By La Nueva Provincia
Marta Díez, a plastic artist, and her husband, Dr. Alejandro Caride - the owners of Chasicó Park – took the initiative in carrying out the above-mentioned idea . In addition to a display of works by well-known national and regional artists, a school competition will be overseen by a prestigious jury including poet Rubén Vela and the head of “Arte al Día”, Marcela Costa Peuser. In little less than two months, the small community of Chasicó, in the Tornquist area, will be the seat of one of the most important cultural events in the region. Artists as important as poet Rubén Vela and plastic artist Marta Díez - the hostess - will attend. Marta Díez and Alejandro Caride at the Chasicó Park position where the event will take place. (Juan Corral – LNP) (Epígrafe de la foto) The happening will take place at the beautiful Chasicó Park owned by Díez and her husband, Dr. Alejandro Caride. They jointly worked on the idea,started up by their love for art and the small countryside community where they have for the last ten years been so welcome every time they come in search of peace and calm. The event will take place on Saturday, October 11, over the long weekend in which Race Day (October 12) is celebrated. This, precisely, will be the reason for the invitation. "At the beginning, the idea was to carry out an art exhibition in Chasicó. At once we talked it over with Marcela Costa Peuser, who edits "Arte al Día" (Art Updated), a very influential medium among the Latin-American art world. She showed great enthusiasm," says Caride, who is head physician of the Neurology area at the German Hospital of Buenos Aires, and a member of honour of the Instituto Literario y Cultural Hispánico (Hispanic Literature and Cultural Institute). "Even so, she countered with a fantastic proposal: to carry out a contest in plastic art for all the children in Chasicó, as a complement to the display of works by our guests. This idea sounded so attractive that we at once set out to work on it. We found that Guillermo Ostornol, secretary for Tourism and Culture in Tornquist, was very interested", he added. So were Gustavo Trankels (governor), and Gerardo Rattero and Ismail Passaglia,(province legislators). So great an interest is understandable: Díez-Caride appointed Rubén Vela, Marcela Costa Peuser and Julio Sapollnik as jurors to the competition.. Vela has been awarded the great prize of honour from the Argentine Writers´ Society; Costa Peuser is executive editor of "Arte al Día" (Art Updated) magazine. Sapollnik holds a master´s degree in Argentine Culture, and is an advisor to the National Library. Furthermore, they have also invited personalities from the world of art, such as Patricia Altmark, Rubén Bustillo, Carlos Giusti, as well as the Argentine plastic artist Angel Giovanetti, at present living in Miami. Hichan Handam, who is the Ambassador of the Republic of Lebanon, must also be mentioned, and most probably the diplomats representing Germany and Italy. “They are all persons whom we greatly value and appreciate”, stated Caride. The students´ competition will refer to painting and sculpture, with a curatorial plan to it: it must show the integration of various cultures and races, and their contribution to our national identity. Another attraction is the location chosen for the art exhibition: a natural setting at Chasicó Park – named Los Altares (The Altars) - which has been turned into a parkland and is sheltered from the wind by the rolling surroundings. At present the place is being readied, but Díez and Caride have an idea that the sculptures could be placed among the trees, either on a base or hanging from thin threads. “The display will be held at a natural space so that each work may be viewed in a different background or surrounding. Besides, lighting will vary depending on the way the natural surroudings may have developed in each corner of the premises”, explains Díez. All over the place flags will hang on flagpoles, representing all the communities in Chasicó and the Tornquist district. “We want the entire community to accompany us, not only the schools. This is meant to be a family celebration, and there will be drinks and sandwiches at the end”, describes Caride. “This event is our contribution to Chasicó, so that its inhabitants may come into direct touch with spiritual expressions which are not easily available. May this prove of use for the area to become a center for social and cultural integration causing other interesting initiatives to start. Masks Marta Díez, hostess to the cultural event, is widely known as an artist with a large production of hundreds of masks. “My beginnings in art were through drawing and oil painting, but then masks caught hold of me”, she mentions matter-of-factly. Her evolution as an artist, however, did not take place overnight. In fact, it took nearly four decades since she began studying plastic arts in Tucumán, the province of her birth, up to the time when she chose masks as the true definition of her character as an artist. This sensitive change was influenced by her trip to Venice in 2003. There she was amazed by the expressive and artistic strength of festive masks. This prompted her to take up in-depth studying of the cartapesta technique under maestro Francesco Sutto in Venice. “Creating masks enabled me to take off my own masks and it somehow gave me the possibility of encouraging others to do as much. While painting, I would feel that, while looking at somebody in the eyes, most of them did not convey what was inside them, either from shyness or because they had something to conceal”, she commented. “My interest in masks was undoubtedly triggered by a psychological reason rather than an esthetic one. Then, of course, I went on exploring a lot more aspects of this type of art,”, she added. Her early works were Venetian-style masks. “At the beginning, I felt OK,” she reminisces, “but soon I began to question it. `What on earth am I doing creating Venetian masks? What do they have to do with me? How can I manage to create masks that I can identify with?´, I wondered.” Answers came to her while on a trip to northern Argentina. “During this trip we made a lot of research, visiting museums and buying lots of books and local art works so as to become acquainted with the motifs. Upon creating the next mask, the idea came to me of sticking on it earth from the locations we had visited, besides working with acrylic paints and glitter. This blending of styles and cultural traits provided me with the answers I was looking for in connection with my masks”, she mentions. Marta reckons some 250 masks to her collection, but she cannot tell exactly how many. “In those over two-hundred masks it is nearly impossible to detect a single motif . I do what I like, and I mix up concepts, styles and features as much as I deem necessary, without any preconception,” she avows. The result is a collection of thoroughly varied works that includes a golden mask of Lion King Pharaoh and the colourful face of a Central-American Indian, the double-headed serpent (cat head and woman head) and the terrible expression of the goddess of circumcision; the edgy traits of the shaman and Buddha´s serene expression. “One of the most attractive aspects of masks is that each person will view them and interpret them in a different way. I love to play with this idea, to the point that, at one of my early exhibitions, I hung a mirror with an inscription reading, `What mask am I wearing today?´ Answers and other reactions from viewers were truly surprising”, states Marta. “Another quality that I find fascinating is the fact that one either loves masks or rejects them. There are almost no in-betweens. This may be due to the fact that masks have a way of being that is not present at other expressions of art. For example, several persons who visited my exhibitions confessed to having felt watched or accompanied, though in fact they were by themselves. All this sounds just wonderful”, she concludes. In history The Tucumán-born artist mentioned that her fascination with masks is what caused her to delve into the history of various cultures. She thus gained consciousness of the great value held by the human face and its various representations through time. “I discovered that masks have been present all along the history of mankind and in all of the cultures, whether Egyptian, pre-Columbian, mid-African, Eastern and a lot others. This incredible awareness of shapes and colours – but, above all, expressions - has been vital to me”, remembers Marta Díez. Details This event is considered to hold interest to both the province and the municipal administrations, as well as the Legislative Body. Through his connection with the National Library, Julio Sapollnik, a Master in Culture, has ensured that a collection of books will be donated by the Library to the schools in Chasicó. Several artists included in the display have also informed that they will donate some of their works to local schools. It is Díez-Caride´s intention to have this type of proposals carried out through various projects. One such project is related to the stage and involves Rubén Vela´s poetic anthology . One other aim, to be carried out in 2009, consists in organizing Vocational Guidance talks for the teen-agers in Chasicó, to be carried out by persons representing both arts and sciences. “The idea we mean to convey is that, no matter what one´s surrounding is, he/she will develop as much as they study. This, I believe, is one way of keeping distant locations alive.”, says Caride. A personal history * Marta Díez, a painter and sculptress, was born in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, in 1956. * In 1968 she began studying drawing, oil painting and ceramics under Luis Lobo de la Vega, in Tucumán. From 1986 onward she continued studying in Buenos Aires City under Marcela Beaubeau de Secondigne, Luis Palombo and Federico Maculán Bagarotti. * Later on, in 1996, she studied under Antonio Mezzetta in Maldonado, Uruguay. * In 1995 she held an exhibition at the Argentine Tennis Museum. From then on, her works have been on display at many exhibition halls. * In 2003 she studied under Francesco Sutto in Venice, Italy. This meant a turning pnt in her career, and she has decidedly been taken up with creating masks since then. * Just from 2003 up to the present, her works were shown at important halls such as Arteclásica (at the Costa Salguero Exhibition Centre), Espacio Arte Aeroparque, the Book Fair, the Stock Exchange, Recova de Posadas at Arte al Día, Antiqvaria Sheraton Antique Exhibition, and Vicente Lucci Foundation. They were furthermore exhibited abroad, in both Uruguay and Brazil. She has recently been invited to show them in Italy. * In October 2007 the book “Marta Díez. Máscaras-esculturas & Rubén Vela. Poesías” was presented. It contains photographs of Marta´s works in the de-luxe company of beautiful literary finds by Vela. *In 2008 she was awarded the“Homage to Woman” medal, handed over by Cristina Castro Padula, head of Radio Palermo. She was furthermore awarded the San Martín de Tours 2004 prize by Ignacio Gutiérrez Zaldívar, as well as the Champagnat prize (1993). * Both her works and exhibitions have been reviewed by persons widely acknowledged in art matters, as is the case of José Emilio Burucúa,who holds the Platinum Prize from Konex; Susana Quiroga, a member of honour to the Argentine Foundation for Poetry; poet and critic Rubén Vela; Celia Aiziczon de Franco, who belongs to the International Association of Art Critics; Isaías Nougués, the plastic artist; and Julio Sapollnik, who holds a master´s degree in Argentine Culture, among others. * At present, the inclusion of Marta Díez´s art work as a subject to be studied at the Art Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) is being considered.
