Proyecto para un pez a reacción 2 [Project for a Jet-Propelled Fish 2]

Luis Fernando Benedit, who trained and still practices as an architect, in the 1970s produced a large series of technical drawings, many of them prototypes for mechanized animals such as the jet-propelled fish shown here. Like many Conceptual artists in Argentina at this time, Benedit was interested in systems of information and communication. He was particularly interested in the natural world and how biological systems can provide a metaphor or model for human society. On the one hand, we can view this work as an ironic and humorous denunciation of the human need to control and improve upon nature. On the other hand, if we consider the widespread political violence and uncertainty that plagued Argentina during these years, the idea of meddling with nature and producing false mechanized creatures takes on more sinister overtones.