Birth, facts and some pieces of the puzzle of an unusual life, year by year to the present.

2004

Poster of solo exhibition in the Centro Cultural Borges (2004)

Introduced by the mutual friend León Ferrari (1920-2013), Gustavo Charif starts a friendship with the legendary filmmaker Fernando Birri (1925-2017).
In March, Clarín (the largest newspaper from Argentina) publishes a short article by Gustavo Charif in the literary supplement in a section in which newspaper invites writers and personalities to recommend books and music. Charif recommends especially Georg Büchner, Robert Walser and Lu Xun (魯迅). To read the original text in Spanish, please click here.

Charif’s article in Clarín newspaper (2004)

Around that time, he made the intervention on the Veil of Veronica (using the version by Zurbarán) erasing the Christ face and after, according his own words, “burned by a housemaid which tried to ironing the wrinkles, causing the miraculous appearence (depending of who is the observer) of a misterious bear or a mouse character“. This image would be used as icon or avatar through years in his website.

Aparición (Appearance, 2004) · canvas · 66 x 66 cm

Invited by the Centro Cultural Borges, Charif presents the gigantic solo exhibition Alexandria (in the same showroom where was, until that time, the solo exhibition of Salvador Dalí). The prestigious critic and curator Corinne Sacca-Abadi writes a special text for the catalogue. There, he shows for the first time Dos cartas, the artist’s book with texts of Fernando Arrabal and Milan Kundera, and presents the artist’s book Libro Alejandrino (Alexandrine Book), a box with fourteen digital photomontages which illustrates fourteen ancient Arabian texts. But the main part of the exhibition is occupied by 24 big paintings on canvas and other 7 in small sizes. Due to the success of the exhibition, the Centro Cultural Borges extends it for another month.

Please, click on thumbnails to enlarge

Cover of the “Libro Alejandrino” (“Alexandrine Book, Buenos Aires, 2004). Artist book with 14 images inspired by 14 ancient Arab writings.

From the “Libro Alejandrino” (“Alexandrine Book, Buenos Aires, 2004). Artist book with 14 images inspired by 14 ancient Arab writings.

From the “Libro Alejandrino” (“Alexandrine Book, Buenos Aires, 2004). Artist book with 14 images inspired by 14 ancient Arab writings.

From the “Libro Alejandrino” (“Alexandrine Book, Buenos Aires, 2004). Artist book with 14 images inspired by 14 ancient Arab writings.

From the “Libro Alejandrino” (“Alexandrine Book, Buenos Aires, 2004). Artist book with 14 images inspired by 14 ancient Arab writings.

La mujer que levitaba en cada orgasmo (The woman that levitated with each orgasm, 2004) – oil and paper on canvas – 20 x 40 cm

(Detail of) The woman that levitated with each orgasm (2004)

(Detail of) The woman that levitated with each orgasm (2004)

Vida en un mundo maravilloso (Life in a Wonderful World, 2003) – oil, assemblage and collage on canvas – 80 x 140 cm

Manera de escalar el Fitz Roy (Way to climb Fitz Roy, 2003) – oil pastel, inks and collage on canvas – 70 x 140 cm

La poca voluntad (The Weak Will, 2003/2004) – oil, oil pastel, collage, inks and assemblage on canvas – 80 x 140 cm

Resurrección de la carne (Resurrection of the Flesh, 2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 80 x 140 cm

(Detail of) Resurrection of the Flesh (2004)

Retrato de un hombre / Portrait of a Woman (2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 41.5 x 41.5 cm

Retrato de un hombre / Portrait of a Man (2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 41.5 x 41.5 cm

Beato Hamlet / Beatus Hamlet (2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 40 x 40 cm

Pausa en un idilio / Pause in an idyll (2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 20 x 40 cm

“Crueldad hija del dolor. -Noche 0.-“ (“Cruelty, Daughter of Pain. -Night 0.-”, 2004). Oil and collage on canvas. 140 x 200 cm.

(Detail.) “Cruelty, Daughter of Pain. -Night 0.-” (2004).

(Detail.) “Cruelty, Daughter of Pain. -Night 0.-” (2004).

Imán hacia el naufragio -Noches 14 y 15- (Magnet towards the shipwreck -Nights 14 and 15-, 2004) – oil, assemblage and collage on canvas – 140 cm. each side (rhombus)

(Detail of) Magnet towards the shipwreck (2004)

(Detail of) Magnet towards the shipwreck (2004)

Manera de remar un naufragio -Noche 467, entre otras- (Manner of rowing the shipwreck -Nights 467 among others-, 2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 140 cm. each side (rhombus)

(Detail of) Manner of rowing the shipwreck (2004)

(Detail of) Manner of rowing the shipwreck (2004)

La luz de una lámpara china -Noches de Aladino, que en algunas ediciones se encuentran entre las noches 536 y 537- (The Light of a Chinese Lamp -Aladino’s nights, that in some versions appears between the night 536 and the night 537-, 2004) – oil, collage and digital image on canvas – 140 x 200 cm

(Detail of) The Light of a Chinese Lamp (2004)

(Detail of) The Light of a Chinese Lamp (2004)

(Detail of) The Light of a Chinese Lamp (2004)

El hombre, que pudo ser sabio, convertido en simio para ser sabio -Noche 13- (The man, who could be wise, became an ape for be wise. -Night 13.-, 2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 140 x 200 cm

(Detail of) The man, who could be wise, became an ape for be wise. (2004)

(Detail of) The man, who could be wise, became an ape for be wise. (2004)

(Detail of) The man, who could be wise, became an ape for be wise. (2004)

La mujer Tawaddud -Noches 437 a 462- (The Tawaddud Woman -Nights 437 to 462-, 2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 160 x 160 cm

(Detail of) The Tawaddud Woman -Nights 437 to 462- (2004)

“El elefante muere por el rinoceronte que muere por el ave ruj -Noche 545-” (“The Elephant Die From the Rhinocero That Die From the Roc Bird -Night 545-”, 2004). Oil and assemblage on canvas. 200 x 140 cm.

Un mundo para el ave ruj -Noche 544- (A world for the roc bird -Night 544-, 2004) – oil and assemblage on canvas – 200 x 140 cm

(Detail of) A world for the roc bird (2004)

(Detail of) A world for the roc bird (2004)

(Detail of) A world for the roc bird (2004)

Los días contiguos a las mil y una noches (The contiguous days to the One Thousand and One Nights, 2004) – oil and collage on canvas – 142 x 406 cm

(Detail of) The contiguous days to the One Thousand and One Nights (2004)

(Detail of) The contiguous days to the One Thousand and One Nights (2004)

(Detail of) The contiguous days to the One Thousand and One Nights (2004)

(Detail of) The contiguous days to the One Thousand and One Nights (2004)

The journalist Martín Mazzini introduces to Gustavo Charif with David Byrne. But, to Charif, was a very disappointing meeting. Completely different was the experience to meet the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, who visited the exposition by chance and talked to Charif a couple of hours, who remember him as “a extremely kind, humble in his manners but over all keen and wise in his conversation”.
Shortly later Charif becomes part of collection Paletas Argentinas that includes the most celebrated Argentinean masters (Antonio Berni, Raúl Soldi and Benito Quinquela Martín, among others). He is the youngest on in this prestigious collection who commissioned him an artwork painted on one of his palettes.

Writer Alberto Laiseca visiting Gustavo Charif in Alexandria (2004)

In June, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) exhibits the Elía-Robirosa Collection (Luis Felipe Noé and Charif are two of the artists more represented in the exhibition as well in the catalogue-book).

Catalogue-book of the Elía-Robirosa Collection

On December, Charif gives his two last (and long) interviews to journalist and writer Florencia Canale for Noticias magazine (one of the largest and popular magazines from Argentina) and to an alternative online magazine called Pistorius. To read the Noticias interview, please click here, and to read the Pistorius interview here (both posts available only in Spanish).

Charif in Noticias magazine (December 19, 2004)

Charif does not give interviews since 2004, with a few rare exceptions and just for intimate reasons (once in 2006 for Argentine television, and three times during 2013 for Malaysian and Chinese press).
The year was marked by numerous digital and new technologies experiments, as well as his secretly work as musician behind different names (out of Argentina). Starts a series of micro-collage, series which still continues.

Archives of a Next Holocaust 2004 · micro-collage · 4,5 x 6 cm

Between 2004 and 2006 he collaborates as musician (playing the whole strings, brass and drums parts) and arranger in Secret, album debut of the indie pop singer, pianist and composer Sumaia O.

2005

Founding of Infinilogy by Onna & Charif · Louise Bourgeois and Andrés Onna

With Agares Graber, Victorio Lenz and Andrés Onna, Gustavo Charif founds Infinilogy, a kind of aesthetic and philosophical movement or group, developed in a series of works, texts and (for a couple of years) in a curious website that was a parody of a sect and, at the same time, a joke on the avant-garde artistic movements. At the time, Andrés Onna visits Louise Bourgeois at her home in New York, who, very enthusiastically gives him a series of recommendations for the infinilogists.

Il Nudo Espresso by Andrés Onna and Gustavo Charif (2005)

Charif is selected for the itinerant Bienal Paloma Alonso at the MACLA, Museum of Contemporary Art of La Plata (May and April), at the Palais de Glace (June) and at the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes of Luján (August). The Bienal continues to shows at the Museums of Tandil, Olavarría and Bahía Blanca.

Television Channel Ciudad Abierta broadcasts the documentary La mirada circular, entirely dedicated to Charif (directed by Pablo Padula and produced by Las Huellas del Hombre), recorded a couple of years before. To see an extract from the documentary (in Spanish without subtitles), please click here.

The Third Eye of Walt Disney (2005) and Communion of the Blood, the Potato and the Anorexia (2005),
two “infinilogist” works signed as Lenz and Charif respectively

On August 2, Daniel Maman Fine Art opens the exhibition Colectivo y Singular as a traveling through the greatest Argentinean masters (Roberto Aizenberg, Antonio Berni, Emilio Pettoruti, Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Guillermo Roux, Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós, Antonio Seguí, Raúl Soldi, Xul Solar, among others) that includes the only two young painters Guillermo Kuitca and Gustavo Charif.

In August 10 inaugurates Tras las huellas del ingenioso hidalgo, a collective exposition of graphic art about the Quixote of Cervantes, organized by the Pontificia Universidad Católica (Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina). Charif takes part with three works, invited by this institution.

Article about the Quixote exhibition in La Nación newspaper, and cover of the catalogue

Charif is invited by the Argentinian magazine Ramona to make an intervention on a cover, in a collective exhibition. Because the magazine represented pretty well that what Charif sees as “the great contemporary art swindle”, he sends Pequeño ataúd (Little Coffin), a parody of the magazine inside a funeral box, where he changes, for example, the motto “revista de artes visuales” (“visual arts magazine”) by “revista de palabrería sin visión” (“magazine of wordiness without vision”).

Invited by the Fundación Torres Agüero-Rozanès (together with some of most important artists from Argentina, like Rogelio Polesello, Marta Minujín and Clorindo Testa, among others) to take part of the exhibition Caballos en Libertad (Horses in Freedom), Charif intervenes a real-size horse (in aid of the Argentine Association of Activities Equestrians for Handicapped and for the financing of scholarships in France for young artists that gives the Foundation).
In Spanish the word “caballo” means “male horse”, but the female horse is called “yegua”. Charif changed the topic of the exhibition and titled his work Yegua en libertad (or female horse in freedom). That was the only female horse between the many horses.

Please, click on thumbnails to enlarge

Work in progress (1). Photo in Charif’s study.

Work in progress (2). Photo in Charif’s study.

Work in progress (4). Photo in Charif’s study.

Work in progress (5). Photo in Charif’s study.

Work in progress (6). Photo in Charif’s study.

She is she. Work in progress (3). Photo in Charif’s study.

Leather boots are done. Photo in Charif’s study.

Almost finished. Photo in Charif’s study.

Almost finished. Photo in Charif’s study.

Last day. Photo in Charif’s study.

Signed. She wanted go out. Photo in Charif’s study.

“Yegua en libertad” (2005, polyester resin, metal, leather, acrylic painting, oil painting and varnish). Photo from the catalogue-exhibition.

Charif is the first artist to be invited with honours to the first Bienal Fin del Mundo (Biennial of the End of the World, Ushuaia) organized by the Fundación Patagonia Arte y Desafío. But after a trip to Ushuaia with the president of the Foundation, Charif decides reject the invitation in disagreed with the organization and the lack of transparency.

Charif in the cell of serial killer Cayetano Santos Godino (a.k.a. “Petiso Orejudo”) in the Ushuaia former prison
(August 15, 2006)

Charif plans an installation in Italy, and requests the artistic and creative collaboration of 12 friends (Fernando Arrabal and Fernando Birri, among others). Finally the project was cancelled for the complexity of his realization, but probably will be done some day.

Power of the CinemaScope (Gustavo Charif, 2005)

Here a letter (dated in Rome, August 31) from Fernando Birri (in his beautiful and peculiar style) to Charif when the project started:

ChériCharif,
es siempre una gran alegría escucharte (aunque esta vez no sea por telefunken sino a través de email). Y duplicada por la visión/versión de los “Doce Comedores de Sales sin Maíz”. Obviamente, correspondo a tu declaración de amor/humor con un categórico, temerario e irresponsable SÍ (con acento y mayúscula). Estoy de veras muy a gusto en vuestra davinciana compañía y se agradece el recuerdo.
Te quiere,
Fer.

ChériCharif: It’s always a great joy hear you (although this time was not by phone but through e-mail). And a joy duplicated by your vision/version of the “12 Eaters of Salts without Corn”. Obviously I reciprocate to your declaration of love/humour with a categoric, reckless and irresponsible YES (with accent and capital letters). I am truly very at ease in your DaVincian company and I am grateful for remember me.
Loves you,
Fer.

Fernando Birri in Rome

The Elía-Robirosa collection, released in June 2004 at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts), is shown in the Sala Emilio Pettoruti del Teatro Argentino (Great Hall Emilio Pettoruti of the Argentine Theatre, La Plata, Buenos Aires) and in the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa (Provincial Museum of Córdoba, Argentina).