Education: In the Spirit of Linnaeus

The year 2007 marked the tercentenary of the birth of the remarkable botanist and naturalist Carl Linnæus (Carl von Linnée, 1707-1778). In Manila, capital of the Philippines, a series of special events were devoted to his contribution to the field of scientific research. Linnaeus was an enthusiastic man and believed that curiosity was essential for the development of the sciences. He was always interested in finding, studying, cataloguing and classifying all living beings, because he wanted to understand the order and principles that rule the Creation. Linnaeus' approach included the giving of names to the living beings thanks to a binary nomenclature. With his method, he called them systematically. Being Latin the lingua franca among the scientists of the eighteenth century, Linnaeus' idea and his creation of the concept of "species" contributed greatly in making scientific dialogue simple and precise. In this sense, he raised it to a universal level. Exploration, medicine, geology, anthropology ecology and philosophy were among the many fields cultivated by Linnaeus, a man of humble origin who was to become the rector of the University of Uppsala, then capital of the Swedish Kingdom. Linnaeus' deductive approach and his systematic classification of the living beings were important to the sciences in the Age of Reason and remain so nowadays. In his search for unknown species, those that had to be found, observed, examined, described, named and classified, Linnaeus explored most of Scandinavia and quite a number of other European countries. In the Old Continent, Linnaeus was the first to plant a banana tree and have its fruit too. He called it Musa paradisiaca. The eighteenth century was an epoch of Encyclopaedia and Illustration, reflexion, exploration and discovery. Indefatigable traveller and researcher, brilliant lecturer and admirable author, Linnaeus was an archetype of his times. As a rector, he conceived and supported incredible voyages for his students and seventeen of them travelled across the world. Linnaeus' taxonomic system and part of his classifications are relevant even today. Homo sapiens, for example, is the very name that Linnaeus gave to man.
In the forum that took place in Manila during the months of January and February 2007, I called Linnaeus Rara avis—a Latin name that follows his taxonomy and alludes to the especial the unusual. It is also an expression that can be used for an extraordinary human being.
During the Linnaeus-Manila interdisciplinary forum, a series of twelve lectures were given in the frame of an educative program known as “In the Spirit of Linnaeus.” It gathered students of both sciences and arts. It offered a whole set of new ideas concerning both Linnaeus and the reality that surrounds us.
The lectures were received with enthusiasm by more than 2000 students. Over 7000 have visited the posts I prepared on Linnaeus. A remarkable number of students participated in an essay contest inspired by three maxims of Linnaeus. In their essays, the students had to focus on "The importance of Ecology." The best of those essays can be found online today. In May 2007, the winner of the essay competition was visiting Sweden during fifteen days. Five other students received prizes as well. The repercussion of the Tercentenary Lectures on Science and Art was positive in both Sweden and the Philippines. I thank the Ambassador Annika Markovic of Sweden for having invited me to develop the Linnaeus-Manila Program of 2007. Mariano Akerman

In the Spirit of Linnaeus: The Tercentenary Lectures on Science and Art, Manila, January-February 2007

Linné i Taytay. 7 februari var en speciell dag på "High school" i Taytay, Filippinerna. Det var dagen då Carl von Linné kom på besök. Inte i egen hög person men i form av ett mycket inspirerande och lärorikt föredrag om vår världsberömde svenske botaniker. I år är det 300 år sedan han föddes, något som kommer att uppmärksammas både i Sverige och utomlands.
Det var ett erbjudande från Sveriges ambassadör Annika Marcovics som föranledde besöket. Föredragshållaren Mariano Akerman höll, på uppdrag av svenska ambassaden, föreläsningar på skolor och universitet i Manila.* Att även få berätta om Linnés arbete för elever på en skola i slummen, uppskattade både han och eleverna väldigt mycket.
Precis innan han skulle börja sin föreläsning försvann strömmen och varken lampor, mikrofoner eller den specialgjorda datorpresentationen fungerade. Å andra sidan hade ju inte heller Linne tillgång till sådana finesser och föredraget fungerade utmärkt ändå.
Linné katalogiserade och beskrev växter och djur och gav dem latinska namn, ett arbete som än idag ligger till grund för botanikers arbete världen över. Under de sista åren som Linné levde, var han professor i Uppsala. Han valde då ut 17 av sina duktigaste studenter, vilka han skickade ut över hela välden. Deras uppgift var att samla och skicka hem plantor och djur till Linné. Eleverna på Taytay blev glatt överraskade när de fick höra att Linnés studenter även genomförde resor ända bort till Filippinerna. Maria Presson, Star of Hope (Hoppets Stjärna), Scandinavia, 6.3.2007 (retrieved 8.2.2008).

*. Trans. The speaker was Mariano Akerman lecturing on behalf of the Swedish Embassy at schools and universities in Manila.

Ref. The Tercentenary Lectures on Science and Art, Manila and Taytay, Philippines, 2007

Online resources
• Linnaeus-Manila Program
• In the Spirit of Linnaeus
• Brochure
• Linneo
• What a century!
• Rara avis
• Kingdom and Ecology
• The Same Order
• El mismo orden

Art Documents: Francis Bacon, Remarks

Francis Bacon the Painter, Dublin 1909-Madrid 1992.

Art History Documents. Selection, info-research, decodification, transcript and references by Mariano Akerman.[1]

A. Raw Human Emotion (Je m'en fous du passé)

Bacon photographed by John Deakin, 1954 (Vogue, July 1962); Bacon in his South Kensington studio, London, 1966. Ref. videoclip-invitation to Buffalo, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s, May-July 2007.

B. Man, A Completely Futile Being

Bacon, photographed by Irving Penn, 1962 (work document; published in Vanity Fair); painter's statement in his South Kensington studio, London, October 1962, as recorded and filmed in London by the BBC Television, May 1966: “As man realizes that he is an accident and his futility… that he is a completely really futile being, that he has to play out the game without reason. I think that even when Velázquez was painting, even when Rembrandt was painting, in a peculiar way they were still, whatever their attitude to life was, they were still slightly conditioned by certain types of religious possibilities, which man now, you could say, has been completely canceled out for him. Now, of course, man can only attempt to make something very, very positive by trying to beguile himself for a time by the way he behaves by prolonging possibly his life by buying a kind of immortality through the doctors. You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become, completely a game by which man distracts himself. What is fascinating actually is that it’s going to become much more difficult for the artist, because he must really deepen the game to be any good at all.”[2]

C. Bacon, interview by Melvyn Bragg, filmed and directed by David Hinton, London: Arena for London Weekend Television, The South Bank Show, 1985.

C.1/6 Sensation without the Boredom of Its Conveyance
Ref. A) Street, London, 1985. Francis Bacon and John Edwards. Introduction. 1925 left home at the age of 16, lived in London for a while then traveled in Europe. 1929 saw a Picasso exhibit in Paris and decided to become a painter. But once back in London was known initially as an interior designer. The 1930 Look in British Decoration: modernist furniture and rugs. Crucifixion 1933, published in Herbert Read's Art Now. International Surrealist Exhibition of 1936: rejected as “not sufficiently surreal.” Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucufixion, 1944 (exh. 1945). Head II, 1949. Self Portrait, 1973, Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1983. A Piece of Waste Land, 1982. Jet of Water, 1979. Triptych 1974-77. B) Tate Gallery, Storeroom. Head IV, 1949. “I had always thought that I w[ould] be able to make the mouth with all the beauty of a Monet landscape, but I've never succeeded in doing so.” Velasquez, Pope Innocent X, 1649. Study after Velasquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953. Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe, 1963. Syringe put as he “wanted something to nail it into the bed” and “could't put a nail in it.” Deforming and reforming reality. “Today man wants the sensation wihout the boredom of its conveyance.” Velasquez, The Toilet of Venus, 1651. “I always try to make concentrations of images.” Study for Portrait of P.L. on a Folding Bed, 1963. Pollock, Yellow Islands, 1952. “I've never really cared for Jackson Pollock and, of course, as he is a great hero in America, I've said the most terrible thing [about what he paints], that [...] it's all lace. And I've never been liked in America since.” Rothko, Black on Maroon, 1958. “I hate that dirty maroon.” Van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888. “It's an extremely beautiful painting.” Admires its “extraordinary intensity.”

C.2/6 Reek of Human Blood, Concentration of Reality, Shorthand of Sensation
Ref. A) Tate Gallery, Storehouse. Study for Portrait of Van Gogh II, 1957. Two Studies of George Dyer with Dog, 1968. Egyptian art as attempt to defeat death. Seated Figure, 1974. The human figure. “Exciting images.” The fates or furies (classical mythology). “The violence of Aeschylus in wonderful translation: ‘the reek of human blood smiles out of me’.” Narrator's voice: “The reek of human blood it’s laughter to my heart.” “Astonishing images.” B) South Kensington studio. Blots as his “abstract pictures.” “I work much better in chaos. Chaos for me breeds images.” Technique. Modus operandi. Via “figurative art” wants to make “not illustration of reality, but to create images which are concentration of reality and a shorthand of sensation.” Idea of attacking the canvas with paint. The unconscious. “I believe in a deeply ordered chaos.” Instinct.

C.3/6 Chance, Vitality and Inspiration
Ref. A) South Kensington studio. Desire of not defining images. Art as putting oneself at risk all the time. Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorn Standing in a Street in Soho, 1967. Works on umprimed or 'wrong' side of the canvas. Jet of Water, 1979. Battle with the canvas. Vitality. Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror, 1968. Instinct. Triptychs. “I'm always hoping that chance is going to work on my favour.” “I don't really know... I don't try to read my work. I don't really know what it means. I only know what it means to me... formally.” “I don't want to tell a story. I have no story to tell.” “I do like the starkness of the image. I want it to give me a visual shock.” Bacon's visual imagery is “nothing, except from what peole wants to read into it.” Edwards. Visual sources of inspiration and work documents: photographs and clippings showing rapacious birds, Peter Beard, screaming man, positioning in radiography, businessmen with umbrellas, train, elephant phoetus, elephants, running dog, early session of photography, chimpanzee, Hermann Goering, pairs of wrestlers, man bending over, hippopotamuses, sportsmen, Adolf Hitler, tiger, cyclist, Benito Mussolini, cricket player, owl with prey, saint from Romanesque fresco, woman with umbrella, boxer being punched on his face, Bacon photographed by Beard, mouth radiograph, chickens scared by a torpedo photographed by Muybridge, Graeco-roman wrestlers. Photography. “Photographs bring up images.” Wild animals. African buffalo, white rhinoceros, jiraffes. “The movement of wild animals is the action [of their] muscular movement [and] probably has something to do with the structure of many things I would like to do.” To capture an instant or an inalienable fact. “I would like my paintings to have the same immediate effect [... of an image showing] animal after the kill.” Two lions and prey. Rapacious bird photographic sequence by Muybridge. “Muybridge ... took photographs of people who were deformed, with all forms of deformity, which were interesting in themselves.” What appears to be a distorted set of bodies (Bragg's words). Clippings: wrestlers, boxers, soccer players, rugbiers, cricket players. Imges from Positioning in Radiography. “Photographs are ... my models and subject-matter.” Correlation between painted figure and photographic source: After Muybridge, 1965 (detail: Paralytic Child on All Fours). Man with Dog, 1953. Two Figures, 1953. Triptych August 1972 (detail). Study of a Baboon, 1953. Study of Portrait of Henrietta Moraes Laughing, 1969. Triptych, 1971 (detail). Study for Bullfight No.1, 1969. Study of the Human Body, 1982. B) Mario's Restaurant. Chance as more important than intellect: “I make images that intellect will never make.”

C.4/6 Meat, Violence and Voluptuousness
Ref. Mario's Restaurant. Painting 1946 as “great image.” “How marvellous [hanging] carcasses are! How beautiful!” People reported as looking at Bacon's pictures as matter of horror, shock, blood, dread and not something beautiful at all. “What could I make to compete [with] what goes on every single day. If you read the newspapers, if you look at television, if you know what's going on in the world... what could I do to compete with the horror that's going on? [...] I have tried to make images of it, I have tried to recreate and make, not the horror, but [...] images of realism.” Images relating to the real world. “There's nothing apart from the moment. I believe in nothing. Between birth and death... it's always the same thing... the violence of life. We are born and we die. That's it. There's nothing else.” “I just drift. My own life is just a drifting life.” Self Portrait, 1970. “I am profoundly optimistic about nothing. I'm just existing for a moment.” Seated Figure, 1979. Mouth. Ambiguity. Book on diseases of the mouth, with “beautiful” illustrations. Flesh. Study of the Human Cody, 1982-84. Study of the Human Body from a Drawing by Ingres, 1982. Ingres, Odalisque with Slave, 1842. Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1859-63. “I like men. Men flesh is very interesting, it always attracts me.” Male “voluptuousness” in Michelangelo's drawings. “I am not interested in fantasy. I am interested in reality. [...] Reality is what exists.” “I want to be able to remake in another medium the reality of an image that excites me.”

C.5/6 Anti-Illustrational Portraits
Ref. Colony Room Drinking Club, first floor. Muriel Belcher. John Edwards. The Gargoyle. Portraits. Isabel Rawsthorne. Lucien Freud. Henrietta Moraes. George Dyer. “I paint people I know very well.” Use of photographs as references. “In the portraits I do, I'm always hoping to make an image of their heads [that's] more than a literal portrait. There is no point in painting [portraits] that [don't] look like the person[s they are supposed to represent], but to remake [images of those persons] so that [they turn] back into [their] appearance [while not being] illustration[s] of them is the real problem.” Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, 1984. Origin of tripartite portraits: “I don't quite know from where it really started.” Mentions cinema. Tripartite portrait photograph of Edwards. Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1510-15. “I have done a number [of portraits] of myself, [...] not because I like my face (because I hate it), but [...] because there was nobody else to do [then].” Self Portrait, 1973. George Dyer's suicide. “I am not an expressionist painter.” Triptych March-June 1973 as nearest to a story: “that is how he was found.” Triptych 1971 (In Memory of George Dyer). As people die like flies, “life becomes more of a desert [...] around you.” On death: “You are always aware of it. It's just round the corner.” “If you have a very strong feeling for life, [...] it's shadow, death, it's always with you too.”

C.6/6 Playing the Game
Ref. Casino, Soho. “I'm a heavy loser in the end. I must be the perfect compost for casinos, because they must love in casinos some one who is always losing.” “Gambling is not a real risk.” Pictorial accident opens new possibilities. Three Studies for Figures on Beds, 1972. Couplings having sex. “I am not really a conversational artist.” Triptych Studies of the Human Body, 1979. “I suppose most couplings are violent, aren't they fairily? [...] I suppose perhaps when they ejaculate they become more violent.” Triptych August 1972. Single panel with coupling (Tokyo). Crucifixion 1962. Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1965. “I hope [my paintings] look like a reflection of reality. But you could say that [...] nearly all reality is pain.” Gilded frames and perspex sheets. Triptych March-June 1973. Triptych 1971. Three Portraits, 1973.

D. A Telling Comparison

A detail from the central panel of Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (Bacon, c. 1944. Tate Gallery, London) and its source of inspiration in a medical manual of mouth diseases (Ludwig Grünwald, Atlas-manuel des maladies de la bouche, 1903). Original research 2008 comparison, by Mariano Akerman. All rights reserved.

Notes
1. Mariano Akerman is an architect and art historian, who researches the work of Francis Bacon since 1985.
2. See also David Sylvester, The Brutaliy of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon, London: Thames & Hudson, 1987 interview 1, October 1962. Broadcast by Palette, Figures de l'excèss: « Je pense que l’homme réalise qu’il est un accident, qu’il est un être dénué de sens et très futile, qu’il lui faut sans raison jouer le jeu jusqu’au but. Quand Vélasquez ou Rembrandt peignaient, ils étaient encore d’une certaine manière, quelle que fut leur attitude à l’égard de la vie, légèrement conditionnes par certaines types de possibilités religieuses, que l’homme d’aujourd’hui, dirait-on, a vu s’annuler complètement pour lui. Maintenant, bien entendu, l’homme ne peut que s’efforcer de faire quelque chose de très, très positif en essayant de s’abuser pour un temps par la façon dont il se conduit, en prolongeant peut-être sa vie grâce à une sorte d’immortalité qu’il achète aux médecins. Voyez-vous, tout l’art est maintenant devenu tout à fait un jeu avec lequel l’homme se distrait. Et ce qui est fascinant c’est que cela va devenir bien plus difficile pour l’artiste, puis qu’il lui faudra vraiment approfondir le jeu pour aboutir à quoi que ce soit de bon. »

11 January 2008

Akerman: Indudablemente Un Punto Clave

Casi con toda seguridad algunas de mis raíces están en el área donde Europa y Asia convergen para dar lugar al continente más grande del mundo, Eurasia. Entre 1503 y 1918, Akerman fue el nombre de un gran poblado; hoy sólo cuenta con unos 50.000 habitantes. Situado en Ucrania, a 80 kilómetros de Odessa, Akerman posee una hermosa fortaleza sobre el río Dníester (no muy lejos de su desembocadura, en el Mar Negro). La fortaleza data del siglo XIII y fue luego reconstruída en varias oportunidades. Al poblado de Akerman hoy se lo conoce como Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, pero sus nombres más antiguos se remontan al siglo VI. Ofiusa (Οφιούσα) y Tiras (Τύρας) son los nombres griegos de Akerman, al que en latín se conocía como Album Castrum (Castillo Blanco). Llamado en rumano Cetatea Albă, ya desde 1484 se denomina al lugar “Akkerman,” un término aparentemente turco y cuyo significado es Ciudad Blanca. Sugestivo contraste el de una ciudad blanca junto a un mar negro… Y ya de origen turco o no, lo cierto es que Akerman siguió siendo conocido como Akerman tanto en búlgaro como en ruso (Акерман y Аккерман), sin que esto tuviese nada que ver con el grupo étnico o procedencia del vencedor de tal o cual batalla. En efecto, en Akerman tuvieron lugar numerosos enfrentamientos bélicos, muchos de ellos debidos al simple hecho de que Akerman era un punto clave: era allí precisamente donde se intercambiaban productos preciosos tales como el ámbar de occidente y la seda que llegaba desde el oriente.

Enlaces a fuentes en inglés y francés; fotos de la Fortaleza Medieval de Akerman

got to keep believing, got to keep it going

GABRIEL RIOS, ANGELHEAD, 2007 >>> ORIGINAL, EXPRESSIVE, FANTASTIC (AKERMARIANO).

PRETTY LITTLE DEMON
LETS ME CALL HER ANGELHEAD
SOMETIMES WHEN I SEE HER SHE'S LYING NEXT TO ME IN BED
WE BE THERE LATE AT NIGHT
SHE'S SAYING NOTHING RIGHT
SHE SAYS IT'S ALL MESSED UP CONFUSED AND FEELS LIKE GIVING UP
JUST GIVING UP
PEAKING IN THE RED
LIKE WE'RE SQUEEZING 'TILL WE DEAD
LIKE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE INSTEAD
BUT THE BLEEDING 'TILL IT'S BLED
THE TV'S ON THE FLOOR THERE'S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR
THE SUN HAS JUST COME UP BUT ME AND LITTLE ANGELHEAD KEEP MAKING LOVE
A LITTLE LOVE
I'M NOT READY FOR THIS WORLD
SO LET ME BE
GOODNIGHT
GOODNIGHT ANGELHEAD
GOODNIGHT ANGELHEAD SEE YOU IN THE MORNING
GOT TO KEEP BELIEVING GOT TO KEEP IT GOING
IT'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT JUST GOT TO HOLD ON TIGHT
IT'S GONNA GO ON EVEN IF YOU REALLY WANNA MAKE IT STOP
IT NEVER DOES 'CUZ I'M A PAGAN YOU'RE A PAGAN
TOGETHER WELL WE GET AROUND
WE HEAR THE SAME SOUNDS BREAKING THE MIND
DISSING OUR KIND PLUS WE FEEL LOVE COME FROM ABOVE
AND IF THE WHOLE THING FINALLY BREAKS
WE'LL MAKE IT UP
JUST MAKE IT UP
I'M NOT READY FOR THIS WORLD
SO LET ME BE
GOODNIGHT
GOODNIGHT ANGELHEAD
WHO AM I
TO KEEP THIS GOING
WHO ARE YOU TO BRING ME DOWN
GOOD NIGHT ANGELHEAD

todas las cosas que quedaron por decir... y que de hecho no son pocas.

PORQUE TE VAS

Hoy en mi ventana brilla el sol
y el corazón
se pone triste contemplando la ciudad
porque te vas
Como cada noche desperté
pensando en ti
y en mi reloj todas las horas vi pasar
porque te vas

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo
me olvidarás, me olvidarás
Junto a la estación hoy lloraré igual que un niño
porque te vas, porque te vas
porque te vas, porque te vas

Bajo la penumbra de un farol se dormirán
Todas las cosas que quedaron por decir
se dormirán
Junto a las manillas de un reloj
esperarán
todas las horas que quedaron por vivir
esperarán

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo
me olvidarás, me olvidarás
Junto a la estación hoy lloraré igual que un niño
porque te vas, porque te vas
porque te vas, porque te vas

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo
me olvidarás, me olvidarás
Junto a la estación hoy lloraré igual que un niño
porque te vas, porque te vas
porque te vas, porque te vas

"Porque te vas," de José Luis Perales e Israel Pérez Arreguín, 1974. La canción es interpretada por Jeanette (Jannete Dimech) en el tema musical de la película "Cría cuervos" (Carlos Saura, 1976). El título la película se refiere a un conocido refrán sobre la ingratitud: « Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos. » Cuando el segundo videoclip llega a -0:20 segundos, al pie de una fotografía en blanco y negro, con Geraldine Chaplin amamantando a la niña cuando era bebé (izquierda de la pantalla), puede leerse un texto manuscrito que dice “ … ’ese’ era yo.. Vanidad de vanidades..” Tales palabras tienen su fuente en la Biblia, Eclesiastés 1:2, “Vanidad de vanidades, todo es vanidad.” Y ellas constituyen una de las posibles respuestas a la pregunta "¿vale la pena vivir?” La misma es de particular relevancia en el caso de todos aquellos que sienten que nada es seguro, que nada es perdurable, que nada es satisfactorio...

BECAUSE YOU GO AWAY

Today the sun shines on my window
and the heart
becomes sad contemplating the city
because you go away
As every night I awoke
thinking of you
and in my watch I perceived all the hours going by
because you go away

All the promises of my love will go with you
you’ll forget me, you’ll forget me
Close to the station I’ll cry like a child today
because you go away, because you go away
because you go away, because you go away

Below the penumbra of a lantern will fall asleep
all the things that were left to be said
will fall asleep
By the hands of a clock
will wait
all the hours that were left to be lived
will wait

All the promises of my love will go with you
you’ll forget me, you’ll forget me
Close to the station I will cry like a child today
because you go away, because you go away
because you go away, because you go away

All the promises of my love will go with you
you’ll forget me, you’ll forget me
Close to the station I will cry like a child today
because you go away, because you go away
because you go away, because you go away

Lyrics of the film "Breeding Crows" (Carlos Saura, 1976). Translation into the English language by Mariano Akerman. "Because You Go Away" is the English for "Porque te vas." The first word in Spanish (Porque) is used for giving reasons or explainig or justifying something. It isn't a ¿Por qué? (involving two separate words between question marks and with the second word accentuated), which is used to ask "why?" or "for what reason?" - "Cría cuervos," the title of Saura's film, alludes to a well-known saying concerning ingratitude, "Cría cuervos y te arrancarán los ojos" (raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes). When the videoclip arrives at -0:20, below a black-and-white photograph that shows Géraldine Chaplin nursing a baby girl (left side of the screen), one finds the inscription “ … ’ese’ era yo.. Vanidad de vanidades..” ( …that ‘he-one’ was me... Vanity of vanities...). Those words have their source in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Significantly, they also suggest a possible answer to the question “is it worth at all to live?,” being this question relevant to all those who feel that nothing is safe, that nothing is permanent, that nothing is statisfying...

Akermariano, Porque Te Vas, arte digital, Diciembre 2007. Mascarón modernista con personaje amordazado. Ornamento arquitectónico, estilo art nouveau, Bruselas, c. 1900

EL SILENCIO (Francisco Luis Bernárdez)

No digas nada, no preguntes nada
Cuando quieras hablar, quédate mudo:
que un silencio sin fin sea tu escudo
y al mismo tiempo tu perfecta espada.

No llames si la puerta está cerrada,
no llores si el dolor es más agudo,
no cantes si el camino es menos rudo,
no interrogues sino con la mirada.

Y en la calma profunda y transparente
Que poco a poco y silenciosamente
Inundará tu pecho de este modo,

sentirás el latido enamorado
con que tu corazón recuperado
te irá diciendo todo, todo, todo

Reflexiones ultramarinas

por Mariano Akerman

"Si el mundo fuera claro, el arte no existiría." Albert Camus


Mariano Akerman, Templo de Inclusión, técnica mixta, 1988

Nací en Buenos Aires en 1963 y, a decir verdad, no recuerdo cuándo comenzó mi interés por el arte. Según me explicaron, yo a los dos años ya dibujaba tanto sobre papel como sobre toda superficie que estuviese disponible. Y tal pasión expresiva quedó registrada en algunos libros de mi madre, especialmente en las páginas del Tesoro de la Juventud y del diccionario Kapelusz de la Pintura Moderna. Allí se encuentran todavía algunos de mis monigotes y automatismos favoritos. Años más tarde, en el mismo diccionario también agregué ‘correcciones’ a las simplificadas obras de Matisse de los años cuarenta, ya que, según mis criterios de entonces, "estaban incompletas.”

Mis primeros encuentros más o menos sistemáticos con el arte los tuve en el taller Piruetas, donde mi tía Moroca enseñaba pintura a partir de los métodos surrealistas del automatismo y la libre asociación. Ella fue quien oportunamente me familiarizó con las técnicas de la témpera y el óleo. Durante la adolescencia, cuando mostré interés por el dibujo y la historia del arte, Moroca puso particular cuidado en explicarme el desarrollo de la pintura, sus formas y significados. También gracias a ella tuve acceso a libros muy formativos. Entre los más influyentes, recuerdo la Pintura Moderna de Julio Payró y los Fundamentos del Diseño, obra de Scott. Conmovedor me pareció un estudio de la vida y obra de Miguel Ángel, maestro con el que me identifiqué por algunos años. También fue mérito de Moroca el exhibir mis primeros óleos en la Casa de la Pintura Argentina y presentarme, a mediados de los ochenta, a Mercedes Gervasi, en cuya galería tuvo lugar mi primera exposición individual (Buenos Aires, Galería RG en Arte, Transformaciones de fibras y cuentos dulces, Mayo de 1986).

Refiriéndose a las obras expuestas, Monique Sasegur escribía entonces en La Actualidad en el Arte: “Una primera aproximación nos habla de un dibujante que maneja la línea, el color y el espacio seguro de lo que quiere. Si buscamos una estructura formal en la obra, [ésta] saltaa la vista. Pero, también, hallamos […]un interesante mensaje vital. Aquí, lo simple nodescartalo profundo. […] Uno de los objetivos pretendidos es la activa participación del espectador que sólo puede entrar en el juego plástico si suma su cuota de imaginación y fantasía. Así, los ojos picarescos de los personajes se unen a la divertida mirada del testigo que debe decidir cuál es la figura o donde está el fondo. ¿Pero se mezclan? ¿Muy oriental o muy decorativo? Se diría ornamental, plástico y poderosamente esperanzado.”

Mis trabajos de los años ochenta y principios de los noventa tienen bastante que ver con la estética del modernismo y surrealismo europeos, sobre todo con la sensualidad de las líneas ondulantes del Art Nouveau y las yuxtaposiciones aparentemente incongruentes de la imaginería onírica.

Desde un punto de vista técnico, mi trabajo pone en evidencia una constante predilección por el dibujo sobre papel. También por la témpera y la acuarela, y un uso muy prolijo del collage. La témpera es propia de mis trabajos de mediados de los setenta y hasta mediados de los ochenta. La acuarela se vuelve importante desde 1987 en adelante.

En general, comienzo mis trabajos dibujando y sólo luego aplico el color. Si las obras de arte se clasifican en dos grandes categorías, una en la que a prevalece la línea y otra en la que domina la mancha, se diría que mi trabajo pertenece al primer grupo. La razón de esto puede ser no solamente el hecho de que yo sea arquitecto, sino también el que la línea en general establece límites precisos, a diferencia de mancha que suele desdibujarlos. Con todo, el manchar de un Monet, con sus infinitos matices, es mil veces más interesante que la limitada rigidez lineal del Mondrian finalmente ortogonalizado. En lo que concierne a la idea de masa, no cabe dudaquemiobratiene más-afinidad con, digamos, un Modigliani que con un Rubens.

El trabajo en serie me interesa, pero explorar y repetir no son la misma cosa. La obra de Warhol, por ejemplo, a veces resulta desagradable. Es cierto que, si se considera mi obra como conjunto, es posible agrupar ciertos de mis trabajos que presentan elementos en común, tanto técnicos como temáticos. Así, la témpera y las fibras prevalecen en las obras expuestas en RG en Arte en 1986, mientras que la acuarela domina los trabajos exhibidos en la UB en 1988 (Buenos Aires, Facultad de Estudios para Graduados de la Universidad de Belgrano, De cáscara y contenido, Septiembre de 1986). Lo imaginario, por otra parte, es una constante en mi obra. Y no casualmente. Giordano Bruno decía que “la imagen ficticia posee su propia verdad.” Tal idea tiene paralelos visuales en el trabajo de Bosch, Goya, Beardsley, Dalí y Bacon... artistas todos ellos a los quenopocoles debo.La-diversidad acaso sea la característica más saliente de mi producción—diversidad técnica, temática, estilística. Acabado ejemplo de ello es Templo de Inclusión (1988), con su técnica mixta, filosofía de coexistencia y columnas multiformes (que simbolizan las ideas de vitalidad, profundidad, oportunidad, agudeza, causalidad y esperanza).
Entre los artistas que más admiro, Henry-Moore ocupa un lugar especial. Lo que me atrae de su obra es la presencia de lo figurativo que tiende a transformarse en abstracto. De la obra de Moore me gustan su calma y su libertad.

Respecto a mi trabajo, es posible describirlo, pero definirlo estaría de más. Esto se debe a que la razón de ser del mismo es la de sugerir significado, a diferencia del arte que re-presenta lo visible, material y tangible (mímesis). Para mí, el arte no es mero reflejo del mundo corpóreo que percibimos a nuestro alrededor. Y si es condición inevitable del arte la del funcionar como un espejo, entonces mi trabajo no es otra cosa que un fiel reflejo de mi alma, o por decirlo con otras palabras, de mis constelaciones interiores.

Ref. Mariano Akerman (Akermariano, 1963- ), Templo de Inclusión 1988, siete versiones digitales, Octubre 2007. Obra artistica, período argentino (1965-1990), plástica, dibujo, diseño, arquitectura, idea de orden, Moroca (Elisa Akerman), Miguel Ángel Buonarrotti (1475-1564), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Henry Moore (1898-1986).

El arte es al hombre, lo que el agua es a la vida.

Linnaeus 2007 A Visual Tribute

" NOMINA SI NESCIS, PERITET COGNITIO RERUM "
Linnaeus, 1755
Ignoring the name of things also erases what you know about them.
Al ignorar el nombre de las cosas, desaparece también lo que se sabe de ellas.