BoCA Summer School: The Engineering of Necessity, with Gabriel Chaile

Workshop “The Engineering of Necessity”
Directed by Gabriel Chaile (Argentina)

Gabriel Chaile is part of a large family from the north-west of Argentina. His blood is a mixture of origins from different geographies and historical oppressions. In his creations, there is a critical-poetic encounter between anthropology, the sacred and its rituals, the political and the pre-Columbian communities of South America, read with a certain eccentricity and sense of humour.
In his home town of San Miguel de Tucumán, life has been organised around a clay oven for baking bread: a functional architecture that feeds and unites, present in most cultures and translated into his kiln-sculptures, which evoke somewhat animalistic forms and popular figures from contemporary society, such as ‘Alcindo Monteiro’, which he inaugurated at BoCA 2023.
Chaile develops his anthropological and visual research based on two key concepts that run through his work. They are: the ‘engineering of necessity’, which consists of creating, through art, objects and structures that collaborate in improving the conditions of a given limit situation; and the ‘genealogy of form’, which implies assuming that each object, in its historical repetition, carries with it a story to tell, which is recovered and updated in relation to a new context. The artist uses both axioms to create sculptures, make paintings, construct large-scale installations and performative actions that make visible and give voice to different communities that have been overshadowed by history and power structures.
In this workshop, Chaile shares his artistic journey and practice, between the concepts of ‘engineering of necessity’, ‘social sculpture’ and performance. During two days, at MNAC and in his Studio, the artist will address issues relating to the functionality of the precarious, sustainability, co-operativism, decolonialism and all kinds of social projects.

BIOGRAPHY
One of the most dynamic artists of his generation, Gabriel Chaile (1985, Tucumán, Argetina) has a degree in Visual Arts from the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. In 2009 he received a scholarship from the Fundación YPF, which enabled him to take part in the first edition of the Artists’ Programme launched by the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. In 2010, he was selected to take part in Lipac, an art programme at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas.
Attentive to issues of anthropology, post-colonial theory and Conceptual Art, Chaile produces sculptures from natural materials and found objects that bring new life to contemporary South American art – creations that have an impact on space, relationships and communities, and bring people together with the sacred rituals of food and sharing.
The artistic relevance of his creative and anthropological approach has been recognised worldwide, and Chaile’s work has been exhibited and praised for its powerful impressions in various museums and institutions in America and Europe. His latest works include ‘Time, Times, and Half a Time’ (Barro, New York, USA, 2023), ‘Migrants Are Welcome’ (Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, 2022), ‘Sonia’ (El ondulatorio, La Rioja, 2018); ‘Proto’, a film by Gabriel Chaile (Galería Ruby, Buenos Aires, 2017); ‘Patricia’, curated by Laura Hackel (Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, 2017); “Mi nombre es legión porque somos muchos” (Centro Cultural San Pablo T, Tucumán, 2016); “No es culpa mía si viene del río” (Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, 2015); ‘Salir del surco al labrar la tierra, delirios de grandeza II’ (Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires, 2014).