Other works

Jakob von Gunten Department.
We are carrying out this project with the psychoanalyst Alan Talgham. The flyer’s design was borrowed from the Department of Eagles. Images of interventions on the walls and the reception area that we created during its first presentations at the Casa Nacional del Bicentenario, a national museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The project started in 2016 and continues until today.

In 1909, Swiss writer Robert Walser wrote his third novel, Jakob von Gunten, set in Berlin. The novel tells the story of a group of boys attending a school to learn how to serve at the Benjamenta Institute. They are taught to be docile and patient, to prioritize inner conquests over external success. The Jakob von Gunten Department takes the values described in the book and disseminated on a larger scale by Enrique Vila-Matas to form a “section” of a museum.

The creation of this fictional museum department, following in the footsteps of Marcel Broodthaers in 1968, has no inherent purpose. While Broodthaers’ Department of Eagles at the Museum of Modern Art was a response to institutional criticism, the Jakob von Gunten Department aims to offer spaces for meeting, contemplation, reflection, and exchange, and to promote the enjoyment of bourgeois time in the manner of the 19th century.

Based on a logic of appearances and disappearances, in the manner of Romanticism, it offers different axes and activities inspired by the enchantment, curiosity, and sensitivity of the Enlightenment era and its museums.

Given the different context of creation, the department is both a creature and a refuge, proposing a different way of inhabiting contemporaneity. The activities that take place in the department include tiny writing meetings, peripatetic walks, retreat workshops, the transmission of traditional crafts, and open cycles of reflection on various themes. The department has no opening hours; only an information and dissemination space announces its appearances.

More than just a game
Black and white video, stereo sound
4’57”
2016

“More Than Just a Game” is a video that showcases the strong and affectionate bonds that exist between humans and dogs, considered the ultimate companion species. The video was made with great attention to direct capturing of scenes and their editing to highlight the interactions and emotions between dogs and humans.

The title, “More Than Just a Game,” suggests the depth of these relationships between humans and animals, which are not limited to simple play activities but are much more profound and meaningful. The video demonstrates that dogs are capable of understanding and responding to human emotions, and that humans can learn much from the wisdom and spontaneity of dogs.

Beyond the special relationship between humans and dogs, “More Than Just a Game” also raises broader questions about how we interact with the natural world around us. The video invites viewers to reflect on how our relationship with other species could be more harmonious and balanced, and how we could better respect the diversity of life forms on Earth.