Registres de comportament (1994-1998)

In  Registres de comportament  (1994-1998), a photographic series presented at ADN Galeria grouped into sixteen different case studies, Antonio Ortega analyzed the growth of various plants, exploring their predictability and equating their everyday records with social behaviors. The term "record," very present in conceptual art practices, is related here to documentary methodology. This methodology, employed in this photographic series, has the capacity to unfold intensely in the realm of meaning despite being the record of an apparently mundane experience.

For several months in 1996, Antonio Ortega took care of a plant in his home that grew inside a long cardboard tube. The plant was forced to extend its white stem and cross a meter of darkness in search of light. When the plant finally managed to emerge, he placed a camcorder in front of it. In a single, fixed, real-time one-shot sequence, the pot, the long-corrugated cardboard tube, and the few leaves that emerged could be seen. Immediately, Antonio Ortega entered the scene and peeled off the connecting points of the cardboard. The tube came apart, separating from the plant and leaving it free. At that very moment, it collapsed. The long stem that had developed in search of light was unable to support its weight, thus causing its death. That which constrained it was also what kept it alive.

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