D A N I E L   E S C A R D Ó
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Objectum
Montevideo World Trade Center 2004

 

 

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In this installation, Escardó decides to provide some clues concerning the influences which led him to work in his own particular way, giving a glimpse of his roots, part of different stages and previous installations. Escardó appeals to the intelligence of the beholder, with a clear and plain view of his objects. He likewise shows us the features marking their evolution, where different parts come together in a unique expressive language.

 

 

Evolving Objets

Text by Florencia Sader

“Objectum”, the new execution by Daniel Escardó, is an installation which brings together elements from his artistic career and his personal experience, linking them in a kind of retrospective of his work and life.  He gives us a few clues concerning the influences which led him to work in his own particular way, giving us a glimpse of his roots, part of different stages and previous installations. Escardó appeals to the intelligence of the public, with a clear and plain view of his objects. He likewise shows us the features marking their evolution, where different parts come together in a unique expressive language.

 

 

At first, the spectator travels through a space inhabited by metal structures displayed in different tiers. The idea we get is that of a natural sciences laboratory, with show windows containing samples of different species. A closer look enables us to embark on a journey into this strange world of inanimate objects, resembling a jigsaw puzzle.

 

 

That is how the whole set starts to make sense, even for those who have not seen previous Escardó installations. There is an idea of superior representation, of a cleaning process which heals, of a kind of exorcism. By bringing in elements from the past and joining them with current ones, a new order is created. This new order is a deliberate effort by the artist to provide us with a view that enables us to understand the origin of some of his creations, the way in which his work developed, the environment which moulded him from childhood, as well as being a kind of riddle and a tribute to certain objects and significance they had had in his life.

 

 

Escardó says “One of my favorite hobbies was playing with the X-Ray equipment. At that time, notion of the damage that radiation could cause was as yet unclear: it was a fantastic machine which could look into the insides of objects and people.” His curiosity has remained feature of his personality throughout his life, positioning him among one of the most eclectic and consistent Uruguayan artists of his generation. Eclectic because he has not hesitated in experimenting with different techniques, be it photography, painting, sculpture using different materials, or virtual reality programs.

 

 

He experiments with all these means of expression and does not waver when it comes to suddenly dropping them and later taking them up again, in a constant search for a language, a particular form of expressing himself which enables him to realize the new concept he is exploring at any given time. Simultaneously, he is also consistent in his quest. During his entire career, his fascination for research has led him to try out new projects, always following the same premise: finding the most suitable foundation on which to manifest his ideas and bring to life a universe which he imagines possible.

 

 

In “Objectum”, there are parts and objects which are more current, as “Especies en Vías de Aparición” (in English this would be “Species Making their Appearance” as opposed to Endangered Species”), “Salisis” and “Juguetes de Culto” (“Toys of Cult”). It is then possible to understand to what extent his latest executions stem from, or rely on, the previous ones. And how it was necessary to go through those stages and discover the keys which enabled him to construct the subsequent generation.

 

 

There are other ways to read his work, which have nothing to do with any chronological order. The thread and the pace are given by a human backbone, by a small wooden indigenous object, or by a sculpture fragment generated by patterns which gradually increase in size. Proportionality and order prevail in this installation, as if classification, discrimination and the primal sense of creation form part of the original chaos and reveal his “modus operandi”. The architecture of his spaces, the rigor of spatial geometry and the accidental nature of organic life are amalgamated here in all the coldness of a laboratory, in a rhythmic sequence which progressively takes us into the particular world of a rare treasures collector.

 

 

At first sight, it might seem to be a collection of refined design objects, but then it starts to operate like a swirl which plunges us in a special environment. It is a world in which the pieces seem to be skillfully laid out in a playful manner, surrounding the beholder and exciting his senses.

 

Escardó leads us on a journey through his past and provides us with hints that enable us to envisage the future. However, this is where we find one of the foremost characteristics of this artist: he always manages to surprise us with his unpredictable logic and tireless explorer spirit.

Florencia Sader

 

 

 

The return trip

Text by Horacio Campodónico

Every man lives in his own labyrinth of memories, which move about but have no visible structure. They are random images which shake the soul.  However, behind that chaos, which is merely apparent, order does exist. In 1274, in his work “Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem” (Brief art to find the truth), Raymond Lully affirmed: “Equilibrium, order, symmetry, are the signs through which Divine Works are recognized”. That is why each artist attempts, through a jungle of shapes, lines and colors, to find those signs of the Work and bring them down to the plane of what is materially tangible. 

 

 

In “Objectum”, Escardó sets out to find this order so as to recompose his own memories, to recognize himself and to structure his work. At the beginning, with a child’s look of wonderment, he starts by observing the medical equipment which his father and grandfather used in their profession. He is attracted by the fascination and magic of metal, of the cables, the chrome, the mirrors, the lenses and the strange lights which vibrate with blue light beams.

 

 

According to Schiller, the charm of beauty resides in its mystery, and if we break down the subtle thread which links its elements, its entire essence evaporates. In “Objectum”, the thread of the mystery takes shape once again in the structures that recompose this past anew and start generating a different future.

 

 

In his quest for this mystery, Escardó submerges himself in studying the biological structures. The photo camera becomes a research tool. The magnifying lenses, with their capacity for amplification, explore the hidden forms of insects, the cathedral of fibers which form the bones, or the mazes caused by rust when it corrodes metal.

 

 

Later on, these studies give rise to zoomorphic sculptures which inhabit his output and the world of “Objectum”. Metal creatures which, like the work of a hallucinating naturalist, are created and catalogued as: “Perromosca” (“Fly-dog”), “Pezzotto”, or “Insectopez” (“Fish-insect”).

 

 

Going beyond the bi-dimensional world of the photographic image, Escardó then starts working with tri-dimensional bodies, albeit now processed with the aid of computers. The time has come to learn new codes.

He understands that the texture of lichen, or of a stone, may be trapped in a digital net and wrapped over 3D meshes.  The objects gain new life. There are no limits to modifying colors, lights and rotating movements once the new electronic reality is used. This is the period of “Naturaleza Digital” (“Digital Nature”) (1997) and of “Pop-Pollock (2003).

 

 

Image digitization triggers new ideas. For the ancient Greeks, Air is the idea, thought that emerges. However, Fire is at the very beginning, since it is the source and encouragement of all living things. Nevertheless, it is necessary for the power of Fire to descend on the Earth in order to give life a material form. Thus, at the higher plane there is Air, Fire, Earth. And at the terrestrial plane there is Idea, Spirit, Matter.

 

 

From the perfect abstraction of a computer screen, Escardó makes the necessary return trip. The idea is now transformed into incandescent metal which takes shape when the smelting is poured on earth.  Fire, metal, casts, earth, polishing. That is where the new aluminum fish shall emerge, the innumerable parts which are set as the vertebrae in an assembled complex the order of which is only known to the artist.

 

 

But the balance and the beauty of the living forms are not possible in the absence of Grace. When, in 1779, Gotthold Lessing observed how birds fly, he thought: “Grace is beauty in motion”. It is therefore grace which makes it possible for birds to fly.

 

 

 

 

Grace, irony and humor are the spark which ignites the mechanism of life. Otherwise, it is grave, heavy, dark. Escardó manages to avoid falling into the abyss of solemnity and provide his creations with grace in a timely fashion. Consequently, his metal birds need a wooden propeller to move in the air, or his fishes travel over multi-colored wheels.

 

 

 

Nevertheless, the metal has its own mysteries. For the alchemists, metals were considered as different states of the living world, engaged in the same pursuit for perfection as other beings. This ceaseless birth and rebirth of everything which exists is represented by the image of the “Ouroboros”, the snake which bites its own tail, forming a circle: the round of Eternal Return.

 

 

 

In feeding from itself with his body joined as a single entity by its tail, the Ouroboros was also endowed with the property of self-fecundation. Like the metal it represents, mercury, it is the symbol of perpetuity and endless motion, of cosmic and earthly harmony, continually transforming and exchanging energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By bringing a new order into his origins and works with “Objectum”, Escardó, like the Ouroboros of the alchemists, closes his own circle through this installation. But this is not the end, it is rather the beginning of another cycle of Eternal Return, from which new creations shall emerge.

 

Horacio Campodónico