Opening Friday 26th October_ 6.30 PM
Queens Building. 97 William Street CBD (corner with Murray St.)

Poster Exhibition_ El Fantasma de Heredia

This poster Exhibition is a groundbreaking social and political commentary caught in the graphic design works of El Fantasma de Heredia, a studio focused on promoting socio-cultural causes, based in Argentina. Make sure you give yourself time to take in this exhibition that are sure to be imprinted in your mind long after the festival.
See posters below_

My city is beautiful and horrible as me. Paris, France, 2016 for Celebrate the City exhibition in the frame of the Fête du Graphisme.

El Fantasma de Heredia is an Argentinian based graphic design studio that is dedicated to contributing with their talent to social-cultural causes. They have joined forces with Cine Vivo Perth Independent Latino Film Festival as they share the mutual goal of creating space for cultural learning, exchange and dialogue, to create a more just then peaceful world.

This year our Festival includes a new side of Visual Arts: besides our incredible Photo Exhibition by Mexican Juan Rulfo, we introduce our first Poster Exhibition, a selection of the deep graphic work of this small collective of designers that 26 years ago decided to change the direction of what was supposed to be done. Taking all risks, these two then youngs began a non commercial graphic design studio, which means, they would follow their desire to use their tools not to sell products but to promote and spread culture and talk about social problems.

The images of this exhibition are incredibly powerful and have an ability to capture complex political, social and cultural issues that belong every single corner of the world.

To learn more about El Fantasma de Heredia, and begin to understand the process of this long way, we spoke with Anabella Salem, the woman behind the paper!

INTERVIEW_

Can you please tell us about El Fantasma de Heredia and the kind of work you do?

A: We started with a studio 26 years ago and from the beginning, both Gabriel Mateu and me wanted to dedicate ourselves entirely on graphic design for cultural and social issues. And this idea from those daring young people still motivates us lots of years later! What type of work we do? We have done many things..., it’s been so many years...: we’ ve designed magazines like this, a series of newspapers for community radios in Latin America, many books on different topics -social books and also literature both for adults and for children (publishing work is of great importance to us). We also designed identities for organizations or campaigns, museums or independent projects, and of course, created many posters for music, theatre, ballet, art and design or any visual arts exhibitions, also for ecology projects, ...we did some websites, we have designed records, even vinyl recently! We do graphic design in all its different forms, but always to help promote things that are interesting and necessary to be visible.

We are also teachers, we have taught Design at the University of Buenos Aires, and we also give workshops and lectures in Argentina and abroad. From time to time we coordinate private study groups, that is not so common in our discipline and we really enjoy that personal contact with students. Somehow we have many friends that had been our students.

We can work for other countries because the issues we deal with are universal. And graphics is also a very intercultural language. And in particular, our work is visual enough to pass the language barrier although texts are extremly important to us in our graphic pieces. You know, we have an amazing job, which we do in a very responsible way, because we are committed to the topic dealt with in each project. To be trully connected with the subject warantees half the job.

So how did El Fantasma de Heredia, based in Argentina, come to be collaborators with the Cine Vivo Festival, which is directed by a Brazilian living in Australia?

A: Yes, it’s weird, isn’t? In 2016 we made a poster for the Tantanakuy festival, a very local musical-cultural gathering in northern Argentina, founded by the great charango player Jaime Torres. A short time later, Rafael Baro, the director of this festival, invited him and his band to visit Australia to promote a cultural exchange with Aboriginal Australian musicians. Rafael saw our poster, with those mountains turned into people, with the hats and «ponchos», he liked it so much that he called to ask us for permission to use it as a promotion of the concert that the band would give in Western Australia. From then on, a bond was formed between Cine Vivo and El Fantasma de Heredia, based on the spirit of camaraderie and mutual aid.

Why this partnership works so well?

A: Both Cinevivo team and us have a similar way of thinking and share a world view. We have a common a desire to put on this land a little justice, solidarity, of lasting peace. It is often said that relationships strengthen over time, but I am encouraged to say this one was born strong.

Isn’t it difficult to work online?

A: No! It’s great... by the way, Perth and Buenos Aires have 12 hours difference: while Cinevivo team work we sleep and the other way round, so all together we can work 24 hs a day!

PRIZES_

Some awards can be highlightened, like First Prize for identity of Museum of Holocaust in Argentina, the Icograda Excellence Award and Juror’s Prize, both at Chaumont Festival in France, and a Gold Medal for «Eclipse» poster at Toyama Poster Triennial in Japan, and the Artists Residency grant in Schloss Solitude, Germany.

It can be also remarked the Presidency of the International Jury at the 19° International Poster Biennial in Warsaw, Poland. This year, El Fantasma de Heredia won the Grand Prix at 4th Block Poster Triennial, Ukraine.

This bureau’s pieces have been selected, showed and printed in catalogues at more than fifty Festivales and Biennials at museums of France, USA, Poland, Italy, China, Japan, Finland, Russia, Germany, Hong Kong, Bulgary, Ukraine, Bolivia, Mexico, Chec Republic and Slovac Republic.

Many articles had been published in books, journals and magazines, national and international wide.

To see more posters of El Fantasma de Heredia:
www.flickr.com/photos/elfantasmadeheredia
For contact:
info@elfantasmadeheredia.com.ar