This show features drawings, paintings, objects, and installations by 20 artists who participated in ProyectArte’s scholarship program between 2003 and 2008. Curated by Ernesto Pesce, the show opened September 16 and ran through October 17.

Twenty young artists, who graduated from ProyectArte’s Scholarship Program between 2005 and 2008, are the focus on “Diverse and Singular,” the first ProyectArte retrospective in the prestigious Borges Cultural Center. It is a multifaceted aesthetic exploration curated by the esteemed visual artist Ernesto Pesce.

ProyectArte offers high-quality arts education without charge, promoting the exchange of ideas and experiences among peers and with distinguished figures in the contemporary Argentine art scene. The Borges exhibition was made possible through the support of the US Embassy, Delta Airlines, the Tuyu Foundation, the National Fund for the Arts, and Thesis bookstore. The show has also received the support of the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires.

The 15- to 18-year-olds who study PoryectArte are selected for their works and for the creative potential that they reflect. They arrive having had diverse aesthetic experiences. In ProyectArte, they receive an education that incorporates many different artistic currents, presenting various perspectives on the creative process. “I believe this line of thinking is reflected in the works produced by the students on display in this show,” Pesce explained. “Diversity is the common denominator among these young artists’ bodies of work.”

Pesce highlighted that many ProyectArte graduates remain connected to one another and to ProyectArte long after their scholarships end. Many mount exhibitions and continue to participate in creative activities, carving out an artistic space for themselves through talent and hard work.

The 20 artists whose works were featured in the show are Juan Ignacio Balza, Nestor Burgos, Clara Desimone, Iván Enquin, Mariano García, Damian Stendelis, David Katzowicz, Florencia Buezas, Gonzalo Maciel, Guadalupe Labaké, Julieta Orliaco, Lucila Sánchez Peña, Lucrecia Raimondi, Mercedes Peñalba, Rocío Sztrum, Valeria Díaz, Martín Torres, Alexis Minkiewicz, Paloma Márquez, and Julián Pesce.

Ernesto Ballesteros, an artist of great esteem, was one of the teachers who directed the education of ProyectArte’s young students in 2009-10. Here’s what Ernesto had to say about his experience as an instructor with ProyectArte

Virginia Gobbi (ProyectArte Volunteer): What do you think is the purpose of ProyectArte?

Ernesto Ballesteros: I think it’s wonderful that the students have the opportunity to take advantage of a scholarship like this; it leads to a very socially heterogeneous group. It is a privilege that such young students can get to know and study with distinguished artists currently working in Argentina.

VG: What about ProyectArte inspired you to teach here?

EB: First off, the organization knows how to adapt itself to meet the needs of teachers and students. The relationship between the teaching and administrative staff and the students is warm and close, far from the institutional stiffness you often see. There isn’t very much bureaucracy and this facilitates great work and interpersonal exchange. In terms of the students, I don’t think there are any divisions among them, they treat each other as peers and equals and they support each other. They work hard and they have fun together.

VG: What was your teaching methodology?

EB: From the very first classes, in which I gauged the predilections of each artist, I tried to shake them up, to take them out of familiar circumstances. And encourage them to have fun. I believe that a teacher should instruct her students in a way that helps them to become independent of the teacher rather than dependent on her. That’s how students advance. I also told them not to take everything I or their other professors said as the absolute truth; it’s important for students to follow their own intuition. That’s where artistic innovation comes from.

VG: What are your expectations for the students’ future careers?

EB: My desire is that they be happy with their jobs, that they not allow their preexisting expectations images or ideas to limit them—that’s always terrible for artists. I hope that they don’t lose any part of themselves to shame or self-censure, and that they create works that exist for their own sake and not because they’re what the buyer wants. As they try to figure out whether a career in art is the direction in which they want to take their lives, I recommend that they stay eve alert and attentive to what they feel, and that they allow their thought and feelings to slosh around a bit. Good ideas emerge from a sea of bad ideas.

Ernesto Ballesteros is a recognized  visual artist who has received numerous awards, among them the Leonardo Prize for the Young Generation and the Gunther Prize silver metal. He has exhibited in collective and individual shows in Argentina and internationally. In addition, he enjoys “indoor aviation,” which involves building scale model airplanes to be flown in large indoor spaces.

On October 9, Martín Torres and Mercedes Peñalva, graduates of ProyectArte’s Scholarship Program, participated in a conversation about contemporary Argentine art in New York’s Museo del Barrio, together with Tulio Sagastizabal and Marcelo Torretta.

The process is well underway. “Portrait, Miracle Without Geometry” is the name of the silent auction that will bring together the results of a series of encounters between 31 ProyectArte graduates and 26 celebrated artists. Self-portraiture is the order of the day.

Through this unique exchange, ProyectArte sought to create a distinct experience of artistic production, allowing emerging artists to share a space with artists of renown.

These meetings took place in July and August, and several participants have volunteered to share with us their reflections on this special experience.

Lucrecia Raimondi, a graduate of ProyectArte, worked together with Pedro Roth. “The encounter was brief, but it was very motivating,” she explained. “We had a conversation that motivated me to keep working at my art and, above all, to remember that an artist must always be faithful, responsable, and protective of her conception of the work she produces.”

Max Gómez Canlé, an internationally recognized painted, recalled his experience with the recent ProyectArte graduates Matías Presta and Jésica Tortul: “We spent a beautiful morning drawing, it was very natural. The youngsters worked very freely, and their drawings turned out better than mine!” Matías felt that his experience with Max was like a welcoming chat among friends, and he described as “intense” his two meetings with the painter and illustrator Eduardo Medici.

Juan Balza, a 2005 graduate of the Scholarship Program, underscored that his exchange with Ernesto Ballesteros centered more on philosophy that on art history. “Moving forward, I would like to work more conceptually,” he commented.

Diego Perrotta, who has won many artistic awards, opened the doors of his home to the portraits of Ivan Enquín and Mariano Benedetti. “I like to do these things. The meeting was very nice; we chatted for a while and drew a bit.”

Paloma Márquez, a 2007 graduate, characterized her experience working with the visual artist Andrés Labaké as very positive, resembling a clinical workshop. “Above all, we both managed to enrich our understanding of the other,” she explained.

The artist Lucía Sorans, who worked together with ProyectArte students Florentina Gonzales and Martina Nosetto, let her acrylics and oils color her words. “In my face there are currents of energy that are like the most tender meats that I wouldn’t eat, they change when I speak and they direct me to someone who, with his many aspects, gives me the color of time. The presence of each other that changes us together to leave us engrossed in the territory of everyone together, seasoning the instant that a face makes of the moment.”

A highly awaited encounter occasioned by the release of a CD, with the purpose of recalling a leader in the Argentine vanguard, Jorge de la Vega.

On Saturday, August 14, Argentine painter and journalist Felipe “Xuxo” Noé came to ProyectArte to preset and promote the re-release of musical works belonging to his close friend and colleague, the self-taught artist Jorge de le Vega.

De la Vega, an iconoclastic and original artist who worked in pop and surrealist traditions, had been in the process of producing his second disc when he passed away in 1971. From this project come previously unreleased songs that, together with classics like El Guisitano, were recorded for the first time this year under the direction of the Uruguayan artist Leo Maslíah, in collaboration with Lucía Gatti and Pablo Somma on cello, flute, and voice.

The result is a release that transcends space and time. It has been produced as part of the Rare Scores collection, a project of Epsa Music and the National Library.

During the chat, which took place in our studio, Felipe Noé shared two songs from the disc—“Historias de poetas” (Poets’ Stories) and “Proximidad” (Closeness)—with the nearly 50 ProyectArte students and graduates who had gathered there. In addition, he read a letter that he wrote in 1991 about his friend De la Vega, presenting it as a sort of prologue for the disc. In this way, Xuxo reconstructed the image of a versatile and multidisciplinary Jorge de la Vega. “He had a marvelous sense of poetry, which he expressed through his painting and music,” Noé explained, adding with a smile, “It’s certain that this disc is the best of his, because it preserves his lyrics but sung by good voices.”

Toward the end of the conversation Noé responded to questions that the students had formulated during the event,  bringing this interesting and anticipated encounter to its end.

In the area of Campaign Planning at University of Palermo, breathes enthusiasm. ProyectArte came to tell their mission and to propose to the students the challenge of creating two isotypes that will shape our design identity.

There was great enthusiasm in the Campaign Planning department of the University of Palermo. ProyectArte had come to explain its mission and present a challenge to the assembled university students: Design two new symbols that express our new visual identity. One of them was to be a new logo for the organization overall and the second was to be a new symbol for Galería PRIMA.

After the initial presentation, the future creatives demonstrated their curiosity about the different considerations necessary to meet the challenge, and they raised questions about ProyectArte’s target public and about potential modifications to the organization’s existing visual identity.

Both Mara (ProyectArte’s Executive Director) and Adrián (a teacher in the department) responded to the questions that were raised. They then offered the students a month to design their own proposals.

The Palermo students with best ideas will receive two works by current ProyectArte scholarship recipients in recognition of their collaboration, and they will have the opportunity to exhibit their works in Galería Prima for a week in November.

Through this program, ProyectArte hopes to take advantage of available resources and amplify its social impact, generating mutually beneficial collaborations with other educational institutions.

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