La Piedra Ambrosetti (2019) WIP

This is a work in progress with Alan Marín Segal.

“The copy is perfect and unalterable,
the original is the victim of time and reality.”
Marcel Proust

“The Ambrosetti Stone” is a 16 mm film project that combines techniques from the reenactment, animation, documentary, sculpture and ceremonial practices to ruminates towards ideas around the manipulation of the environment, the comprehension (or misunderstanding) of the same, the temporary crossing and the lost knowledge. It is also a fraudulent investigation about the conditions in which the archaeological and cultural heritage in Latin America circulates and is preserved. And finally, an attempt to operate in intimate and public spaces where memory is managed.

History

The monoliths of the Tafi Valley, located west of Tucumán province in Argentina are a collection of standing stones created as magical representations by Tafi culture, one of the first potter tribes in Northwestern Argentina, back
to the period between 820 b.C and 780 AD. These stones were publicly mentioned for the first time by Germán Burmeister, naturalist, zoologist and paleontologist, but it was Juan Bautista Ambrosetti, Argentinean folklorist, ethnographer and naturalist who introduced one of these menhirs to the scientific community in 1897, which today bears his name. Later, the same menhir was taken to Tucumán to be part of its tourist attractions, but 62 years later it was brought back to the Tafi Valley to a park dedicated to the conservation of this along with the other monoliths, which were also removed from its original location. Currently, none are located in their original site.

And if they were? Would something change? That is what we want to find out from the collection of testimonies and also from the representation of the transfer and subsequent installation of the Ambrosetti stone back in the valley.

Synopsis

Two researchers, actually just pseudo-detectives, arrive in Tucumán, Argentina, attracted by the history of the Ambrosetti Stone. This stone was a monolith that predates the Diaguita culture, about three meters high, which was removed from its original site. This event, they presume, has had strange and adverse effects on the area. In search of the original location of this stone, they interview people with different degrees of knowledge of the subject who sup- ply them with a host of theories and clues. This excess of information, in turn, causes the place to seem increasingly mysterious and gloomy. In order to advance with the investigation, therefore, they decide, with the support of local people, to represent the stones in different materials and walk uphill as did the people who returned the Ambrosetti stone to the Tafi Valley in the middle of the 20th century (when they didn’t installed it where it was in the first place). After the fake stones have been installed in the supposed original distribution, the researchers will be on site for two or three days to see what happens.

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Este es un trabajo en proceso en conjunto con Alan Martín Segal.

“La copia es perfecta e inalterable,
el original es víctima del tiempo y la realidad”.
Marcel Proust

“La piedra Ambrosetti” es un proyecto cinematográfico de 16 mm que combina técnicas de recreación, animación, documental, escultura y prácticas ceremoniales para reflexionar sobre las ideas en torno a la manipulación del en- torno, la comprensión (o malentendidos) del mismo, el cruce temporal. y el conocimiento perdido. También es una investigación fraudulenta sobre las condiciones en que circula y se conserva el patrimonio arqueológico y cultural en América Latina. Y, por último, un intento de operar en espacios íntimos y públicos donde se gestiona la memoria.