Alberto Echegaray Guevara

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2019

PERSONAL STRUCTURES

Global Lie & Money Talks

 Saturday 11th May to 24th November 2019 - Palazzo Mora - Venice

MONDO GALERIA and the European Cultural Center present for the first time the work of Alberto Echegaray Guevara at LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA.

Invited by the GAA Foundation, Diego Alonso, director of MONDO GALERIA, selected "GLOBAL LIE & MONEY TALKS", both projects by the Argentinean artist Alberto Echegaray Guevara for the exhibition "Personal Structures" taking place at Palazzo Mora, Giardini Marinaressa and the Palazzo Bembo during the 58th edition of La Biennale.

One Million Dollar Sphere, 2016
$1,000,000 Authentic US Dollars, destroyed
Blown Glass Sphere
Silver Plated.
50 x 50 x 60 cms

 GLOBAL LIE is the latest project of the multi-faceted Echegaray Guevara. A metallic Pinocchio, 3mtrs hight, using the figure of the Italian puppet and the allegory of the novel by Carlo Collodi to focus our attention on global corruption today. The sculpture created in polished stainless steel was presented for the first time in the city of Buenos Aires during the last G-20 Summit in front of the venue where the dignitaries of the participating countries met.

The sculpture installed at the entrance garden of Palazzo Mora opens the exhibition "Personal Structures". On the first floor other three works by Alberto Echegaray Guevara make the installation MONEY TALKS: One Million Dollar Sphere, One Million Euro Sphere and One Million Crypto Sphere.

The first two works made in blown Murano glass contain one million dollars and one million euros, respectively, crushed to support the artist's prophecy about the disappearance of paper money as we know it today.

The third one is technologically more complicated. It presents an electronic capsule containing 1,000,000 US dollars in Bitcoins and a digital screen connected to the 4G frequency with the real-time quotation of the crypto-currency.

It is very important the relationship between each project to understand the importance of an artist that goes beyond the limits of art to comment on the socioeconomic reality we are living. A sudden change of paradigm in the distribution of wealth and in the way that it is accumulated and traded.

Crypto Sphere, 2018
Flexible HD Screen, Internet connected. Acrylic Sphere
Titanium capsule containing private keys of 250 Bitcoins.
Application development software. Live online ticker connected to the internet and 4G network.
One meter diameter sphere.

 CATALOGUE TEXT

  "What is demonstrably good in the sphere of economics may be far from good for men and women as voters or even as human beings." A. Huxley - Brave New World. 1958

Money is energy. Sphere is perfection.
A perfect sphere is a symbol of totality, uniformity, concurrency, and sacred geometry. It is eternal, cyclic, it has no beginning and no end.

In times of Krypto blooming as hibiscuses in spring, vanishing of currency as we know seems imminent (is it? Considering the intriguing relationship, we have developed with notes and coins).

Beneath the prophetic “One Million Dollar Sphere” by Alberto Echegaray Guevara lies a theoretical graphic of a cycle: from the origin to the end of monetary simbology.
The dollar sign created as a seal of property for Spanish conquerors slave trade, will return as an implanted microchip in a not too far future. Made by an S (spirito) and two crossed nails (clavo - nail in Spanish) this sign made it into coins, coins became cheques and cheques notes, later credit cards and mobile handsets. Next step: The implanted chip as a tattoo. A new property mark for the love mammal, as seen on daily basis production of implants for pets.

In this renewed world order, fed by fear and epidemic shopping, the algorithm becomes a paradigm. The hidden influence of the global monetary system, and the effect of consumerism on spiritual values questions the future of currencies and modern society’s obsession with material wealth.

At a glance, an (apparent) micro-division of power arises. The dollar sign takes a new perspective losing hegemony on the markets. Sign of the times (are changing). Through a process of decentralization, if possible. Investors are flying as migratory birds to new centres of accumulation: formerly free of trace; today integrated by financial regulators (Banks). Chamber beneath. Lies.

Globally Pinocchio is a sign, an allegory of corruption. A humanoid who lies to be loved. How does an epic created to educate children of an Industrial Era adapt to a Bit Generation? The Ch´I, the Prana, LOVE.

From wood to a post-Space-Era alloy, Pinocchio represents the greed in Humanity. The moral beneath this tale also alerts us of artificial intelligence and the drama behind it as portrayed by later Maestros from Aldous Huxley to Stanley Kubrick. An extremely centralized power transvestite as a soft-social revolution based on individualization(?). Mechanic prototypes of a refreshed mythology.

You decide, lies or love.

Diego Alonso - Ibiza, December 2018.

POWER & CORRUPTION PINOCCHIO, 2018
Sculpture, Polished Stainless Steel
3mts High. Base 1,5 mts. 180 Kgs
Exhibited during G20 Meetings in Argentina

“When an artist sells art for millions of dollars, you can’t see art anymore...the only thing you see is money. The strength of Alberto’s concept is how he captured the commoditization of art with an incredible simplicity...”
Marina Abramovic, performance artist, New York, 2015.

About the Artist

Alberto Echegaray Guevara is a new media artist and entrepreneur who was born in Caracas, Venezuela, he currently lives and works in between New York City and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He is an emerging artist working in the fields of site-specific, immersive installations and parametric sculptures and his works explore ancient symbolism, monetary systems and the future of transactional platforms through creating a hybrid relationship between money, new media and architecture.

He holds a Master of Arts from Georgetown University in Public Administration, a Graduate Diploma in Management from Harvard Business School as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from West Point and Argentina’s Military Academy. He is a former cavalry officer in the Argentinian army.

As a media artist, designer and spatial thinker, Alberto Echegaray Guevara is intrigued by the ways in which the evolution of contemporary culture requires us to create a new aesthetic, technique and dynamic perception of monetary systems and human values. Cayman builds his works on the nomadic subject’s reaction to and interactions with unconventional materials and spatial orientations. Embedding money (symbols of power) into media arts and architecture, he explores the possibility of a post-digital, architectural future in which there are no more nondigital realities.

He invites viewers of his pieces to visualize disruptive realities by presenting them with the possibility of redefining the functionalities of both the interior and exterior architectures of the socio-economic systems that rule our world. Privileging difference rather than singularity and movement rather than stasis, Alberto Echegaray Guevara faces all the new challenges that the gradual development of an enriched, immersive environment and ubiquitous technology impose on media artists, engineers and architects. How is our interaction with space changing now that digital objects ranging from smart phones, human microchips and new transportation systems have all but colonized our everyday lives?

How have media and new technologies changed our con- ceptualization of moral values and space, and how has art embraced these shifting conceptualizations? These are the main questions that Cayman tackles by not only`` integrating media into built forms, but also translating the logic of a new media technology into spatial design and immersive installations.

He has been awarded numerous honors, awards and resi- dencies and has served as a guest lecturer. He is a frequent guest commentator on global media outlets like CNN, Univision, Voice of America, Al Jazeera and Telemundo, and has been noted for his defense of human rights and democracy in Latin America. He is currently the Director of the biotech firm Control Micro, which has developed biopolymers with applications for water purification and the sterilization of critical public environments at minimal cost for the developing world. During a decade spent living in Washington, DC, Echegaray Guevara served as the Latin American Director of Ashoka, where he was in charge of projects related to topics such as human rights, the environ- ment, health, and education in more than 40 countries.

“During the last year I have been looking for something that surprised me ...your concept and your art is unique... You really surprised me... Congratulations...”
Rebecca Taylor. communications director at MOMA PS1, New York