Urbanautica

RODRIGO CLARAMONTE. ALONG THE MARGIN OF BUENOS AIRES

by Steve Bisson

»Over time, I became more interested in the construction of the territory, territorialization, limits, borders, and the arbitrary decisions in the delimitation and division of the lands.»

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común'

Rodrigo Claramontee is one of the finalists of Urbanautica Institute Awards 2019. His series 'Un Lugar Común' was featured in the catalog of our annual awards. We are glad to share the conversation we had at the time with the Argentinian photographer.

Rodrigo could you tell us about where you grow up. What kind of place it was? And then photography. How it all started? What are your memories of your first shots?

Rodrigo Claramonte (RC): In Santa Rosa de Calamuchita we lived at the foot of the hill, on the outskirts of the city. My father was in charge of a piece of land, so my games had to do with exploring a territory that seemed to me virgin. A river went through the field: in its course, there were small falls and cascades. On the river banks, small beaches used to form where I used to play while my father was busy. Marcos Juárez is a small, rural and flat village where naps are sacred and where after midday, you can hear a pin drop. Almost all my family is from Marcos Juárez, so every year I spent my winter and summer vacations there. My cousins would pick me up and we would all go for a bike ride; we would come back when night was approaching. We would explore wasteland, climb trees or play soccer on the railroad tracks next to a eucalyptus forest.

Tell us about the project 'Un Lugar Común'

RC: The beginning of the project ‘A Common Place’ was totally open, without any type of restrictions. I knew I wanted to explore a certain area and one day I simply grabbed my camera and headed towards it. I was not clear about what I wanted, or why I had chosen that area. But I did not care too much. Many times during several months, I went to the place I had decided to photograph and I spent most of the day walking and walking and, of course, taking pictures. As time went by, I began to work on the design of a board game to carry out these explorations. I used the map of the territory that I had photographed as a board, and I threw the dice in order to decide which area I would photograph. I also designed a series of cards as a challenge that I had to beat each day. They were months in which, in an imperceptible way, the logic of the game, chance and my observations were united and guided me the rest of this stage. In this period of time, I obeyed what chance indicated. I played and I explored because I found it very funny. I knew that the material I got each day would end up being part of the documentation and the final work. After almost two years (with logical interruptions) I decided to continue my work without the board game. The area continued to be the same. However, the object of the research was limiting itself and I found that I was being much more precise and specific in what I was interested in finding and in what I was paying attention to. So I felt that the game was no longer a trigger, but a limitation. I decided to do without it and I went out to take pictures with total freedom.

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común'

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común'

I started with the idea of addressing those elements that separate and divide social classes. I wanted to do some research about this subject matter and ended up approaching this exploration of the territory. The focus of research kept changing. I did not start with the intention of addressing a specific problem. Rather, I started exploring, trying to see what the fundamental call was that was looking for me. In the beginning, I felt an impulse to move freely through these places, and, perhaps, I focused my attention on walking, erring, and practicing “flaneur”. Over time, I became more interested in the construction of the territory, territorialization, limits, borders, and the arbitrary decisions in the delimitation and division of the lands. The use of maps as narrative elements in the construction of common sense and the naturalization of these places, as if they were given naturally, without the deliberate intervention and the calculated elaboration of these places. Finally, I ended up focusing on the underlying element of all this: margins. These areas of apparent lack of definition where true territorialization develops. Space where territory is built with the active presence of people and where a new territory is formed, different from the one that the centrality of power tries to set.

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común'

The project also includes sketches and notes. Why is it important to outline the process?

RC: A short time ago, while editing the work for publication, I went through my notebooks and found a message that I had left to myself. It is from the first days when I started this exploration. It said: “search and find myself. Not in the result, but in the process”. Without processes, there are no possible results. The process is like a road map. It involves a good deal of honesty, doubt, confusion, uncertainty, possibilities, search, and projection. But, above all, it is a record of that search. Generally, in all my works, I try to include the process itself as an active part of the work, of research and documentary explorations. It is the humble voice that tells everything that is happening. It is also a way of projecting. It works as a guide.

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común', Linea de Tiempo (el Proceso)

«The map is not the territory, it is an interesting representation with specific purposes: the utilitarian appropriation of the land». Can you develop this concept for us?

RC: Maps are narrative strategies where common sense is in dispute. They are official constructions accepted without any questioning. To believe that these designs, elaborated from political classist impositions, are the very space they represent is to meekly surrender the perception of the environment and with it the very construction of space and territory. In general, official maps do not provide for the subjectivity of territorial processes. Moreover, up to a certain point, maps operate to turn these areas into abstract elements, into territories without experience. Hence the disposition and design of lands always in terms of utility, considered from the centrality of power. The fair construction of the structures that make up the territory and its representations, in order to avoid disputes, should involve inhabitants and reach the daily and marginal spaces. 

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común'

© Rodrigo Claramonte, from the series 'Un Lugar Común'

You told us about a working-process that took you time, patience, and immersion. How do you cope with fast interconnections and instant sharing? How this is affecting your practice?

RC: There seems to be a constant need to be nourished by an unstoppable flow of images to which very little attention is paid. It is an impulse. They are very superficial layers of light connection. They operate in a flow without any intensity. But at the same time, I wonder about the massive, general, and collective construction of this pulse that is incorporated into the collective unconscious. If there is a new mode of production, it is logical that there will be a new mode of reading, decoding, and questioning images. There is a part of society that consumes millions of images without stopping, for the impulse to show or for the reflex of seeing. I think it’s interesting that there might be millions of people participating in the production of these images, that they may be facing the challenge of arranging the visual field in which they are immersed. To think and build the image. I do not know whether this is photography or not. I do not know if it matters that much either, but it happens.

I don’t like how most of these movement areas are designed and executed under algorithms that reward participation under the logic of dependence. Up to a certain point, there is a concrete submission that is not discussed or questioned too much. It is difficult for me to determine how much and in what way this affects documentary photographers in general. Surely, for those who are related to the urgency of the media, they will have to reflect on the voracious demand that there is to renew and continuously update the flow of images and the attention devoted to these images. They are a useful tool for the dissemination and advancement of a certain topic and, in this respect, they are a fertile platform too. At the same time, they are a double-edged sword due to the fact that so little time and attention is devoted to these publications and due to the constant update of the material that is demanded by users.

Anyway, documentary photography is very broad and the ways of carrying it out are very varied. In my particular case, I tend to be interested in projects that demand a longer time. Therefore, I do not feel affected by the logic that governs this activity. Essential aspects such as love and passion for one’s profession should not be affected. Honesty. Sincere subjective expression. Research. Commitment or freedom.

What are you up with?

RC. I am working on a documentary about the attempt to build a monument that was going to be dedicated to the "Descamisado" (which is the figure with which Eva Perón referred to workers in the Peronist era in Argentina). It was meant to be a monument over 130 meters high in honor of workers. I was always struck by the hatred and viciousness of the most powerful classes for tributes to working-class figures and by the effort that they make to revile these projects and this sense of identification and belonging. I would like to rebuild that monument in a way and make it exist as it was going to happen had not been for the coup d’ état that took place in 1955 and which destroyed the beginning of the work and afterward it eliminated all traces of the monument.

---

LINKS

Rodrigo Claramonte (website)
Urbanautica Institute Awards 2019 (archive)
Urbanautica Institute Awards 2019 (catalog)

share this page

more on Rodrigo Claramonte GO TO RODRIGO CLARAMONTE'S PAGE

portfolio
A COMMON PLACE
Rodrigo Claramonte