Buenos Aires performance is canceled
Sonic Backlights
Varchausky’s performance at Argentina’s Former National Library has been canceled. The roof of the the main space where the performance was going to take place, fell off. This happened a week before Varchausky flew into Buenos Aires for the show, but none of the organizers cared to warn him about this, rendering his trip pointless. Among the many misunderstandings with the organization, we can mention the fact that no contract has been signed yet, even though the piece has been fully finished by the artist. The organizers explained to Varchausky that the roof fell off due to the earthquake in Japan… They could not explain though, why this was the only building in Buenos Aires (or Latin America for that matter) that suffered the impact of such a shake. It was also still unclear how and when the organizers were planning to pay the artist and musicians’ fees. They did not provide any solid explanation about their behavior nor did they give the artist any official written statement where they explained the reasons for the cancellation of the show, in order to help the artist face his other sponsors and producers involved in the production of this art work. At the time of the cancellation, the organizers offered to do the show another day and in another space. The musicians had previous commitments and could not perform on any other day but on the one scheduled months ago, plus it would not make any sense to do a site-specific work – composed specifically for a particular space – in a new site picked up at the last minute. This refusal made the organizers feel entitled to refuse reimbursing Varchausky for his plane ticket. Another date is being considered now for October at the same site, but there’s been no confirmation about it yet.
For an article about this by Rafael Spregelburd on Perfil Newspaper please click here.