Matilde MARÍN

The proposed project is part of the artist’s research on the metaphorical value of lighthouses. In the history of humanity, there are many elements that refer to the journey but only a few have symbolized the expeditions as the lighthouse, positioned in the limit of sea and land.
The word lighthouse comes from the Latin pharus, “a light that guides the destiny of men”. Following this concept, the artist explores innumerable lighthouses in border regions of different continents, to give rise to her allegorical series Pharus Project. The lighthouse that motivates the present project is “The Lighthouse at the End of the World”, located on the Isla de los Estados, in Patagonia, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans converge.

An unique lighthouse given its singular location, since, for a long time, it was the only light that navigators could rely on in the Austral Sea. This same lighthouse is the one immortalized as an emblematic monument in our collective unconscious through the literary work The Lighthouse of the End of the World (c.1901) by Jules Verne.

Which interests, inspirations and circumstances have guided the author to carry out this exceptional novel? Is it possible that Verne had known this lighthouse which, in those days, was set as the last element before reaching the unknown landscape of Antarctica?

The intention of the artist is to trace a journey through the childhood and youth of one of the most brilliant and innovative writers of our history, in Nantes, his homeland, to inquire about these questions.

The project will include historical and photographic documentation of the sites frequented by Verne, the emblematic places of the region of Nantes and the Atlantic coast of the Loire flanked by the Ile d’Yeu and Poulains lighthouses. The research will lead to an artistic work that will include a compendium of photographs and texts from the travel log of Matilde Marín following the footsteps of a young Jules Verne.

Artist with an international career, she graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires as a sculptor and pursued her studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zürich, Switzerland. At the beginning of her career, she used paper as her first medium. It was only in the late nineties that she incorporated photography and video into her work. She has been distinguished by various institutions in the country and abroad. She lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Selection from 2005 to 2018: XIII Biennial of Havana; A Witness to History, Karachi Biennale KB17 Pakistan; OVNI Festival d’art, Nice, France; Portas Abertas Eugenio de Almeida Foundation, Portugal; Luz do Mundo, International Biennial of Curitiba, Brazil; Reality and Utopia, National Museum of San Carlos, Mexico City; Argentina’s Artistic Road to the Present, Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Visual Itineraries, Contemporary Art Museum of the University of Sao Paulo; (2009) De Natura - Zona Alterada, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; Too Much Freedom, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Illuminations, MALBA, Buenos Aires; The Nomadic Work of Matilde Marín School of Arts & Performing Arts, State University of New York; Making Artists Books Today, Santa Barbara Museum, California; Never again, San Jose State University, United States. The work of Matilde Marín has been widely studied internationally in theoretical and critical texts. She is a visiting professor teaching postgraduate seminars in various universities in Argentina, Santiago de Chile and Barcelona, Spain.

MARIN, Matilde. Matilde Marín - Arqueóloga de si misma, Edición Fundación OSDE, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2017.

MARIN, Matilde and BURUCUA, José Emilio. El viaje imaginario de Kasimir Malevich, Edición Kontemporánea Proyecto de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2015.

MARIN, Matilde and MELLO, Laeticia. Lo que hay frente a mi, microrrelatos de recuperadores urbanos, Mecenazgo Cultural, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2015.

MARIN, Matilde, BURUCUA, José Emilio and LAMBERTINI, Marta. Cuando divise el humo azul de Itaca, Edición Kontemporánea Proyecto de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012.

MARIN, Matilde. De Natura zona alterada, Edición Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2008.

VERLICHAK, Victoria and NEVES, Manuel. Matilde Marín. Desplazamientos, Editorial Fundación Alon, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2006.

LAURIA, Adriana, MELLADO, Justo Pastor and MACRI, Teresa. Matilde Marín. Bricolage Contemporáneo, Edición de la artista, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005.