Duchamp in Buenos Aires - http://www.duchampenbsas.com.ar/

By Maria Carolina Baulo

Courtesy Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art

http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/

Marcel Duchamp was certainly one of the most famous representatives of Surrealism and Dadaism. Every task or goal he wanted to achieve in the art field, as well as in daily life, was outrageous and controversial. He was a man full of secrets and hidden talents, and one of those talents was his passion for chess.

Buenos Aires is actually celebrating Duchamp´s first visit to Argentina, 90 years ago. In order to honor him, several argentine artists gathered together to present their works in a tribute. This unique exhibition presents, as the main attraction and for the first time ever, an unedited document where Marcel Duchamp himself, took notes of a chess match played in France.

The exhibition is focused on Duchamp´s ability to play chess, a skill he developed during his stay of nine months in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately there is very little information about those months, even though the information available is enough to show his obsessive compromise with chess.

The document consists in a technical data card of the chess match that took place in Paris between Marcel Duchamp and the great argentine chez player Valentín Fernandez Coria on July 19th, 1924, during the first (and last) International Chess Tournament – Olympics. This manuscript, handwritten by Duchamp, has also his signature as well as the argentine’s player flourish with the certificate that certifies its veracity. The importance of it is to highlight Duchamp´s main activity during his visit in Buenos Aires: he played chess almost every night, becoming a “chess maniac”, as he said once.

“Duchamp considered chess as a work of art; almost like a sculpture because creation started in the mind to turn later into something the artist could build with his hands. In a very short time, Duchamp started an interesting career playing chess, he was even internationally awarded; and that career started in Buenos Aires when he was 31 years old. He even said he learned with the best argentine teacher, but never mentioned his name”, said Marcelo Gutman, the curator of Duchamp in Buenos Aires.

The document had an amazing journey since the day Duchamp signed it: his friend Tristán Tzará kept it for years and later gave it as a gift to the argentine surrealist poet Juan Andralis, who later gave it to the artist Hermenegildo Sábat, who actually owns the manuscript and exhibits it in this tribute, in public, for the first time.

Duchamp in Buenos Aires presents as well, art works especially made for the occasion by three generations of outstanding argentine artists such as Xil Buffone, Eduardo Costa, Max Gómez Canle, Guillermo Gregorio , Marcelo Gutman, IMaDuBA (group of artists), David Lamelas, Emiliano López, Emiliano Miliyo, Esteban Pastorino , Gastón Pérsico, Provisorio Permanente (group of artists), Nicolás Radano and Axel Straschnoy. There’s a variety of paintings, photographs, objects, installations, drawings, sculptures and music to enjoy.

The exhibition runs form November 8th, 2007 until January 31st, 2008. Fondo Nacional de las Artes-Buenos Aires, Argentina.