In 1939, Juan Carlos Onetti published El pozo (The Pit), a foundational book that represented a turning point in Uruguayan literature. On the cover —printed in two inks on wrapping paper— there was a drawing made by printer Casto Canel but signed apocryphally under the name of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Dozens of “printing proof copies” covered with a dust jacket that reproduces Picasso’s fake signature are arranged haphazardly at the foot of one of the pillars of a museum, or are exhibited in the manner of “best sellers”. The installation, made up of volumes of very different formats, seeks to review the concept of authorship, while inviting us to reflect on the value of artistic objects, many of them defined by what contains them, rather than by their content.





Mono (Proof Copy), 2010
Serigraph on Kraft paper
Installation
Variable dimensions

Photo: Guillermo Sierra