Toco não entende nada de arte contemporânea

"Since I was pursuing my master’s degree at the UFRGS Arts Institute, I have worked with issues pertaining to the arts system as part of a research on humor and satire, in an attempt at socio-political reflection and critique.

It has been difficult to satirize art within an academic setting, even in a piece of research on Visual Poetics; and my artistic practice would often end up focusing on gender and social issues instead.

From 2011 onwards, after I completed my master’s degree, my poetics naturally turned more strongly to issues related to the art world, as in Como é bom ser rica!  and Ginástica.  

By making a funny video about a fictitious conversation on art with a dog, I wanted to outline a few issues that move me when it comes to the art world, as well as my opinions on some artists and their roles in art history.

Toco is my mother’s dog, and I have always noticed that he has an interesting gaze, one that is good for videos. I shot this video when Toco was in my house one night, alongside Saci, my own dog, taking advantage of my complete intimacy with them.

Unlike other works of mine that deal with prejudice, social strata, the celebrity world and idiosyncrasies of daily life, Toco... deals exclusively with the contemporary art field. No matter how the image of the dog may boast a universal appeal, the references therein may make it hard for the non-specialized audience to understand the work. This doesn’t happen in other pieces of mine, like Boquinha and Mortos Vivos.

Apart from the contemporary art field, a major reference for Toco...(Toco doesn't understand anything about contemporary art) is the TV language, especially comedy shows, which are interspersed with animated vignettes. These vignettes, which may either fail or succeed in making the shows’ jokes funnier, are rather typical of TV comedy shows. Because I am interested in television and in this particular type of show, I wanted to bring this specific language – which is widespread on the internet – into the field of contemporary art.

Whenever I make a video, I try to make sure that it can be understood by anyone viewing it, whether they are involved with the visual arts or not; hence, my approximation to television language, my addition of animated vignettes and the fast-paced editing."

Mariana Xavier in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (October 2013)