The Rise of Macchi – Jorge Macchi

No. 14 – Buenos Aires, May 2005.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just announced that Jorge Macchi will represent us at the next Venice International Biennial, which opens on June 12.

The artistic direction of this 51st edition of the international contemporary art mega exhibition will be shared by Spaniards María de Corral and Rosa Martínez. The curator of the Argentine delegation is Adriana Rosenberg, who selected Jorge Macchi (1963). He is the most successful conceptual artist of the moment, has a waiting list for the purchase of his works and is building an important international career. 

In Venice, Macchi will present La Ascención (The Assumption). It consists of a trampoline that he will place under a baroque fresco of the Assumption of Mary in the Oratory of San Filippo Neri. Musician Edgardo Rudnitzky will compose a custom piece for viola da gamba and the percussion that results from an acrobat’s jump on the trampoline, lasting approximately fifteen minutes. A CD will be produced and a performance will take place on the opening day with a musician and an acrobat. The music can be listened to in the installation once an hour, and there is also the possibility of listening to it through a cd-player and headphones. 

For the biennial, a book-object designed by Mario Gemin and Jorge Macchi will be edited, with information about the project, documentation about previous works in relation to the current one and the CD with the music composed by Edgardo Rudnitzky, which will be recorded in the same oratory two weeks before the opening of the biennial. 

BY LAURA BATKIS