ephemeropteræ 2017/#9 – Guillermo Faivovich and Nicolás Goldberg
Guillermo Faivovich and Nicolás Goldberg. Photo: eSeL.at - Lorenz Seidler
“... then the land was consumed by fire and flames surrounded the trees, plants, animals and men. Only a few of the Mocoví people saw the fires coming and dove into rivers and lagoons, where they were turned into capybaras and crocodiles. Two of them, a man and his wife, sought refuge in a tall tree, where they looked on as the rivers of fire flooded the surface of the earth; but unexpectedly, the fire blew upwards and burned their faces and turned them into monkeys ...”
From the Jesuit missionary Guevara, on the Mocoví myth on how the Sun
fell from the sky (1764).
In search of the Mesón de Fierro
In the Gran Chaco plains of South America a massive iron mass, named Mesón de Fierro, was a legendary landmark for many thousand years. Nomad tribes called these desertic lands "Piguem Nónaxá", translated to Campo del Cielo (Field of the Sky) by the Conquistador, who arrived at the end of the XVI century and produced the first written reports. In 1783, a mission of 200 men reached the iron to determine if it was the outcrop of a vein, conducting a series of excavations and explosions that undermined the base of the mass, which eventually ended thrown into a man-made pit. The site was abandoned and Mesón de Fierro was never seen again. It was not until the early XX century that it was finally concluded that the mass was actually a meteorite. The region has been the object of study and fascination of a long and ever-changing list of expeditionaries, scientists and enthusiasts who have attempted to retrieve the meteorite, with mixed results but no physical evidence of its rediscovery.
Faivovich & Goldberg will unfold for Ephemeropterae, an immersion into sections and miscellanea of their 11 year old archive, the extended world-wide research following the earthbound life of the Mesón de Fierro and announce steps that will follow this endeavour. Alex Bailey will be performing for the artist as part of the presentation.
Biography
Guillermo Faivovich (Buenos Aires, 1977) and Nicolás Goldberg (Paris, 1978) began collaborating in 2006 on A Guide to Campo del Cielo, an extensive research endeavour that revolves around the cultural impact of the Campo del Cielo meteorites. Through this case study, a continuous journey has led them from the crater field to an ongoing program of wide-reaching fieldwork. Their work includes presentations at Portikus, Frankfurt (2010), Fondazione Merz, Torino (2011), documenta 13, Kassel (2012), 9 Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (2013), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (2014), 11 Gwangju Biennial (2016). Since 2014, they have engaged in a long term collaboration with Arizona State University creating a series of projects and exhibits that will be unveiled at the ASU Art Museum, starting in 2018. They have published The Campo del Cielo Meteorites – Vol. 1: El Taco and The Campo del Cielo Meteorites – Vol. 2: Chaco, published on occasion of documenta (2012) and La caza del Snark, edited by Editorial Poligrafa (2014). Faivovich & Goldberg, live and work in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Alex Bailey, originally from Birmingham, UK, now living in Vienna, AT. Since 2014, he has performed for pets and from 2016 for humans in varying ballet contexts.
From the Jesuit missionary Guevara, on the Mocoví myth on how the Sun
fell from the sky (1764).
In search of the Mesón de Fierro
In the Gran Chaco plains of South America a massive iron mass, named Mesón de Fierro, was a legendary landmark for many thousand years. Nomad tribes called these desertic lands "Piguem Nónaxá", translated to Campo del Cielo (Field of the Sky) by the Conquistador, who arrived at the end of the XVI century and produced the first written reports. In 1783, a mission of 200 men reached the iron to determine if it was the outcrop of a vein, conducting a series of excavations and explosions that undermined the base of the mass, which eventually ended thrown into a man-made pit. The site was abandoned and Mesón de Fierro was never seen again. It was not until the early XX century that it was finally concluded that the mass was actually a meteorite. The region has been the object of study and fascination of a long and ever-changing list of expeditionaries, scientists and enthusiasts who have attempted to retrieve the meteorite, with mixed results but no physical evidence of its rediscovery.
Faivovich & Goldberg will unfold for Ephemeropterae, an immersion into sections and miscellanea of their 11 year old archive, the extended world-wide research following the earthbound life of the Mesón de Fierro and announce steps that will follow this endeavour. Alex Bailey will be performing for the artist as part of the presentation.
Biography
Guillermo Faivovich (Buenos Aires, 1977) and Nicolás Goldberg (Paris, 1978) began collaborating in 2006 on A Guide to Campo del Cielo, an extensive research endeavour that revolves around the cultural impact of the Campo del Cielo meteorites. Through this case study, a continuous journey has led them from the crater field to an ongoing program of wide-reaching fieldwork. Their work includes presentations at Portikus, Frankfurt (2010), Fondazione Merz, Torino (2011), documenta 13, Kassel (2012), 9 Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (2013), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (2014), 11 Gwangju Biennial (2016). Since 2014, they have engaged in a long term collaboration with Arizona State University creating a series of projects and exhibits that will be unveiled at the ASU Art Museum, starting in 2018. They have published The Campo del Cielo Meteorites – Vol. 1: El Taco and The Campo del Cielo Meteorites – Vol. 2: Chaco, published on occasion of documenta (2012) and La caza del Snark, edited by Editorial Poligrafa (2014). Faivovich & Goldberg, live and work in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Alex Bailey, originally from Birmingham, UK, now living in Vienna, AT. Since 2014, he has performed for pets and from 2016 for humans in varying ballet contexts.