María Silvia Corcuera.

Mariana Blousson.

Ms. Corcuera Teran was born in Buenos Aires and spent her childhood between Europe and Latin America, which allowed her to experience diverse cultures. Her most important awards include the Trabbuco Award granted by the Argentine National Academy of Fine Arts for her career trajectory as an artist and for four works submitted therein.

Her “City” series works were chosen for the investigation and architecture project named Intersection of Art, Science and Technology undertaken by architects Andrea Carnicero and Gustavo Fornari in the Architecture and Ubanism College of the National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires. In 2010, her works were chosen to participate in the Geometrie hors Limites Collection Jean et Cherqui exhibition held in Maison L’Amerique Latine in Paris.

Her “Los Peinetones” series was studied and followed by Prof. Regina Root, academic of the William and Mary College of Virginia, U.S. In 2012, Prof. Root was awarded with the prize for the best investigation book in the U.S. for her work “Couture and Consensus: Fashion and Politics in Post-Colonial Argentina”. Said work was based on Ms. Corcuera Teran’s series about the “Peinetones”, a colonial female hairpiece which was typically wore in the Viceroyalty call you of the Rio de la Plata region and which shows the will for excess in our society that presently endures.

In her new series, Ms. Corcuera Teran use rattle bells (objects originated in the Medieval Ages which were brought by the Spanish to Latin America). In spite of said objects’ early origins, they are still present in modern dresses. She uses those bells to compare them with the ideas of the words utilized in poems by Argentine authors and, thus, names her series “Dones” as an homage to Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges’ poem titled with the same name. The series does not only detain in the Argentine poetry scene, but also roots itself in the works of other authors (such as those of Irish poet W.B. Yeats) and tackles the concept of globalization.

In some of said works coke leaves are present as a reference to that which was sacred and to its counterpart, that which has been demystified. As Duchamp lifted –mystifying- an urinal piece to the state of art, Ms. Corcuera Teran has characterized herself for pointing out the continuous demystification of this times and its values and, consequently, of art as well.

The color of this series is the optic grey –not black- because it is symbolic color which characterizes the so called “new medievalism” (interest in the times, themes and studies of the medieval). Currently, as in the words of contemporary sociologists and philosophers, we are living a time of disintegration and uncertainty, which is strikingly similar to the life in the medieval times.

The comparison between the sound (evidenced in the rattle bells) and the silence (evidenced in the emptiness within the words) is augmented by the circular form of the works that, as a rounding curve, is quintessentially feminine and also alludes to the prayer that is the rhythmic sense of poetry.

In the order of her latest works, Ms. Corcuera Teran readdresses textiles by reference to the old tradition of “La Randa” brought by the Spanish to Latin America in the fifteenth century. Said tradition is still present in Argentina, particularly in the northern province of Tucumán. In this works Ms. Corcuera Teran’s passion for taking up that which is popular but awarding it hierarchy, placing it in another context to achieve a living and lasting culture.