Presentation by Alejandro Caride at Villa Ocampo

By Alejandro Caride

I wish to thank all of you for being here, especially our hosts at this distinguished place.

I am in a truly privileged position, since I am sharing with you a series of moments with Marta, who makes both the sculptures and the masks, and with Rubén and his family.

This book began through the process of creating poetry and there is around it a charming story of persons connected through their affection, and especially through their appreciation for art. It is the joint work of several families at various locations. I witnessed a series of processes led to a selection of masks – Marta´s work is wider than what shown here, including the part shown in the book, but it is a selection made by Rubén together with Marta, each of them chose a piece, presented it to the other, discussed whether to include it or not.

Each of them had their own viewpoint as to why one or the other piece should be included in the book. Marta´s sight is what I sometimes call “Maggoo´s sight”, because she has a slight difficulty with distances, which gives her a view of colours and their harmonies, whereas Rubén will not consider a mask in the way we do, but through the realm of poetry, the realm of that which spirits represent, or the realm of that which masks represent in the various cultures preceding our own.

So, witnessing such a union of spirits as there is at this exchange, agreeing on a choice of photos, and then, having selected masks, showing them to one another at the various locations (the Park, our home, Rubén´s, Villa Giardino), in different settings, it all allowed us to work out the various aspects involved in the book. A book cannot be prepared overnight, nor is it the product of an afternoon´s work: it takes many hours of writing, correcting, crossing out, rewriting.

Out of all this, the present collection of poems was created heightening Marta´s work by acknowledging in it a vision and a transcendence in time other than those which would arise from us as members of the family or friends valuing it from our own esthetic or emotional viewpoint. This will enable us to enjoy the work carried out jointly by two artists engaged in developing a new horizon of experiences and stirring emotions in those watching a mask, because we will be watching it from our own emotional reference system and checking it with Rubén´s poetry, and perceiving the poet´s view on the history of man´s culture.