Zero Hour

"In Argentina, Paksa is best known for mid-1960s quasi-Minimalist sculptures and media environments that she presented as communicative situations in which the viewer is positioned as a 'receiver' of information. The body was a consistent touchstone. For her first environmental installation, Calórico. Construcciones en poliéster y vinilo (Caloric: Constructions in Polyester and Vinyl), 1965, Paksa arranged red spheres atop a network of tubes suggesting both guts and plumbing; curved mirrors on the walls at once oriented and distorted viewers' perspectives within the space."

"In Tiempo de descuento, cuenta regresiva, la hora 0 (Stoppage Time, Countdown, Zero Hour), a man in a black bodysuit runs in place, remaining within a square framed by contact paper on the floor of an empty room. He moves in a shambolic manner, often at half-speed, leaning over deeply as his arms flail. This footage is overlaid with rapidly shifting colors via video synthesizer, obscuring our view, and an iris that periodically frames the runner."

Margarita Paksa is a prolific Argentine artist whose career spans five decades across multiple media. Her work consistently centers the body and viewer experience as communicative situations. In the mid-1960s, she created quasi-Minimalist sculptures and media environments that positioned viewers as information receivers. Early installations like Calórico featured red spheres and curved mirrors to distort spatial perception, while Comunicaciones presented intimate human interaction as traceable rumor. Her 1978 video Tiempo de descuento demonstrates her continued exploration of bodily movement, containment, and visual distortion through video synthesizer technology. A recent MALBA retrospective exhibition showcased over fifty works, highlighting her significant but underrecognized contributions to contemporary art.

Read at Artforum