Martín Bonadeo

JETLAG

In JetLag, Martin Bonadeo considers the psychological impact of changing technologies, focusing on the disorientation one might feel in transit or when pulled between work and home. He repurposed an icon of modern design: the Solari split-flap signboards that once oriented travelers but have been displaced by digital technologies. It now contains photographs that he made over time at personally meaningful sites—including his studio and the ICA. He grouped them into 15 “stories.” When a story changes, you hear the flapping sound of the old split-flap technology.

Bonadeo made this work by reprogramming cell phones: devices that allow connection across distance, but also can distract from what’s right in front of us. Glitches may occur with these altered phones, destabilizing our encounter with the work.

ON VIEW

JetLag, 2015/2018. Mixed media including 86 cellphones and custom software. Courtesy of the artist. Supported by Mecenazgo, Ciudad de Buenos Aires and Samsung Argentina. All works courtesy of the artist and Postmasters Gallery, New York.

LOCATION

Royall Forum

“We are living in an era of change. A new millennium. We don’t know much about the sociopolitical changes that we are experiencing, but, powered by technology, we can be sure that everything is changing.” –MartÍn Bonadeo

WHAT DOES THE WORD “DECLARATION” MEAN TO YOU, IN RELATION TO YOUR WORK?”

Every art work is always a declaration, an explicit statement or announcement in a way. In my specific case, I like to declare that all the institutions and habits that are the base for our society are in many ways old and they need to be rethought.
 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE SHOWING YOUR WORK AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY? IN THIS LOCATION? AS PART OF THE ICA’S LAUNCH?

Our twentieth century paradigm is in a complete crisis. There are lots of open questions in every field and it is very exciting to explore some of these questions through art. Richmond is very meaningful for me. Four years ago I lived here for a couple of months and JetLag will be the fourth art project that I am showing here. JetLag has many images from Richmond, and the idea of this piece was finished during my days living in Richmond. When I lived here, the ICA location was a flat parking lot, a year later there was a big hole in the place, and now this wonderful building invited me and other artists to show our work here.
 

DO YOU BELIEVE ART HAS
SOCIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE
POWER?

I believe that art has a strong socially transformative power. I feel that each person has special interests and a unique point of view. When someone studies her/his self and shares his/her own feelings, another person with a similar filter will be touched and this contact may be transformative.

Born 1975, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Martín Bonadeo is a conceptual artist known for his installations that use new technologies, light, sound, and scent to illuminate facets of human relationships. Bonadeo received a BA in Advertising from Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina and a PhD in Social Communication from Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Select solo exhibitions: Fundación Telefónica in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011); Pavilion of Fine Arts of the Argentine Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010); Itaú Cultural in São Paulo, Brazil (2010); and Timoteo Navarro Museum in Tucumán, Argentina (2005). Select group exhibitions: The International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, Spain (2008); Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo, Japan (2005); and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (2004–2005). Select awards: The Petrobrás Award (2008), UCLA Grand Prize of Art and New Technologies, Fundación Telefónica (2005). Bonadeo is the Founder and Director of TECAT (Taller Experimental de Ciencia, Arte y Tecnología), a multidisciplinary space to explore technological issues, and is a professor of Latin American and Argentine Contemporary Art at UCA’s (Universidad Católica Argentina) Latin American Studies Program.