The Useless Truth

BILINGUAL ENGLISH/SPANISH EDITION The artist known as RES, born Ra˙l Stolkiner in Argentina in 1957, studied both photography and economics, which influences his work through the idea of an economics of ideas. This first critical anthology of his career gathers nine series of photographs--Where Are They & Magnets, Pardiez (By God ), Pretty Little Plastic Thingy, DNSCTTH, On Jorge L. Borges, Me-Cactus, Between is Nothing, Hern-n Cort s' Route, and his latest, Conatus. That most recent and perhaps most intense entry recreates--in detailed costume, makeup, lighting and composition--iconic pieces of western art, widely acknowledged masterpieces by painters such as Velazquez, da Vinci and Picasso. Each portfolio is introduced by a short text key to its interpretation. And how to interpret the title? The Useless Truth refers to art's ability to highlight the irrelevance of information, a truth RES points out is just as useless as any other while it remains locked away in the autonomous field of art. La verdad in til, ox moron que da lugar a pensar la fotograf a como un modelo te rico, alude a las complejas relaciones entre pr cticas art sticas y pr cticas pol ticas. En m s de un sentido, la obra de res formula una articulaci n entre ambas pr cticas que excede las nociones tradicionales de arte pol tico. El arte puede hacer evidente el car cter err neo de la verdad; pero esta cualidad resultar a in til, por permanecer encerrada en el campo aut nomo del arte. A menos que concibamos la fotograf a como un modelo de pensamiento. y el pensamiento, acci n pol tica. El presente volumen articula cr ticamente por primera vez la obra de res: nueve series fotogr ficas introducidas por textos breves que aportan algunas claves para su interpretaci n.