Artist
Joaquín ArasJoaquín Aras
Joaquín Aras (1985, Buenos Aires) is a visual artist and audiovisual creator. His work focuses on the emotional space between the audience and the media, exploring how narrative experiences can preserve memory and challenge historicity. Most of his projects begin with theoretical research and culminate in works of various formats, including videos, installations, texts, performances, drawings, prints, objects, and photographs.
He studied Communication at UCA (Argentina) and earned a master’s degree in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought from the EGS (Switzerland). He participated in the Artists Program and the Film Lab at Universidad Di Tella in 2012. Aras has held solo exhibitions at Piedras (2025, 2021, 2019), Fundación Andreani (2024), Móvil (2016), Museo La Ene (2014), and Isla Flotante (2014, 2012); and group exhibitions at the Museo Moderno, MAC-Niterói (Brazil), Grand Union (UK), Bienalsur, MNAV (Uruguay), and Open House (UK). His works have been selected for the Braque Prize, the Bienal de Arte Joven de Buenos, Bienalsur, and the National Salon. He has received grants from FNA, Oxenford Collection, and Fundación Telefónica and an honorable mention in the Klemm Prize. He was awarded the CIFO–Ars Electronica Prize in 2023. Aras participated in the CCA Kitakyushu Fellowship Program (Japan) and won a residency at Gasworks+URRA with the support of Erica Roberts and arteBA. Most recently, he was an artist-in-residence at Tokyo Arts and Space (Japan). His work is part of the collections of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, the Oxenford Collection, and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection, among others.
TICS MODERNOS, 2025
Solo exhibition at Piedras
EL MUNDO ESTÁ CAMBIANDO Y YO SIGO IGUAL…,2025
Intervened plaster cast and mobile phone with video
38 x 44 x 47 cm
EL TIEMPO VUELA, 2025
Wall clock with collage
PARA ARTIFICIAL YA ESTÁ LA REALIDAD, 2025
Photograph
70 x 100 cm
UNA MITOLOGIA DE PUÑALES, 2024
Video Installation
6 min.
FOTOGRAFÍA TOMA DIRECTA, 2024
Photograph
46 x 75 cm
EL CUERPO DE LA HISTORIA, 2023
Single-channel video
8 min.
Short film that explores Argentine history and the personality of our nation through the history of the architectural transformations of the Cabildo.
CENIZAS QUEDAN, 2023
Super 8 transferred to digital, 2 min
Film made in collaboration with the Conservation Department of the Modern Museum for Juguetes Rabiosos.
JUGUETES RABIOSOS, 2023
Group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, conceived in collaboration with Joaquín Aras.
AÑORANZAS (YIRA YIRA), 2023
Installation with 16mm projector and recycled celluloid. Variable dimensions
Winner of the CIFO-Ars Electronica Award Linz, Austria
LA COSA DEL ARTE, 2022
Super 8 film, 01:33 min
DRAMATIC LIGHTING, 2023
From the Drama Emoji series,
Installation with light bins and tripods. Variable dimensions
LAS PEQUEÑAS MUERTES, 2021
Videoinstallation
4min, variable measures
EL ESPÍRITU DE LOS ANTEPASADOS GRABADO EN LA SANGRE, 2021
Digital Photography.
50 x 70 cm. 2021
LOS PRIMEROS PINTORES ERAN CAZADORES, 2021
Video still
Los primeros pintores eran cazadores, 2021
Video installation, 10 min and variable measures
¿Quien se atreve a matar al cine?, 2021
Super 8 film, 2 min – loop
¿QUIEN SE ATREVE A MATAR AL CINE?, 2021
Super 8 film, 2 min – loop
¿QUIEN SE ATREVE A MATAR AL CINE?, 2021
Videoinstallation, 2 min
HUELLAS DE LA NUEVA GENERACION – ARTE (NUEVAMENTE) VIVO, 2021
Videoinstallation with bread, 1 min – loop
ESQUEMA HUMOR TABU, 2019
Graphite on paper
52 x 72 cm
EL CHISTE ES QUE NOS VAMOS A MORIR (MONÓLOGO DE LA MUERTE), 2019
Installation with video, projected phrase, and bleachers. 08:18 min. Variable dimensions.
The video presents Death doing a monologue about the relationship between humor and taboo. The installation invites the audience to watch the piece from a set of bleachers. Behind the TV monitor there is a projection of a graffiti that reads: Who signs a joke?.
EJERCICIO DE MEMORIA, 2019
From the Entre recuerdos y remakes series.
Videoinstallation. Variable dimensions, 63:34 min.
The protagonists of this piece are two retired actresses that work at an actor’s union. Their mission is to watch old films and recognize the unaccredited actors so that they – or their families – can earn screen royalties. Every Tuesday they watch a different film. The installation is a record of one of these sessions and consists in two simultaneous videos: in one screen we can see the film “El hombre de la esquina rosada”, and on the other screen we can see the two actresses watching the film and talking about the unaccredited actors.
MONDO RISA AKA MONDO LAUGHTER, 2019
Project developed during the CCA Kitakyushu Fellowship Program 2018-2019 (Japan)
Videoinstallation, 20:00 min
Mondo Risa aka Mondo Laughter is an ongoing project that explores taboo and controversial humor in media and the visual arts. The version of the project presented at CCA Kitakyushu took form of a three-channel video installation with six videos of local comedians and humor researchers from a wide range of backgrounds and styles (rakugo, manzai, stand up) working around controversial topics from different periods in Japanese history.
MONDO RISA, 2019
Videoinstallation
20 min
ALGO PERSISTE, 2018
From the Between Memories and Remakes series.
Intervention in a cinema hall – Filmless movie screening, 30 min
Something persists is a film screening without a film, an artistic intervention presented at the York Cinema in Vicente López (Argentina). The piece brings back traditional rituals of the cinema going experience: spectators are handed a printed program, seated by a cinema usher and given custom made candies. The piece presents a blank screen that flickers with the sound of the memories from spectators that once watched films that are now lost forever.
ALEGORÍA, 2017
Video, 07:45 min
Work selected for the Braque Prize 2017 (Palais de Tokyo, Embassy of France, UNTREF)
Allegory presents a possible scenario of the end of the World where the only survivors of the Apocalypse are two rich lovers that spend their last days in a destroyed mansion. In an attempt to remain warm, the couple struggles to choose which painting of their art collection they will burn first. History´s last discussion is about a collection of artworks that no one will ever see again.
ENTRE RECUERDOS 2, 2017
From the Entre recuerdos y remakes series.
Photography, 90 x 60 cm
SET, 2016
Photography, 40 x 60 cm
LAS LÁGRIMAS SIEMPRE CAEN EN CÁMARA LENTA, 2016
Individual exhibition at Móvil
Video installation. Variable dimensions, 28:00 min – loop
Non-acquisition mention at the XXI Federico Jorge Klemm Visual Arts Award
The video installation presents a scene of an actress/character crying for 30 minutes, as well as a photo of the making off of the shoot in the exact location where the video is projected, and an intermittent projected text behind the screen that says: “A film based on true events, a life based on true events”.
SNUFF 1976, 2015
Video installation, re-sound of the movie Snuff
83 min
Installation view, Chela, Bienal de arte Joven de Buenos Aires
SNUFF 1976, 2015
Video installation, re-sound of the movie Snuff
83 min
HOLLYWOOD ARDE, 2014
Etching and aquatint on paper
40 x 60 cm
Disney es grande pero yo soy el primero, 2014
Individual exhibition at Museo La Ene.
Installation, variable dimensions.
A heritage we don’t know. It is said that film history was written by north americans and europeans. Few people know that two of the most well known and profitable film genres were born in Argentina in the beginning of the 20th century: animation and porn. Several film historians assure the importance and legacy of these films but the fact that there are no copies left makes it difficult for them to be considered relevant. These films are still foreigners in their own country. The project tries to praise the mythological value of these two movies and set them as pioneers, by asking ourselves about artistic production in specific contexts.
LAS PALABRAS Y LAS COSAS, 2014
Video, 02:25 min
Tics modernos
6 DE NOVIEMBRE, 2025 A 17 DE ENERO, 2026
Tercer cerebro
AUGUST 23 TO OCTOBER 14, 2023
Polípticxs
MAY 15, 2022 TO JUNE 11, 2022
Los primeros pintores eran cazadores
APRIL 14 TO JUNE 30, 2021
Estiramientos en la lengua
NOVEMBER 23, 2020, TO FEBRUARY 14, 2021
El chiste es que nos vamos a morir
JULY 5–JULY 26, 2019
Carrie Bencardino, Joaquín Aras “moderno y metamoderno”, group show at museo de arte moderno de buenos aires (buenos aires, argentina)
Press revista otra parte, juan cruz pedroni about ‘tics modernos’ by joaquín aras
Press participants of the klemm award 2025 (buenos aires)
Joaquín Aras “frog community”, group show at barro (buenos aires, argentina)