Introduction
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The Argentina of the late eighties was characterised by a restricted
art scene, hardened by a decade of military dictatorship and the
subsequent economic problems of the fledgling democracy. This
situation offered little opportunities to emergent artists such
as Ral Veroni (born 1965).
In the nineties an aesthetic current called Arte
Light (the name comes from the tendency of self-detachment
from all but aesthetic compromises) occupied the majority of prestigious
exhibition spaces. At this time Veroni’s artworks involved
critical and historical comments on the past decade: terrorism
of state, hyper-inflation, the Falklands’ War and political
corruption. With his travels around the USA and Europe at the
end of the nineties, RV witnessed the way in which a neo-conceptualist
influence had overtaken the cultural arena.
Without doubt, the artist’s book has been for Veroni an
instrument of resistance. In the face of dominant aesthetic tendencies
opposed to his own stand point, the genre has served Veroni as
a space for independent production. The choice of medium could
also be seen as reflecting an innate distrust on the part of the
artist towards institutions –a consequence of his years
of youth under military rule. The artist’s book has been
a media through which he has been able to make his work accessible
to a wider audience, without dependence on the museum or the gallery
as intermediaries.
The artist’s book as an extension, or part, of public art
projects has also played an important role in a number of his
projects (Struggle for Life,
The Nomadic Exhibition). The
artist’s book as a catalogue (Narcisismo
y Emblema), as a manifesto (Itinerario),
as a portfolio (Vacuum) or as a
record of a series of works (Buenos
Aires) are some of the uses to which Veroni has applied the
genre.
Perhaps all these characteristics: accessibility, adaptability
and autonomy, are those that have made the artist’s book
the back-bone of Veroni’s work. The genre has adapted through
the years to the artist’s formal and technical changes,
to political and poetical projects, to geographical changes, to
unfavourable cultural fashions, to the occasional lack of studio
facilities and to financial limitations.