Noemí Escandell: Estructuras primarias
Del plano al espacio (Primary Structures - From the Plane to the Space)
Since her relief series, Noemí Escandell chose to distance herself from tradition. With her overlapping pieces of wood, she broke the plane to project into space; the thickness of these shapes cast shadows blurring their clear contours.
Sketches of primary structures, both square and curved, emerged from geometrical rigor, plain color and repetition, combining their parts, colors and joints. These pieces, far from being conceived for a pedestal, were designed for those undifferentiated places that could also be occupied by everyday objects. Some sets even completed their structural definition through their link with architecture, such as Volúmenes, the hanging part of which depends on being attached to a wall.
Escandell made a long series of sketches and materialized some structures, which she presented in two exhibitions that were part of the Advanced Art Week organized in Buenos Aires by Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, entitled “Rosario 67” and “Estructuras Primarias II”. She also exhibited the Esferas suspendidas installation at Galería Quartier, Rosario, and Galería Lirolay in Buenos Aires.
The minimalist presence of her structures recognizes a new space in terms of subject/object, defined as the viewer’s spatiotemporal experience and, in this sense, experiencing them entails a conceptual provocation. From their literalness, these minimalist objects adopt a reflexive attitude that tends to review discursive rules and institutional regulations, that is, they represent an ever vigilant attitude in view of the possibility of creating doubt.
These conceptual shifts became more apparent in Tucumán Arde, an institution-challenging collective intervention that was silenced by censorship.The radical nature of the views caused many members of the Grupo de Arte de Vanguardia de Rosario to rethink their stand; this included Escandell, who voluntarily and ethically refrained herself from publicly exhibiting her work between 1969 and 1983. Considering there was an indissoluble link between art and political practice, however, she resorted to alternative dissemination practices and channeled her critical attitude towardsteaching without interrupting her creative work, which she stills performs in the city of Rosario.
Cristina Rossi