The work of Roberto Jacoby (Buenos Aires, 1944) is characterized by a constant transit through the borderline areas of artistic production. Since his early years as an artist linked to the famous Instituto Di Tella, which led to the mythical and revolutionary Tucumán Arde (1968), his work is conceived as a continuous broadening of the notion of artistic work. Amongst other things, he has been the lyricist for the well-known rock/glam group Virus, has been linked to sociology and political theory, and has worked as a theater critic and journalist for the underground press. Such versatility has complicated the systematic exhibition of his work, a condition that this exhibition seeks to put an end to.
With the intention of reflecting this in-disciplinary character, the exhibition has been distributed in different spaces that fragmentarily represent some of the facets, moments and modes of production of Jacoby's work. Space One is divided into two sections: Living Here, a reconstruction made in collaboration with three other artists (Marina Caro, Mariela Scafati and Daniel Joglar) of the action that took place during Happening Week in 1965, consisting of the transfer to the gallery of the elements of his home-workshop; 1968 el culo te abrocho (2008) contains impressions of the bust of Marx intervened and a musical setting by the group Virus, demonstrating different models of politicization that range from performance to corporal insubordination.
In the Sala de Bóvedas is Darkroom (2005), a series of video recordings of the performance of the same name developed for a single spectator in complete darkness, only visible thanks to a night vision camera. Chastity (2006-2007) is a video that reconstructs in fictiomental style the contract of chaste cohabitation that she had for a year with the artist Syd Krochmalny. In the Protocol Room is the Cabinet of Curiosities, made up of various paraphernalia from her actions that consciously reproduce the conditions of distancing, sacralisation and fetishisation of the document on display. A digital archive of his work is also available for consultation.
Jacoby's work, as a whole, presents a complex environment in which accepted norms dissolve, generating spaces in which the link with the social is unavoidable. This constant fluctuation between the self and the collective has led to the generation of networks both within and outside the art system. Evidence of this are the different projects he has carried out from the 1990s to the present day, in which collaboration and network production is fundamental, such as Chacra (1999), Proyecto Venus (2000-2006) or the fundamental Argentinean contemporary art magazine Ramona (2000-2010). The controversy surrounding his participation in the Sao Paulo Biennial of 2010, an unofficial electoral propaganda office organized by various Argentinian artists in support of one of the candidates in the Brazilian elections, testifies to the vitality and topicality of his work.