Jorge Luis Farjat

Biography

He was born in San Martín, in the province of Buenos Aires, and showed from an early age his tendency towards the artistic activities, specially classical music, inherited from his father, and also the cinema, which would take him, during his secondary and tertiary studies, to be in contact with the scholars in said subject, along with his thorough view regarding the different genres and schools. Once he finished his university courses in the Communication Sciences University in the Universidad del Salvador, he specialized in audiovisual production and he immediately started his academic activity concerning that subject. At the beginning of 1970 he met, through Radio Nacional, Martín Gerber Bufano, an Argentinian philosopher, musician and teacher (1921–1986). During the following years, he received from him a deep contact with the music aesthetic psychology and with the Teoría de los Niveles [Levels Theory] which belonged to said author, also inspired in Edward Carpenter, Albert Ellis and other writers. This intellectual relationship, as well as friendship and, mainly, its fully endorsement with Edward Carpenter's thoughts, became the main element for the entire later development by Farjat, both in the montage musical roots of the works, as well as in the development and expansion of Gerber's Levels Theory, which would be made after the writer's death. After many years of audiovisual and literary productions between 1978 and 2015, the summary and expression of this theory, along with Carpenter's principles, appeared in almost all his publications, whether in the ones of aesthetic origin and also of philosophical and historical origin, having the most complete representation in the book "Los niveles de la experiencia estética. Sinopsis y antología de los principios de la teoría" "The levels of the Aesthetic Experience. Synopsis and anthology of the theories principles", edited at the beginning of 2016.

The author's audiovisual art principles

According to his concepts, "the audiovisual art constitutes a specific means of social communication and expression, since it has intrinsic characteristics and qualities which determine an own language essence, which differentiates it and separates it from the cinema and television, turning it into an experience that aims at a different path, still not explored enough, in the field of communication, with completely new development possibilities in that field. This mainly happens in the audiovisual artistic conception, in which original syntheses and unexpected combinations may take place, which distinguish the audiovisual art as a particular art. Therefore, the audiovisual theme as an art resides in a main interest spot" (Audiovisualogía. El audiovisual como arte y medio de comunicación). Buenos Aires 1979.

Characteristics, influences and philosophical inspiration

The works are characterized by the use of an image language accompanied, almost constantly, by music that always belongs to composers from the polyphonic, classical and romantic periods and, mainly, the post-romantic period. Therefore, the music role becomes a prevailing role, and it was and still is its inspirational support for building all the works montage. From a more global point of view, his audiovisual works are also intrinsically developed on three overlapped levels: the documentary one, which is related, among others, to the testimonial genre, the formal one, which has to do with the purely aesthetic aspect, and a third sense connected in the second one's essence and spread towards a psychological expression, which replaces the purely intellectual one, whose features are established by Jorge Luis Farjat in his books Teoría Audiovisual Audiovisual Theory, Migraciones y Supervivencia Migrations and survival. Main excerpts, El audiovisual y las artes The Audiovisual Theme and the Arts y Los niveles de la experiencia estética. Sinopsis y antología de los principios de la teoría. The levels of the Aesthetic Experience. Synopsis and anthology of the theories principles. Philosophically, great part of his work is inspired by the writer, poet and philosopher. Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) and many of his jobs make up metaphorical expressions of the essays and poems written by said author. Two of his works are built on the foundations that will sustain all his creations from its roots: "Después de la civilización" (After civilization), which belongs to "Towards Democracy" (London 1907) and "El drama del amor y la muerte. Un Estudio de la Evolución y Transfiguración humanas" (The drama of love and death. A Study of Human Evolution and Transfiguration) (London 1912).

First period (1976-1979)

It includes "El Arte de Vivir" (The Art of Living), the trilogy "Hacia las Regiones del Sol" (Toward the Regions of the Sun), "El Mundo Estelar" (The Starry World) and Indicios de Inmortalidad (Intimation of immortality). The works during this period have an image language only accompanied by the aforementioned music. However, and in a relatively timeless level, "El Arte de Vivir" (The Art of Living), also has semidocumentary characteristics. Their literary inspiration is fully based on Edward Carpenter and William Wordsworth. This initial stage coincides with the Audiovisual Theory divulgation, through the first publication of the book "Audiovisualogía. El Audiovisual como Arte y Medio de Comunicación". "El Audiovisual y las Artes" (The Audiovisual Theme and the Arts), an essay supplementary to the previous book, concludes the investigational spread of the topic during these first years and it has just been published in 2015.

Second period (1989-1993)

It indicates Farjat's arrival at the documentary genre, with the incorporation of the historical-testimonial theme to the montage methods previously explained. Aesthetically, these works are made based on their main characters’ story, but the music-image style from the previous period still has an important percentage of the total actual time of each work (half of it or more than its half). From this period on, and more specifically as from the audiovisual work "Memorias del Hospital de Inmigrantes" (Memories of the Inmigrants’ Hospital), the works start to be developed in these three aforementioned levels: the documentary one, exclusively related to the historical-testimonial context, the formal one, which has to do with the purely aesthetic aspect, and a third sense referred to the one that established its features in the abovementioned literary essays. "Las Edades en el Viento" (Ages in the Wind), es:Liebig, historia (Path of Lights)] and his final work "El Enigma de las Grandes Voces." (The Enigma of the Great Voices) are also part of this cycle.

Third period (1993-1998)

It represents a substantial core, since it is the grounds for a new aesthetic outline, expressed in other ways of montage which forced the author to develop more widely the principles shown in Audiovisualogía (Audiovisualogy). These six years conformed to that aesthetic development and a new set of audiovisual works, gathered in "La Exhalación de la Tierra" (The Exhalation of the Earth), which comprises a total of fourteen works. Some of them became the constant metaphorical expression about Carpenter's thoughts. Thus, "Preludio" (Prelude) reviews the awareness degrees topic, while "El Encuentro de la Luz" (The Encounter with light) is related to "Sobre la Creación y Materialización de las Formas" (On the Creation and Materialisation of Forms), addressed by this author in one of the corresponding chapters in the book "El drama del amor y la muerte, un estudio de la evolución y transfiguración humanas" (The drama of love and death. A Study of Human Evolution and Transfiguration) (London 1912). During this period, the documentary, photographic and testimonial stage is carried out, as well as the montage script about the music of the selected works. From the aesthetics point of view, the works which compose "La Exhalación de la Tierra" (The Exhalation of the Earth) are fully developed only on the music and image style, as in the first works, though with a strong documentary reference. Besides, in 1998, already at the end of this cycle, he produces "La Creación. Historia de Svea" (The Creation. History of Svea). In this work, the new acquired linguistic styles which are applied in this period are perceived. "La Creación" (The Creation) gathers fourteen of those intrinsic and extrinsic narrative formats of montage, now progressively articulated according to the extrinsic fading connection which shapes all the work.

Fourth period (1999-2007)

Through the illustrated literary essay Migraciones y Supervivencia (Migrations and survival. Main excerpts) publication, the author completely brings together the series of philosophical principles that inspire the basic substance of a great part of his audiovisual work. He continues dedicating this period to the montage of works collected under the title "La Exhalación de la Tierra" (The Exhalation of the Earth).

Fifth period (2007- 2014)

It starts with the audiovisual work "Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual (Solar of Audiovisual Art and Memory)" which, accompanied by a literary essay with the same name, reflects in a documentary way the architectonic work that also belongs to the author, made according to the same aesthetic and philosophical principles which inspire the audiovisual work. The Solar, after long years of being designed and executed, became a Museum and Library. From the beginning, this period is characterized by the aesthetic features of the previous one, but this time highlighted by the inevitable technological conversion to the digital media, including the reprography of the works from the previous periods. The new digital works use aspect relationships that, although they do not exclude the prior classical one, admit other new ones such as the 16:9. By the end of 2010, he produces "Light from the blue", an audiovisual work carried out like a short interval, and he starts a long-length trilogy called "Una Voz sobre la Tierra" (A Voice over the Earth)], which is about nature and whose first and second part production extended until the end of 2013. Meanwhile, the author still captures in a literary way the Audiovisual Art foundations, in which the second and main stage of his theory is summarized. These grounds were developed as from 1993 and they were greatly construed when applying the new formats of the visual and sound montage in his works. In 2013 he also produces the digital version of the Prelude of "La Exhalación de la Tierra", which belongs to his Fourth period of works, whereas at the beginning of 2014 he finishes "Life steeped by shades of red", an audiovisual work that continues with the theme in "Una Voz sobre la Tierra" (A Voice over the Earth). Simultaneously, with his habitual montage about music, new ways are incorporated to the montage theory. During the same year, he produces the digital version of "El encuentro de la luz" (The Encounter with light), an audiovisual work of the "La exhalación de la Tierra" (The Exhalation of the Earth) series, which also belongs to his Fourth period of works. Moreover, he creates "Autunm song" (Light and color steeped of yellow), which thematically follows the previous "Life steeped by shades of red." This period finishes by producing the digital version of "El eterno anhelo (The infinite yearning)", which belongs to the same series than "La Exhalación de la Tierra" (The Exhalation of the Earth) and that Fourth period of works.

Sixth period works (2015- )

The beginning of this new period is actually marked by a substantial change in the aspects connected with the aesthetic grounds of his Audiovisual Theory, which are related to the extrinsic montage, in which the author leaves aside what he calls "extrinsic association point due the lap dissolve understood as free will", going to a new formalist accuracy, which is a hypothesis developed in his simultaneous writings. This period starts with "El jardín secreto. Lo imperceptible en invierno" (The Secret Garden. Invisible in winter), "The great down", and "Spring Music" edited in 2015, as from the documentary material from the previous year. On the other hand, he concludes the third part of his trilogy called "Una voz sobre La Tierra" (A Voice over the Earth), In July 2015, he publishes his literary work 'El audiovisual y las artes' (The Audiovisual Theme and the Arts), which establishes the relationship of the audiovisual art with the other arts, proposing their hierarchy according to an aesthetic psychology which lays the foundations for the finishing limits a person can access, through a deepening scale, and combining his comparison in relation to that hierarchy. The work ends with an appendix and other main aspects to be considered in an artistic work analysis, and it is concluded in 2016 with Los niveles de la experiencia estética. Sinopsis y antología de los principios de la teoría (The levels of the Aesthetic Experience. Synopsis and anthology of the theories principles.)

Works identifications

All the works can be found on full HD digital support (1080p), in new aspect relation 16:9, and in the process of being converted to 4K, including the ones which were digitalized that belonged to the author's first periods (from the First to the Fourth period), in which he produced his works on color reversible film 35 mm.

First period

• 1975-1976 • 100 minutes

• 1976-1977 • 240 minutes

• 1977-1978 • 80 minutes

• 1977 • 80 minutes

Second period

• 1989 • 33 minutes

• 1990 • 90 minutes

• 1991 • 30 minutes

• 1991 • 60 minutes

• 1993 • 45 minutes

• 1991-1993 • 90 minutes

Third period

Fourth period

"La Exhalación de la Tierra" (Continuation of works) Audiovisual works of this long-length series, digitalized between 2013 and 2014:

‹Preludio›

• 49 minutes • Digital version made in 2013

• 40 minutes • Digital version made in 2014

• 38 minutes • Image edition and digital sound - 2014

Fifth period

• 2007 • 30 minutes

• 2011 • 14 minutes

• 2013 • 100 minutes

• 2013-2014 • 41 minutes

• 2014 • 23 minutes

Sixth period

• 2015 • 20 minutes

• 2015 • 14 minutes

• 2015 • 32 minutes

• 2015 • 27 minutes

Works along with Graciela Swiderski

Own works

Other published works

Activities in different fields

Dirección Nacional de Migraciones [Argentinian Immigration Office]: Among 1989 and 2001, he develops a plan of testimonial historical divulgation of the migratory act in the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones where, between 1990 and 1992, he organizes and runs said institution Museum, acting as the coordinator of the commission in charge of collecting related pieces and documents (Resol, DNM 3753).

Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual [Solar of Audiovisual Memory and Art]: El Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual was designed and architectonically made by the author. Along with his audiovisual work and with the theory related to it, the Solar is the material expression he has taken advantage of also to enter into the architectonic field the set of philosophical concepts which provide for all his creation; these themes are also materialized in his literary works. When designing the space, he tried to integrate the architecture with the natural view, both animal and vegetal. He has made a union of elements corresponding to different classical architectonic trends, making up an eclectic style.

Asociación Arte y Memoria Audiovisual [Association of Audiovisual Memory and Art]: In 2007, he establishes the Asociación Arte y Memoria Audiovisual; the divulgation of the audiovisual art as an art and means of communication is among its main purposes. The diffusion of the audiovisual art as an art and means of communication, didactic instrument and one of sociocultural inquiry, its theoretical investigation as an art and in favor of recovering the memory, together with the preservation of the Solar of Audiovisual Art and Memory, where the Museum, Library and Center of Investigation are located, were declared as activities of cultural interest by the Government of the Province of Buenos Aires (Resolution. No. 177/07).