Sofia Ungar
© Sofia Ungar
Exhibition curator: Judith Rodriguez and Christian Diaz
>> Go to Sofia Ungar exhibition
Curatot Comment:
English
In Sofía Ungar's work, images of empty soda or beer cans and pizza boxes coexist with photographs of a lady surrounded by flowers and garish colors or a rat trying to enter a cracked wall to escape, it is not known who or what . Garbage, runaway rats, little golden trees lining the porch of a house. Something names us deeply in this succession of dirt and beauty. This mixture where the dirt, the worn, the useless put together a concert and bewilderment together with foliage with white flowers or two people looking at the river. Trash and beauty. The intimacy of a dinner then becomes a remainder that is thrown into the street next to a container awaiting its disappearance. Objects that go from having a name and a place, to being something for someone, to the anonymity of the street. If the extimate names that which is closest, the most interior, without ceasing to be exterior, Sofia's work names that extimacy that is surely at the core of what is human
Spanish
En la obra de Sofía Ungar imágenes de latas vacías de gaseosas o cervezas y cajas de pizza conviven con fotografías de una señora rodeada de flores y colores estridentes o una rata que intenta entrar en una pared agrietada para escapar no se sabe de quién o de qué. Basura, ratas fugitivas, arbolitos dorados alineados en el porche de una casa. Algo nos nombra profundamente en esta sucesión de mugre y belleza. Esta mezcla donde la suciedad, lo gastado, lo inútil arman un concierto y desconcierto junto a un follaje con florecitas blancas o dos personas que miran el río. Basura y belleza. La intimidad de una cena luego deviene resto que se arroja a la calle junto a un container a la espera de su desaparición. Objetos que pasan de tener un nombre y un lugar, ser algo para alguien, al anonimato de la calle. Si lo éxtimo nombra aquello que está más próximo, lo más interior, sin dejar de ser exterior, la obra de Sofia nombra esa extimidad que está seguramente en el núcleo de lo humano
>> Go to Sofia Ungar exhibition
Artist Statement
Spanish
Ahora que afuera hay silencio y yo estoy quieta, lo que pude ignorar durante el día se vuelve audible. Las cosas que no veo son las que me van a perseguir toda la vida. Lo inaccesible a mi mirada enciende mis peores fantasías. Soy fotógrafa. Soy fotógrafa porque conservo la ilusión de que esta en mí el control de las apariencias. De lo visible. Del otro lado, las fantasías más salvajes. Fotografío la basura. La acumulación. La superposición. Lo que me aterra. Telas y plásticos que esconden otras formas. La vida abriéndose paso. El desborde. Materiales que crecen sin explicación en paredes, como hongos. Una línea delgada que vuelve lo inerte, vivo. Las cosas pueden cobrar vida. Lo hacen, todos los días. Una puerta que deviene hongo. Cuando lo fotografío lo domino, por un momento lo conozco, lo domestico, deja de amenazarme. Me reconozco.
La fotografía es un sonido muy sutil, como en la meditación tengo que estar en silencio para escucharlo.
Desde 2011 desarrollo proyectos que investigan la fotografía.
Me gusta hacerlo de manera directa. Utilizo la fotografía para investigar la idea de documental y ficción, tensión y descarte, Eros y Tanatos.
Confiando en la poesía, me interesa trabajar el montaje como una cadena de significados. Una vacilación prolongada entre sonido y sentido.
Una experiencia que disloca la perspectiva, no para confundir lo real y lo escenificado sino para reconocer, que algo es real y no lo es al mismo tiempo. Para preguntarme cómo funciona la realidad en la vida cotidiana, la transformación de la frontera entre lo público y lo privado.
English
Now that there is silence outside and I am holding still, the things that I could ignore during the day become audible. The things I do not see are the things that will haunt me all my life. What is inaccessible to my gaze ignites my worst fantasies. I am a photographer. I am a photographer because I keep the illusion that I am in control of appearances. Of the visible. Across the other side, the wildest fantasies. I photograph garbage. The accumulation. The superposition. What terrifies me. Fabrics and plastics that hide other forms. Life breaking through. The overflow. Materials that grow without explanation on walls, like mushrooms. A thin fine line that turns the inert, alive. Things that can come to life. They do. Every day. A door that becomes a fungus. When I photograph it I dominate it, for a moment I know it, I domesticate it, it stops threatening me. I recognize myself in it.
Photography is a very subtle sound, as in meditation I have to be quiet to listen to it.
Since 2011 I have developed projects that research in photography.
I like to photograph in a direct way. I use photography to investigate the idea of documentary and fiction, tension and discard, Eros and Thanatos. Relying on poetry and distrusting a more obvious narrative I wonder about different manners to hinging images together. What attracts me the most is how the sequence of images dislocates meaning. I am interested not in a singular photo but in, as in poetry, constructing networks of meanings. To investigate tension and discarding. A prolonged vacillation between sound and meaning, between eros and tanatos.In this way, the work proposes an experience that dislocates the viewer's perspective not to confuse what is real and what is staged but to recognize that something is real and not real at the same time. Allowing the viewer to wonder about how reality operates in everyday life and the transformation of the border between public and private.
>> Go to Sofia Ungar exhibition
Interview:Christian Diazand and Sofia Ungar
About the artist:
English
Sofia Ungar was born in Bariloche in 1987. She lives and works in Buenos Aires. She studied professional photographer at the Andy Goldstein School of Photography. In 2012 she participated in the artist program at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Between 2015 and 2017 she participated in the Documentary Project and the film program at the same university. She was selected to participate in Nuevas Miradas 8 in the framework of the 36th Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana. Her opera prima "Shalom Bombon" was premiered at the Bafici. In 2018 she participated in the Proa Cine Workshop Grant. In 2019 she was part of the LAB FIDBA WIP Official Selection and received the award for sound post-production. The same year she won a creation grant from Fondo Nacional de las Artes and the Oxenford travel grant. She completed a master's degree in Alternative Cinema at the International School of Film and TV (EICTV, Cuba). In 2020 she received the INCAA Postproduction grant with his second feature film “Hacia afuera blanco”. Her first short film “Cómo me convertí en mujer” was premiered during that year at FIDBA. During 2021 she was part of the Laboratorio Federal residency and the FNA/Conti grant. In 2022 she received a scholarship to participate in the Winter School for new opera in Latin America (special summer edition) in New York.
Sofía Ungar
Web page: https://cargocollective.com/sofiungar
Ig @sofiungar
Spanish
Sofia Ungar nació en Bariloche en 1987. Vive y trabaja en Buenos Aires. Estudió fotografía profesional en la Escuela de Fotografía Andy Goldstein. En 2012 participó en el programa de artistas de la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Entre 2015 y 2017 participó en el Proyecto Documental y el programa de cine de la misma universidad. Fue seleccionada para participar en Nuevas Miradas 8 en el marco del 36 Festival del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana. Su ópera prima "Shalom Bombon" fue estrenada en el Bafici. En 2018 participó de la Beca Taller Proa Cine. En 2019 formó parte de la Selección Oficial LAB FIDBA WIP y recibió el premio a la postproducción de sonido. El mismo año ganó una beca de creación del Fondo Nacional de las Artes y la beca de viaje Oxenford. Realizó una maestría en Cine Alternativo en la Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV, Cuba). En 2020 recibió la Beca de Postproducción INCAA con su segundo largometraje “Hacia afuera blanco”. Su primer cortometraje “Cómo me convertí en mujer” se estrenó ese año en FIDBA. Durante 2021 formó parte de la residencia Laboratorio Federal y de la beca FNA/Conti. En 2022 recibió una beca para participar en la Escuela de Invierno para la nueva ópera en América Latina (edición especial de verano) en Nueva York.
Sofía Ungar
Web page: https://cargocollective.com/sofiungar
Ig @sofiungar
© Sofia Ungar
>> Go to Sofia Ungar exhibition
On VASA Exhibitions:
VASA, since 2008, has provided an international platform for individual and group exhibitions, collaborative exhibitions with various organizations and galleries and exhibitions that follow a particular theme or inquiry such as “Where Do We Go Now” curated by Rui Cepeda and the “Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics” curated by Igor Manko.
VASA Exhibitions are international and multicultural. The curatorial team has strived to present work that not only represents the photographers but also the social, historical and cultural. As an online international project, VASA works to engage various digital tools. Video, as an example, not only offers the potential for the presentation of works, it provides the opportunity and framework for the voice of the author to be seen and heard. Through image, text, sound and animation, VASA works to expand the exhibition paradigm and provide a rich experience for the viewer (as well as the author).
VASA Exhibitions provides a viewing and research environment by archiving all of the exhibitions in their entirety. For example, the viewer may view a 2009 exhibition as it was presented and not just traces of its existence.
VASA Exhibitions (a program in VASA) includes images, videos and sound works.