Todavía quedan ganas de bailar

Andrés Waissman

1955

1995

Still feel like dancing

acrylic
ink
paper

height: 53cm
width: 41cm

Painting

Donated by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires 1997

33-1997

Waissman’s painting is a work the artist has said is ‘representative’ of his art. (1) The work depicts what appear to be three ghostly figures floating in a mass of dark tones. Two figures appear to be female and one resembles a hooded figure with hands above their head as if bound. Of this work Waissman has said that it belongs to ‘… a series of works that relates to the reality of the 1970s and 80s Argentina. The characters are the protagonists of those terrible days.’ The bodies of these figures are twisted is perhaps symbolic of the thousands of tortured bodies during the dictatorship. The title itself however, promotes a positive message which speaks of the possibility of overcoming and working through the ‘terrible days’ that many experienced. As Waissman puts it ‘the desire to go on remains; the desire to go forward: despite the cruelty, the contradictions, the characteristics of our people and the impotence of an immense, rich nation that has been impoverished by bad administrations and the search for an identity that at times seems lost.’ (2) Considering Waissman’s perspective, the piece does maintain an optimistic message as represented by one of the figures which appears to be smiling, the hope amongst the darkness that engulfed Argentina during the dictatorship and which continued to threaten democratic Argentina through corruption, bad governments and the lack of accountability for the past. There is still the desire to dance in spite of the violent events in Argentina’s past.


1. Andrés Waissman’s Artist Statement, ESCALA online catalogue. http://www.escala.org.uk/collection/artists/andres-waissman/AUTH397 (Accessed, 01.03.16)

2. ibid.


Text written for the exhibition "Argentina 1976-2016: Activism, Memorialisation and Complicity", 7-10 March 2016, ESCALA Teaching and Research Space
Sebastian Bustamante-Brauning

2016