August 23rd - October 18th, 2006

For the third year running Phoenix and Braziers International Workshops are working together to bring artists from overseas to work amongst the studio artists at Phoenix. This year we are very happy to welcome Adriana Bustos from Cordoba in Argentina. Adriana will be involved in the interactive drawing exhibition and will be giving a presentation about her work during her stay at Phoenix.

This is what she says about her work:

Using the language of documentary, my current art practice explores the people and social reality of Cordoba, my native city in Argentina. The most recent project that I worked on documented the lives of the horses used by 'cartoneros', the name given to the section of the working class population who make a living by collecting cardboard and other rubbish from the streets in order to sell it. Since the economic crash in Argentina, of 2001, the number of cartoneros has increased dramatically.

I have spent the last few years working with the cartoneros, taking portraits of their horses in the style of 19th Century studio photographs, highlighting the contrast between these underfed animals and the thoroughbred beasts that it is more usual to commission a portrait of. At the Biennal of Mercosur 2005, in Porto Allegre in Brazil, these photographs were combined in an installation with a video 'Primavera' which was made by attaching a camera to a horses head in order to capture the animals view point as it moved through the city of Cordoba going about its work.

In this way I use animals as a substitute for humans in order to talk about the recent economic and social changes in my country.

Adriana gave a presentation of her work at 7pm on Monday 18th September