conveniencia
COZA: Un piano fantasma
Los últimos dioses
· Jejo Herrero: Se deja ver
· 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
· 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
Notas sobre Bombones · Tallar, elevar, reparar · Blog
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Networks
Asylum Arts · ROI Community · Mestizo Arts Platform
Design & media
Publications · Cultura Unida · Formación · More
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Press
Agencia Nova · 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 and member of the coordination board at Club Cultural Matienzo. He co-directs Matienschön, its 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, Mokkakapot (Antwerp), Tropicana (Brussels), 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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PDF en español
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Contact & links