THE MACA IN MANANTIALES EXHIBITS LEÓN FERRARI: ENCAPSULATED GRAPHICS

Heliografías (Heliographs) is a series of twenty-seven heliographic prints of images composed of Letraset (rubbed transfer) figures, an inexpensive medium widely used by graphic designers since the mid-1950s. These works were created during a period of experimentation, while Ferrari was in exile in São Paulo, from 1981 to 1985. The artist worked in dialogue with various Brazilian colleagues, including Regina Silveira, Julio Plaza, Carmela Gross, Hudinilson Jr. and Alex Fleming, who were working with different means of mechanical reproduction, such as photocopying, lithography, microfiche, and videotext.

In Heliografías, Ferrari uses standardized shapes that he reproduces mechanically to create blueprints for "impossible architecture." Thus we see couples dancing tango, beds, cars driving through circular streets, all aerial views that abstract reality. Ferrari explained that he had made these multiple unnumbered works to be donated or sold at a symbolic price to museums and some collections in order to achieve greater diffusion. Maria Laura Steverlynck, curator of this exhibition, explains that this series also functions as a game of using a reproducible technique such as engraving to disrupt the idea of ​​the unique work that, in theory, demonstrates the skill of an artist.

"The artist leaves room for the viewer to interpret whether the works are political, with a social questioning, or if they are just comical reflections on the state of the modern urban world" reflects Steverlinck in a text written especially for the catalog edited by the MACA for this exhibition. He adds: "The Heliografías also juxtapose elements of order and chaos to highlight the tension that exists in that dichotomy. You can't have one without the other. By emphasizing this duality, Ferrari makes it clear that neither is a solution to the problem.”

And why Encapsulated Graphics? Ferrari developed a technique to laminate the back of the sheets in such a way that the quality and appearance of the front would be very similar to that of ordinary paper. This allowed them to be rolled up without wrinkling or having to fold them and leaving the marks on the folds.

MACA - Atchugarry Museum of Contemporary Art

Route 104, Km 4.5

Manantiales - Maldonado - Uruguay