DEPARTAMENTO 112: A PROPOSAL THAT REDEFINES ARGENTINA'S EMERGENT ART
The Departamento 112 gallery -located in Martinez, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina- began by occupying an apartment, then became a garage and finally settled in a disused space that, converted into a hall, provides a view over the entire block.
Committed to the development and exhibition of emerging artists, before becoming a gallery and having its own headquarters, the project Departamento 112 was a network of group exhibitions resulting from open calls. These were housed in an apartment number 112 -from there its name-, where its founder and director Hans Petersen lived.
It is a space that is managed entirely by young people in their twenties, it has only been in existence for a year and has already made its mark in several fairs in the country: it has participated in the Contemporary Art Market of Cordoba, ArteCo in Corrientes, the Micro Fair of Rosario, the International Fair of Chaco, MAPA and Pinta BAphoto in Buenos Aires, residencies in Tucuman and Cordoba and PLATEADA in La Plata, a fair that awarded the IN SITU Award to artist Fer Santana for his exhibition produced by the gallery and exhibited at its stand.
Last week, the gallery made its debut outside the continent at Pinta Miami fair. There, the gallery's proposal -with works by artst Sara Escalante- it won the NEXT Award for the best exhibition project together with the Salón Comunal gallery. To close the year, the space will participate in MUNAR in La Boca.
At the same time, the gallery presented eight exhibitions in the gallery -six solo shows and two group shows- which were made by open call. The common point of the eight artists that make up the gallery's staff is that, in addition to having backgrounds in the Argentine art underground and a promising potential, they offer a particular perspective on the idea of Argentine art and tradition. The artists currently represented are: Martín Agazzi El Keni (1984), Julia Cahen D'Anvers (1998), Juana Cravero (1994), Pedro Grecco (1996), Sofía O'Reilly (2001), Mariano Podesta (1996), Sara Escalante (2001) and founder Hans Petersen (1999).
“The space was born out of what I considered an emergency: there was no place for emerging artists to exhibit, the galleries did not provide space and so we ended up doing it in a bar, where you were welcomed only to sell drinks and bring people in, and they gave you a wall that was all broken and destroyed,” Petersen explains.
Gastronomy is another of its meeting points, says the founder, son of acclaimed Argentine chef Christian Petersen, with whom they are preparing a joint initiative that will give even more uniqueness to the gallery: it is projected as a 360° cultural center, with a cooking academy taught by great professionals, gastronomic events and an art book publishing house.
So far, they have organized barbecues on the sidewalk watching the football superclassic, free soup days and choripaneadas (Argentinean barbecues), which took place in the context of exhibitions and they invite whoever is in the area to enjoy them. On the same sidewalk, they produce their own press conferences and open conversations.
Those who make up the staff of the space are encouraged and accompanied in the production of work, application to calls, contests and residencies, and benefit from exclusive clinics given by renowned artists. The last to do so, last week, was Ernesto Ballesteros. To raise funds for this, the gallery acts as a creative agency, providing photography, web design and audiovisual content services to artistic residencies, brands and companies.
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