Martin Sastre and Marina Abramovich in "Evita's Balcony". Buenos Aires, Argentina. Performance and documentary film, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
In this lecture Martín Sastre, an artist and filmmaker from Uruguay, analyses his works - focusing on the ‘U for Uruguay’ perfume project - as a series of coincidences. He explores how chance influences his artistic practice and how specific coincidences contribute to shape the creation process of an artwork.
Sastre also talks about the fundamental influence of coincidences in famous artworks, as well as in his own work, and the way these can be ‘scientifically’ tracked uniting events from a to b to c.
Martín Sastre, U from Uruguay - El Perfume de Pepe. Detail from production still.
Martín Sastre was the third Te Whare Hēra Wellington international artist in residence and his residency is also generously supported by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Martín Sastre is from Uruguay, and successfully works across the worlds of film and contemporary art. Recent projects include: feature length musical Miss Tacuarembo (2010) starring Natalia Oreiro and Rossy de Palma, Diana: The Rose Conspiracy (2005), a short film where Diana, Princess of Wales was found alive, living in Montevideo, and U for Uruguay (2013), a work that combined the making of a perfume made from essences extracted from flowers grown by the then President of Uruguay José Muljica – who was often called the “world’s most humble president” as he gave away 90% of his income – and an advertisement playing on the imagery of luxury perfumes and national pride. The perfume and video were shown at the 2013 Venice Biennale, where an auction of the perfume secured its place as the most expensive perfume fragrance. From the funds risen, 90% helped create the first National Contemporary Art Fund in support of Latin American artists. Currently Sastre is editing a feature length documentary of Uruguyan pop star Natalia Oreiro’s 2014 fifteen city tour of Russia, where she is a super star.
Martín Sastre is also involved with a campaign to save Uruguay’s Cinemateca (film archive), recently supported by Martin Scorcese, and has established an online resource of Latin American filmmakers and industry.
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