Page 51 - Famous

 RESTANY AND PLA, OPEN LIDO DI VENEZIA BIENALE DI VENEZIA ITALY 1999

favourite Proust armchairs, and presenting one of his Alessi pans: “Mendini
with his creation”, a crowned effigy on the Falstaf Alessi packaging.
Eduardo Pla, the imaginative artist of electronics, easily wanders from
industrial or textile design to compositions and portraits of digital art where
he obtains extraordinary fractal effects, reminiscent of Dionisian or Christ-
like mysteries, of digital Pre-Raphaelite moods, of floral microcosms. No
theme escapes him, spanning from the fascination of childhood and the
magic of his interactive games to the eroticism of tango.
Yet it is doubtlessly in his installations that the artist, brilliant director,
obtains the most powerful effects, as Videoworld ( Recoleta Cultural Centre,
1995, Buenos Aires ), The Cascade of Stars (Buenos Aires,1996), or The
thousand faces of Christ and Mary (Villa Meda Milan, 2000) demonstrate.
I have a particularly interesting anecdote concerning an installation by
Pla in Venice in 1998. On occasion of the first edition of the Open, an
annual exhibit of sculptures in the open air that took place at the Lido at the
moment of the Opening of the Film Festival, its founder Paolo de Grandis
had called me to preside the Scientific Committee, and we decided to invite
Eduardo Pla to represent Argentina at the Open. We saw a 216 m2 gigantic
octahedron arrive, an aluminium structure covered by a composition of
yellow, red and blue flying fish printed on vinyl, and named Eschermania as
a tribute to the Dutch artist on the centennial of his death. The colossal
object was placed upon one of its sides, on the terrace that looks down
onto the pier of the Excelsior Hotel, and pointing towards the lagoon. At first
Night´s Dream”, is his first 60 minute colour video, and at the beginning of the public was surprised, but then broke out in an applause, and proceeded
the 80s, he presents a series of videos in Italy and especially at the Museum to perform the symbolic greeting of the Open 1 manifestation.
of Ferrara, which at the time was the summit of electronic art in Italy. For the Open 4 of the year 2001, we thought of Pla again in order for
From 1985 onwards, Pla became a real orchestra-man of electronic him to represent his country in Venice. Unfortunately, we were unable to
communication. His first three-dimensional computer painting , “The obtain his Fractal Tango, as it was not available. Open 4 will receive another
Arcimboldo Effect”, was awarded the Prize of Excellence in Computer Art computer design installation, consisting of two spheres of a plastic material
in New York. His encounter with Alessandro Mendini was to be decisive, as upon whose surface are painted the designs created for the Alchimia
it directed Eduardo Pla towards digital creative design. Mendini imagines Collection, which I have already described in detail. Alchimia in Venice, the
for Alessi a collection of 10,000 vases: 100 vases for 100 creators, 100 for renowned symbol of post-modernism, will be present at the Lido through
each one of them, all equally valuable. Eduardo Pla was in charge of Pla´s spherical installation.
designing one of the models digitally as well as presenting the catalogue of Now, our artist is working in two directions: One , his digital mosaics
the collection in a video version. Two other collections followed: the about argentine famous characters; and the other his urban installations
Alchimia Collection and the Falstaf Collection. The Alchimia Collection( based on spheres.
1984), is a complete collection of furniture, carpets and objects, conceived Eduardo Pla, a versatile creator of the electronic image, who fully
on the basis of a spherical structure and achieved by computer in three experiences the numerous requests of the art of his time and who helps us
dimensions, allowing thus its visualization before it is industrially produced. to better perceive the permanence of the human dimension in the global
The Alessi Falstaf Collection ( 1994) consists of a montage of virtual images flow of communication. A perfect visual operator of the immediate future.
stemming from electronically treated photographs. The catalogue starts
out with a digital portrait of the great Italian designer, sitting on one of his Pierre Restany

FAMOUS
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS