Certitudes / Uncertainties
In the work of Jeannette Betancourt, a double and aqueous sensitivity is manifested, both for the forms and for the problems that afflict our society. With a solid training as a sculptor, it is not enough for her to give herself to the sensitive game of forms, but it is necessary for her to interweave and involve her practice with the historical moment, but without losing sight of the fact that any reflection or commitment must be made through the material conformation of the work. The images do not convince, they seduce; and if something characterizes Jeannette's work, it is that the images are not accessory but indispensable for the reflection that she intends to provoke. We have, therefore, a work that moves in two complementary registers without restricting or sacrificing any.
At first glance, Jeannette's work seems to appeal to a mere aesthetic delight, but this is denied by reading the titles of her pieces, which serve as a triggering agent for unforeseen readings, demanding from the viewer a different attitude. By breaking the merely formal expectations, the pieces throw us into an uncertain space where in order not to be deceived we must be very alert; an attitude that, Jeannette seems to indicate, should be extended to everyday life where deceptions multiply in the agenda of corporations, politicians and media that manipulate our minds and desires. But the title is only an initial indicator, as the material conformation of the pieces are also full of tricks and traps where nothing is what it seems.
The natural and the human are in his work in constant contrast and conflict. The act, apparently simple and very usual in artistic practice, of providing an organization to natural elements has in this context a metaphorical dimension: to talk about the traces that human work has left on Earth, a concern that is present in all her work. The mere artistic act of conformation of an object becomes problematic because it is also part of a culture that has made exploitation and devastation its calling card. It is one and the same culture that created that entelechy of beautiful forms and the one that colonized and oppressed other cultures throughout the planet; and this painful awareness permeates the whole work, making it a way -sometimes desperate- to enunciate that the separation and distancing from the rest of the beings and things in that apparently heroic and foundational act of our culture to assume it as a free and self-determined subject, eager for knowledge -cogito ergo... boom! (1)-, is the touchstone where the current exploitation and devastation takes place.
Belonging to a culture gives individuals an area of certainty to organize social life. Far from the integrating process of worldviews in the native cultures of America, Western Eurocentric culture and its willful boldness replaced belief systems with the establishment of rational principles for the organization of life. What we call the West therefore carries with it a primal, fatal uprooting, which permanently undermines the construction of a world. Jeannette Betancourt's work is part of the tendency of contemporary art to open up uncomfortable questions or point out unpleasant realities, but while most artists focus on the visibility of the marginalized, Jeannette achieves a broader critique by pointing to the ideological core or the structuring paradigm that underground constitutes the primary cause of all social problems.
Faced with a bleak picture and in a culture that has undermined each and every handhold, all that remains is to multiply uncertainty through criticism, in the hope that in the process we will be able to build another social order. In the world of post-truth, such an undertaking seems difficult or downright suicidal, but when argumentation fails, when logic becomes murky, there is still another way to proceed: through the concreteness and specificity of images whose power of communication and conviction does not pass through the usual instrumental channels. To that intelligent look, not focused or unidirectional but empathic and resonant, are you, dear reader / viewer, guest. And not only to appreciate the works that make up this exhibition, but to extend it where it is most needed: out there.
Victor Sanchez Villarreal
May 16, 2020
Mexico City, Mexico.
(1)Susan Sontag, “Radical Styles”