The Etcétera collective: Everyone can do art

Lecture led by Federico Zukerfeld and Loreto Garin Tuesday June 14th, 7:30 pm.

The Etcétera collective started at the beginning of 1998, in Buenos Aires. Its members, artists dedicated to developing various different disciplines (poetry, theatre, visual arts and music), take an autodidactic approach to a range of ideas dealing with oneiric and political aspects of art and life.
Among the defining attitudes of this collective are their commitment, involvement and presence in social conflicts. Starting from their part in the creation of the Escraches along with H.I.J.O.S (a human rights group which brings together the children of the "disappeared" and the exiled of the past dictatorship), Etcétera uses its works, manifestos and actions to take part in protest demonstrations – along with other groups involved in the struggle – and in public spaces or the artistic-cultural media themselves (theatres, museums, cultural centres and so on). Etcétera is searching for a spirit which uses any and all artistic tools necessary to achieve its objectives: the metaphor as a trigger for the imagination, commitment as self-knowledge, sudden moments of humour, and encouraging collective participation through use of the unexpected within pre-planned artistic actions.

Zukerfeld and Garin will be presenting the socio-political context in which their activities are produced through the video ETC TV, which encompasses actions done by the collective between 1998 and 2004. They will also be describing their experiences in contemporary art and presenting the video Con-trabajo o Sin-fonía — which mainly covers the subject of work and unemployment — and their most recent action, for the Venice Biennale, 2005: Biennale di Vendetta.

Federico Zukerfeld and Loreto Garin are founding members of the Etcétera collective.