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THE ARGENTINE INTERNATIONAL

La Internacional Argentina

Featuring Artists: Cecilia Biagini, Ivana Brenner, Rafael Bueno, Bibi Calderaro, Beto De Volder, Dolores Furtado, Julio Grinblatt, Nicolás Guagnini,  Claudia Kaatziza Cortínez, Syd Krochmalny, Fabián Marcaccio, Sabrina Merayo Núñez, Luciana Pinchiero, Liliana Porter, Sofía Quirno, Analia Segal, and Pedro Wainer.

Curated by The Office of The Unknown Curator

February 5th, 2025 -March 29th, 2025

​Since the 19th century, Argentine artistic practice has been defined by a continuous movement—both physical and symbolic—toward unknown territories. For many years, Europe was the preferred destination, a place where artists sought legitimacy, inspiration, and training. But by the mid-20th century, this axis shifted. As New York replaced Paris as the epicenter of modern art, it became a magnet for creators from around the world, including many Argentines. In this city, they found space to expand their horizons, experiment with new forms, and seek refuge from the political, economic, and social upheavals of their home country. This environment also encouraged an exploration of themes such as labor, value production, and the alienation of contemporary capitalism, fostering a critical and transformative language that bridges historical tensions with cultural heritage.


The Argentine International, a concept inspired by the work of Copi, encapsulates the network of Argentine artists who have made New York a central hub for their practice. In this dynamic and ever-evolving city, artists such as Liliana Porter, Nicolás Guagnini, Fabián Marcaccio, Julio Grinblatt, Beto De Volder, Cecilia Biagini, Dolores Furtado, Luciana Pinchiero, and Syd Krochmalny have discovered a space that allows them to engage with global cultural currents while maintaining the conceptual depth of their origins.


Far from reinforcing rigid notions of identity and nationalism, this exhibition proposes a hybrid, ever-evolving community. Here, migration is not just a backdrop but a conceptual framework that connects bodies in transit, artistic practices, and new aesthetics that challenge both geographic and intellectual borders. The Argentine International is not just about displacement and its consequences; it turns movement into a driving force for creativity, expanding the scope of contemporary art. 


In this context, friendship emerges as both a political and cultural act—something that transcends personal bonds to become a strategy of resistance against precarity and displacement. The Argentine International champions friendship not just as a human connection, but as a force that sustains collective projects in foreign or transitional settings. Artistic creation becomes a site of shared experience and collaboration, capable of confronting the fractures of the contemporary world and generating new forms of belonging and solidarity.


True community is unspoken because it is not founded on belonging, but on the shared experience of the impossibility of foundation. The Argentine International exists as a space where the collective is always unfinished, fragmented, and unstable. It does not seek consensus or inclusion but instead embraces conflict, contradiction, and the impossibility of fixed meanings. It is not about representation, but about exposing what cannot be represented.


The relationship between Argentine art and its artists in New York goes beyond a simple cultural “transplant.” In a world where distances have shortened and contexts are increasingly interconnected, what emerges is not a break between the local and the global, but a complex synergy that shapes deeply hybrid artistic expressions. These works are not nostalgic; they actively reconfigure an aesthetic and social memory that engages with the cultural flux of the city. This exhibition presents a poetics of transit—where displacement is not just geographic but also conceptual and emotional—creating new ways to interpret contemporary experience.


The artists in this exhibition work across diverse disciplines to explore these intersections. Some examine labor, capitalism, and value production through installation, sculpture, and video art, revealing the tensions between work, consumption, and subjectivity. While photography has historically been associated with notions of time and space, this exhibition presents it through approaches that expand its conceptual and material potential. In one instance, photography is explored through experimentation with traditional techniques and the revival of obsolete technologies. In others, its ability to generate thought and knowledge is examined in relation to personal themes such as belonging, identity, and moments of transition. At the same time, notions of performativity and identity are reconfigured, intertwining the personal with the collective. Meanwhile, Argentine painting engages with geometric abstraction, memory, and urban dynamics, while other works explore ecology, reciprocity, politics, and power in contemporary art.


Is there an “Argentine gaze” in art? Rather than a fixed essence, this exhibition proposes a fluid perspective—one that absorbs and transforms its surroundings while retaining the imprint of a specific cultural experience. This approach challenges hierarchies, dismantles dominant narratives, and opens new possibilities for imagining art and life. These artists do not simply map out spaces of belonging; they carve out alternative futures, where the particular and the universal exist in constant dialogue.


More than a nostalgic reflection, The Argentine International reactivates historical dialogues and projects them into the future. The works gathered here do not merely document movement or encounters; they challenge certainties, reinterpret history, and create new possibilities. In this sense, the exhibition connects times, places, and experiences, reaffirming the transformative power of artistic communities to imagine a more expansive and pluralistic world.


In New York, Argentine art has not only found a context that expands its possibilities but a place where it is continuously redefined. The significance of this exhibition lies in its ability to reveal how these artists build a unique cultural bridge, connecting geographies and temporalities. Here, the local and the global are not opposing forces but deeply intertwined, leaving a lasting impact on contemporary art.

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