Nicolás Janowski

Series: Cannabis. Work in process. Selected works Premiere for arteBA 2019 The cannabis regulation process which begun in 2010, articulates political actions and a legal framework that affects the social. The artistic, anthropological and documentary vision from the deeply personal position of Janowski accompanies one of the most emblematic processes of our days. Currently, producers and stakeholders have evolved to respond to the growing number of patients who use the plant -in any of its varieties- both for medicinal use and for recreational use. When I was called to develop this project from the Open Society Foundation, I was going through a couple separation and a personal crisis. Linked to this process and from this assignment, I decided to contact geneticists, biologists, activists and spiritual advisors to experiment in the first person with high regulated doses of THC in blood, systematically increasing the doses for a determined period of time, in order to produce this body of work. Nicolas Janowski.

Series: Cannabis. Work in process. Selected works Premiere for arteBA 2019 The cannabis regulation process which begun in 2010, articulates political actions and a legal framework that affects the social. The artistic, anthropological and documentary vision from the deeply personal position of Janowski accompanies one of the most emblematic processes of our days. Currently, producers and stakeholders have evolved to respond to the growing number of patients who use the plant -in any of its varieties- both for medicinal use and for recreational use. When I was called to develop this project from the Open Society Foundation, I was going through a couple separation and a personal crisis. Linked to this process and from this assignment, I decided to contact geneticists, biologists, activists and spiritual advisors to experiment in the first person with high regulated doses of THC in blood, systematically increasing the doses for a determined period of time, in order to produce this body of work. Nicolas Janowski.

Series: Cannabis. Work in process. Selected works Premiere for arteBA 2019 The cannabis regulation process which begun in 2010, articulates political actions and a legal framework that affects the social. The artistic, anthropological and documentary vision from the deeply personal position of Janowski accompanies one of the most emblematic processes of our days. Currently, producers and stakeholders have evolved to respond to the growing number of patients who use the plant -in any of its varieties- both for medicinal use and for recreational use. When I was called to develop this project from the Open Society Foundation, I was going through a couple separation and a personal crisis. Linked to this process and from this assignment, I decided to contact geneticists, biologists, activists and spiritual advisors to experiment in the first person with high regulated doses of THC in blood, systematically increasing the doses for a determined period of time, in order to produce this body of work. Nicolas Janowski.

A drift in blue es un proyecto del artista y antropólogo argentino Nicolás Janowski centrado en investigar los distintos imaginarios que se han forjado alrededor del archipiélago de Tierra del Fuego desde el siglo XVI hasta el presente. Dividido en cinco capítulos y articulado a través de un libro, una página web y un conjunto de instalaciones, este proyecto conjunta imagen fija, video, piezas de sonido así como poesía y fue realizado con un equipo de colaboradores. Mediante esta multiplicidad de recursos y soluciones, Janowski revisa distintas narrativas que vinculan al archipiélago ubicado en el extremo sur del continente con el imaginario del fin del mundo, como un territorio geográficamente distante y marcado por condiciones severamente adversas. Janowski divide A drift in blue en cinco capítulos, en los que distintos personajes o eventos juegan un lugar central. El capítulo 1, “El límite” trata sobre el encuentro y las primeras cartografías del archipiélago, como la realizada por el capitán Francisco de Hoces, en las que este territorio insular, marítimo y antártico aparece como una mezcla de realidad y fantasía. El segundo capítulo, “El oro”, aborda su periodo inicial de exploración a través de las crónicas de personajes como el capitán James Cook. Estas exploraciones sentaron el terreno para la expansión de la empresa colonial europea. “El fin”, título del capítulo 3, se relaciona con estos procesos mediante una revisión de las misiones evangelizadoras y figuras como Martín Gusinde. El trabajo fotográfico del sacerdote y etnógrafo vienes Gusinde, entre 1918 y 1924, habla de los procesos que transformaron a comunidades nativas de Tierra de Fuego a partir de ciertas políticas coloniales. El cuarto capítulo, “La huida” se enfoca en la historia de Tierra del Fuego como sitio idóneo para un centro penitenciario de alta seguridad y trata sobre la figura del anarquista ucraniano-argentino Simón Radowitzky quien después de escapar de la cárcel de Ushuaia partió a luchar en la Guerra Civil Española del lado Republicano y posteriormente, residió en México hasta su muerte. “Los últimos” es el capítulo final y presenta un escenario actual en el que predominan condiciones extremas junto a una creciente explotación instrumental de los recursos naturales. En su totalidad, estas narrativas dialogan y se comunican entre ellas, conjugando una idea del fin del mundo como un sitio de explotación, de extremos, como un lugar que pareciera estar en todo momento al borde de la extinción. Janowski utiliza en A drift in blue la fotografía como documentos a “medio camino entre la realidad y la ficción”. El artista parece integrar en cada una de sus imágenes distintas perspectivas, saberes y conocimientos sobre las situaciones que investiga. El aspecto documental de la fotografía, en este sentido, parece ser trastocado con esta perspectiva que desafía la existencia de una sola manera de entender la realidad; una postura que resuena con su formación como antropólogo. Janowski apuesta a una visión que no se limita a un entendimiento positivista de la cultura, asociado a una fotografía directa de orden documental. Plásticamente, esta especie de indeterminación en el significado de la imagen es conseguida en la fotografía a través de múltiples exposiciones, uso de luz artificial y flashes así como un acentuado uso de gelatinas azules que acrecientan el nivel de abstracción. La preponderancia de este tono no sólo busca relacionarse con las condiciones extremas del archipiélago sino lograr situar el espacio de Tierra del Fuego dentro de una condición afectiva específica, como un escenario melancólico. De aquí el juego de significados que puede sugerir el título del proyecto en inglés. Para esta exposición en Almanaque Fotografía, Janowski presenta un conjunto de fotografías así como una instalación que presenta video y material documental de A drift in blue – una pieza que expresa el carácter transmedia de este proyecto, mismo que abarca sus distintas formas de montaje. Las fotografías impresas pertenecen a los distintos capítulos que presentan imaginarios del fin del mundo. En una, por ejemplo, se puede apreciar una imagen que se puede identificar con el Sagrado Corazón. Perteneciente a “El fin”, esta fotografía registra un detalle encontrado en las ruinas de la Estancia María Behety establecida por la orden salesiana en 1897. La doble exposición de la fotografía trastoca el imaginario religioso con el fin de presentar una crítica a los procesos de colonización impuestos por la orden a las poblaciones locales selknam y yámanas. Daniel Garza Usabiaga. Ciudad de México, 2018.

A drift in blue is a project by the Argentinean artist and anthropologist Nicolás Janowski focused on investigating the different imaginaries that have been forged around the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from the sixteenth century to the present. Divided into five chapters and articulated through a book, a web page and a set of facilities, this project joints: fixed image, video, sound pieces as well as poetry and was made with a team of collaborators. Through this multiplicity of resources and solutions, Janowski reviews different narratives that link the archipelago located in the extreme south of the continent with the imaginary of the end of the world, as a territory geographically distant and marked by severely adverse conditions. Janowski divides A drift in blue into five chapters, in which different characters or events play a central role. Chapter 1, "The limit" is about the meeting and the first cartographies of the archipelago, such as that made by Captain Francisco de Hoces, in which this insular, maritime and Antarctic territory appears as a mixture of reality and fantasy. The second chapter, "El Oro", addresses its initial period of exploration through the chronicles of characters such as Captain James Cook. These explorations set the stage for the expansion of the European colonial enterprise. "The end", title of chapter 3, is related to these processes through a revision of the evangelizing missions and figures such as Martín Gusinde. The photographic work of Viennese priest and ethnographer Gusinde, between 1918 and 1924, speaks of the processes that transformed native communities of Tierra de Fuego from certain colonial policies. The fourth chapter, "The Flight" focuses on the history of Tierra del Fuego as a suitable site for a high security prison and deals with the figure of the Ukrainian-Argentinean anarchist Simón Radowitzky who, after escaping from the Ushuaia jail, left fight in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and later, he lived in Mexico until his death. "Los últimos" is the final chapter and presents a current scenario in which extreme conditions prevail together with an increasing instrumental exploitation of natural resources. In their totality, these narratives dialogue and communicate among themselves, conjugating an idea of ​​the end of the world as a place of exploitation, of extremes, as a place that seems to be at all times on the verge of extinction. For A drift in blue, Janowski uses photography as documents "halfway between reality and fiction". The artist seems to integrate on each of his images different perspectives, knowledge and knowledge about the situations he investigates. The documentary aspect of photography, in this sense, seems to be upset with this perspective that challenges the existence of only one way of understanding reality; a position that resonates with his training as an anthropologist. Janowski is committed to a vision that is not limited to a positivist understanding of culture, associated with direct photography of a documentary nature. Plastically, this kind of indetermination in the meaning of the image is achieved in photography through multiple exposures, use of artificial light and flashes as well as an accentuated use of blue gelatins that increase the level of abstraction. The preponderance of this tone not only seeks to relate to the extreme conditions of the archipelago, but also to locate the Tierra del Fuego space within a specific affective condition, as a melancholic scenario. Hence the game of meanings that the title of the project in English may suggest. For this exhibition at Almanaque fotográfica, Janowski presents a set of photographs as well as an installation that presents video and documentary material of A drift in blue - a piece that expresses the transmedia character of this project, which covers its different forms of assembly. The printed photographs belong to the different chapters that present imaginaries of the end of the world. In one, for example, you can see an image that can be identified with the Sacred Heart. Belonging to "The End", this photograph records a detail found in the ruins of the Estancia María Behety established by the Salesian Order in 1897. The double exposure of the photograph overturns the religious imaginary in order to present a critique of the processes of colonization imposed by the order on the local selknam and yámana populations. Daniel Garza Usabiaga. Mexico City, October, 2018.

A drift in blue is a project by the Argentinean artist and anthropologist Nicolás Janowski focused on investigating the different imaginaries that have been forged around the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from the sixteenth century to the present. Divided into five chapters and articulated through a book, a web page and a set of facilities, this project joints: fixed image, video, sound pieces as well as poetry and was made with a team of collaborators. Through this multiplicity of resources and solutions, Janowski reviews different narratives that link the archipelago located in the extreme south of the continent with the imaginary of the end of the world, as a territory geographically distant and marked by severely adverse conditions. Janowski divides A drift in blue into five chapters, in which different characters or events play a central role. Chapter 1, "The limit" is about the meeting and the first cartographies of the archipelago, such as that made by Captain Francisco de Hoces, in which this insular, maritime and Antarctic territory appears as a mixture of reality and fantasy. The second chapter, "El Oro", addresses its initial period of exploration through the chronicles of characters such as Captain James Cook. These explorations set the stage for the expansion of the European colonial enterprise. "The end", title of chapter 3, is related to these processes through a revision of the evangelizing missions and figures such as Martín Gusinde. The photographic work of Viennese priest and ethnographer Gusinde, between 1918 and 1924, speaks of the processes that transformed native communities of Tierra de Fuego from certain colonial policies. The fourth chapter, "The Flight" focuses on the history of Tierra del Fuego as a suitable site for a high security prison and deals with the figure of the Ukrainian-Argentinean anarchist Simón Radowitzky who, after escaping from the Ushuaia jail, left fight in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and later, he lived in Mexico until his death. "Los últimos" is the final chapter and presents a current scenario in which extreme conditions prevail together with an increasing instrumental exploitation of natural resources. In their totality, these narratives dialogue and communicate among themselves, conjugating an idea of ​​the end of the world as a place of exploitation, of extremes, as a place that seems to be at all times on the verge of extinction. For A drift in blue, Janowski uses photography as documents "halfway between reality and fiction". The artist seems to integrate on each of his images different perspectives, knowledge and knowledge about the situations he investigates. The documentary aspect of photography, in this sense, seems to be upset with this perspective that challenges the existence of only one way of understanding reality; a position that resonates with his training as an anthropologist. Janowski is committed to a vision that is not limited to a positivist understanding of culture, associated with direct photography of a documentary nature. Plastically, this kind of indetermination in the meaning of the image is achieved in photography through multiple exposures, use of artificial light and flashes as well as an accentuated use of blue gelatins that increase the level of abstraction. The preponderance of this tone not only seeks to relate to the extreme conditions of the archipelago, but also to locate the Tierra del Fuego space within a specific affective condition, as a melancholic scenario. Hence the game of meanings that the title of the project in English may suggest. For this exhibition at Almanaque fotográfica, Janowski presents a set of photographs as well as an installation that presents video and documentary material of A drift in blue - a piece that expresses the transmedia character of this project, which covers its different forms of assembly. The printed photographs belong to the different chapters that present imaginaries of the end of the world. In one, for example, you can see an image that can be identified with the Sacred Heart. Belonging to "The End", this photograph records a detail found in the ruins of the Estancia María Behety established by the Salesian Order in 1897. The double exposure of the photograph overturns the religious imaginary in order to present a critique of the processes of colonization imposed by the order on the local selknam and yámana populations. Daniel Garza Usabiaga. Mexico City, October, 2018.

A drift in blue is a project by the Argentinean artist and anthropologist Nicolás Janowski focused on investigating the different imaginaries that have been forged around the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from the sixteenth century to the present. Divided into five chapters and articulated through a book, a web page and a set of facilities, this project joints: fixed image, video, sound pieces as well as poetry and was made with a team of collaborators. Through this multiplicity of resources and solutions, Janowski reviews different narratives that link the archipelago located in the extreme south of the continent with the imaginary of the end of the world, as a territory geographically distant and marked by severely adverse conditions. Janowski divides A drift in blue into five chapters, in which different characters or events play a central role. Chapter 1, "The limit" is about the meeting and the first cartographies of the archipelago, such as that made by Captain Francisco de Hoces, in which this insular, maritime and Antarctic territory appears as a mixture of reality and fantasy. The second chapter, "El Oro", addresses its initial period of exploration through the chronicles of characters such as Captain James Cook. These explorations set the stage for the expansion of the European colonial enterprise. "The end", title of chapter 3, is related to these processes through a revision of the evangelizing missions and figures such as Martín Gusinde. The photographic work of Viennese priest and ethnographer Gusinde, between 1918 and 1924, speaks of the processes that transformed native communities of Tierra de Fuego from certain colonial policies. The fourth chapter, "The Flight" focuses on the history of Tierra del Fuego as a suitable site for a high security prison and deals with the figure of the Ukrainian-Argentinean anarchist Simón Radowitzky who, after escaping from the Ushuaia jail, left fight in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and later, he lived in Mexico until his death. "Los últimos" is the final chapter and presents a current scenario in which extreme conditions prevail together with an increasing instrumental exploitation of natural resources. In their totality, these narratives dialogue and communicate among themselves, conjugating an idea of ​​the end of the world as a place of exploitation, of extremes, as a place that seems to be at all times on the verge of extinction. For A drift in blue, Janowski uses photography as documents "halfway between reality and fiction". The artist seems to integrate on each of his images different perspectives, knowledge and knowledge about the situations he investigates. The documentary aspect of photography, in this sense, seems to be upset with this perspective that challenges the existence of only one way of understanding reality; a position that resonates with his training as an anthropologist. Janowski is committed to a vision that is not limited to a positivist understanding of culture, associated with direct photography of a documentary nature. Plastically, this kind of indetermination in the meaning of the image is achieved in photography through multiple exposures, use of artificial light and flashes as well as an accentuated use of blue gelatins that increase the level of abstraction. The preponderance of this tone not only seeks to relate to the extreme conditions of the archipelago, but also to locate the Tierra del Fuego space within a specific affective condition, as a melancholic scenario. Hence the game of meanings that the title of the project in English may suggest. For this exhibition at Almanaque fotográfica, Janowski presents a set of photographs as well as an installation that presents video and documentary material of A drift in blue - a piece that expresses the transmedia character of this project, which covers its different forms of assembly. The printed photographs belong to the different chapters that present imaginaries of the end of the world. In one, for example, you can see an image that can be identified with the Sacred Heart. Belonging to "The End", this photograph records a detail found in the ruins of the Estancia María Behety established by the Salesian Order in 1897. The double exposure of the photograph overturns the religious imaginary in order to present a critique of the processes of colonization imposed by the order on the local selknam and yámana populations. Daniel Garza Usabiaga. Mexico City, October, 2018.

A drift in blue is a project by the Argentinean artist and anthropologist Nicolás Janowski focused on investigating the different imaginaries that have been forged around the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego from the sixteenth century to the present. Divided into five chapters and articulated through a book, a web page and a set of facilities, this project joints: fixed image, video, sound pieces as well as poetry and was made with a team of collaborators. Through this multiplicity of resources and solutions, Janowski reviews different narratives that link the archipelago located in the extreme south of the continent with the imaginary of the end of the world, as a territory geographically distant and marked by severely adverse conditions. Janowski divides A drift in blue into five chapters, in which different characters or events play a central role. Chapter 1, "The limit" is about the meeting and the first cartographies of the archipelago, such as that made by Captain Francisco de Hoces, in which this insular, maritime and Antarctic territory appears as a mixture of reality and fantasy. The second chapter, "El Oro", addresses its initial period of exploration through the chronicles of characters such as Captain James Cook. These explorations set the stage for the expansion of the European colonial enterprise. "The end", title of chapter 3, is related to these processes through a revision of the evangelizing missions and figures such as Martín Gusinde. The photographic work of Viennese priest and ethnographer Gusinde, between 1918 and 1924, speaks of the processes that transformed native communities of Tierra de Fuego from certain colonial policies. The fourth chapter, "The Flight" focuses on the history of Tierra del Fuego as a suitable site for a high security prison and deals with the figure of the Ukrainian-Argentinean anarchist Simón Radowitzky who, after escaping from the Ushuaia jail, left fight in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and later, he lived in Mexico until his death. "Los últimos" is the final chapter and presents a current scenario in which extreme conditions prevail together with an increasing instrumental exploitation of natural resources. In their totality, these narratives dialogue and communicate among themselves, conjugating an idea of ​​the end of the world as a place of exploitation, of extremes, as a place that seems to be at all times on the verge of extinction. For A drift in blue, Janowski uses photography as documents "halfway between reality and fiction". The artist seems to integrate on each of his images different perspectives, knowledge and knowledge about the situations he investigates. The documentary aspect of photography, in this sense, seems to be upset with this perspective that challenges the existence of only one way of understanding reality; a position that resonates with his training as an anthropologist. Janowski is committed to a vision that is not limited to a positivist understanding of culture, associated with direct photography of a documentary nature. Plastically, this kind of indetermination in the meaning of the image is achieved in photography through multiple exposures, use of artificial light and flashes as well as an accentuated use of blue gelatins that increase the level of abstraction. The preponderance of this tone not only seeks to relate to the extreme conditions of the archipelago, but also to locate the Tierra del Fuego space within a specific affective condition, as a melancholic scenario. Hence the game of meanings that the title of the project in English may suggest. For this exhibition at Almanaque fotográfica, Janowski presents a set of photographs as well as an installation that presents video and documentary material of A drift in blue - a piece that expresses the transmedia character of this project, which covers its different forms of assembly. The printed photographs belong to the different chapters that present imaginaries of the end of the world. In one, for example, you can see an image that can be identified with the Sacred Heart. Belonging to "The End", this photograph records a detail found in the ruins of the Estancia María Behety established by the Salesian Order in 1897. The double exposure of the photograph overturns the religious imaginary in order to present a critique of the processes of colonization imposed by the order on the local selknam and yámana populations. Daniel Garza Usabiaga. Mexico City, October, 2018.