Jorge Luis Farjat

Jorge Luis Farjat (born 17 September 1950) is an Argentine producer of audiovisual and literary works and the originator of a formal theory of audiovisual art. Born in San Martín de los Andes, Buenos Aires Province, he has created twenty-six medium- and feature-length productions, predominantly documentaries, spanning six creative periods between 1976 and 2015. His literary output comprises seventeen volumes in the Colección Arte y Memoria Audiovisual, covering audiovisual theory, immigration history, and art theory. Among his most notable books are Migraciones y supervivencia (Migrations and Survival: Main Excerpts) and La crisis y deshumanización del arte en el siglo XX: Su manifestación en la música (The Crisis and Dehumanization of Art in the 20th Century: Its Representation in Music).

Diorama of Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton (1822), a historical antecedent of audiovisual art predating cinema, along with the magic lantern (1660). The curtains painted with overlapping landscapes offered audiences successive and changing images inside a darkened chamber, accompanied by natural sound effects. Its principles of action, development, and conclusion — along with the dissolve transition from one image to the next — anticipate the defining characteristics of contemporary audiovisual art: photographs shown with lap dissolves synchronized with sound in articulated montage.

Biography

Jorge Luis Farjat was born on 17 September 1950 in San Martín de los Andes, in the province of Buenos Aires. He studied classical music and cinema, coming into contact with various scholars during his secondary and tertiary education. After completing coursework in Communication Sciences at the Universidad del Salvador, he began the academic study of audiovisual production.

In the early 1970s, Farjat met Martín Gerber Bufano (1921–1986), an Argentine philosopher, musician, and teacher, through Radio Nacional. Bufano's philosophical thought — particularly his engagement with the ideas of Edward Carpenter — became a lasting influence on Farjat's aesthetic and theoretical outlook.

Following his audiovisual and literary productions between 1978 and 2015, Farjat synthesized the principles of his theory 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 Theory's Principles), published in early 2016.

Audiovisual theory

Farjat's foundational theoretical premise is that audiovisual art constitutes a distinct form of social communication and expression, separate from cinema, television, and related media. This position was first articulated in Audiovisualogía: El audiovisual como arte y medio de comunicación (Buenos Aires, 1979), which established the audiovisual work as an autonomous artistic and communicative form.

Farjat's works are characterized by the use of a visual image language accompanied throughout by music drawn from the polyphonic, classical, Romantic, and post-Romantic repertoires. Over time, his montage theory evolved to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic narrative formats, with the lap dissolve playing a structurally significant role in linking images. A supplementary theoretical essay, El audiovisual y las artes (The Audiovisual Theme and the Arts), which situates audiovisual art within a hierarchy of artistic forms according to aesthetic psychology, was published in 2015.

Audiovisual works

First period (1976–1979)

The first period 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 (Intimations of Immortality). These works consist of image language accompanied exclusively by music, though El Arte de Vivir also exhibits semi-documentary characteristics. Their literary inspiration draws primarily on Edward Carpenter and William Wordsworth. This period coincides with the initial publication of Audiovisualogía (1979), disseminating Farjat's emerging theory of audiovisual art.

Title English title Year Duration El Arte de Vivir The Art of Living 1975–1976 100 min Hacia las Regiones del Sol (Trilogía) Toward the Regions of the Sun (Trilogy) 1976–1977 240 min El Mundo Estelar The Starry World 1977–1978 80 min Indicios de Inmortalidad Intimations of Immortality 1977 80 min

Second period (1989–1993)

The second period marks Farjat's turn toward the documentary genre, incorporating historical and testimonial content into the montage methods developed in the first period. While rooted in first-person historical narrative, these works retain a significant proportion — often half or more of their total running time — of the music-and-image style of the earlier works. Beginning with Memorias del Hospital de Inmigrantes, the works operate across three distinct levels: the documentary level (historical-testimonial context), the formal level (purely aesthetic concerns), and a third, philosophically inflected level elaborated in Farjat's literary essays.

Title English title Year Duration Los Antiguos Hoteles de Inmigrantes The Old Immigrants' Hotels 1989 33 min Memorias del Hospital de Inmigrantes Memories of the Immigrants' Hospital 1990 90 min Las Edades en el Viento Ages in the Wind 1991 30 min El Sendero de las Luces (Historia de Liebig) Path of Lights (History of Liebig) 1991 60 min Memorias de la Colonia San José Memories from the San José Colony 1993 45 min El Enigma de las Grandes Voces The Enigma of the Great Voices 1991–1993 90 min

Third period (1993–1998)

The third period represents a pivotal aesthetic shift, producing a new framework of montage that required Farjat to develop the principles set forth in Audiovisualogía at considerably greater depth. The six years of this cycle produced a new body of works collected under the title La Exhalación de la Tierra (The Exhalation of the Earth), comprising fourteen works. Several function as metaphorical expressions of Carpenter's thought: Preludio (Prelude) addresses degrees of consciousness, while El Encuentro de la Luz (The Encounter with Light) engages with Carpenter's chapter on the creation and materialization of forms in The Drama of Love and Death (London, 1912). The works of this period are developed primarily in the music-and-image style of the first period, though with a strong documentary dimension. The period concludes in 1998 with La Creación: Historia de Svea (The Creation: History of Svea), which integrates fourteen intrinsic and extrinsic narrative formats of montage into a progressively articulated structure.

Title English title La Exhalación de la Tierra (series) The Exhalation of the Earth (series) El Gran Hogar The Great Home La Cuesta Morada The Purple Slope Hornos de las Bajas Luces I y II Low Light Furnaces I and II La Común Unión The Common Union El Son de Badajo The Melody of the Clapper Hornos en Lejanos Ponientes Furnaces in Distant Dusks Luces en la Cresta Lights at the Summit El Llamado en el Camino The Call along the Road Las Líneas y las Sombras The Lines and the Shadows El Encuentro de la Luz The Encounter with Light Evocaciones a la Vera de los Senderos Evocations along the Edge of the Trails El Eterno Anhelo The Infinite Yearning Preludio Farjat Prelude Largo Final Long Finale La Creación (Historia de Svea) The Creation (History of Svea)

Fourth period (1999–2007)

Through the illustrated literary essay Migraciones y Supervivencia (Migrations and Survival: Main Excerpts), Farjat brought together the full range of philosophical principles informing his audiovisual work. He continued during this period to produce works for the La Exhalación de la Tierra series. Three works from this period were digitally remastered between 2013 and 2014:

Title English title Duration Digital version La Exhalación de la Tierra: Preludio The Exhalation of the Earth: Prelude 49 min 2013 El Encuentro de la Luz The Encounter with Light 40 min 2014 El Eterno Anhelo The Infinite Yearning 38 min 2014

Fifth period (2007–2014)

The fifth period opens with Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual (Solar of Audiovisual Art and Memory), a documentary work accompanied by a literary essay of the same name, reflecting on the architectural project Farjat designed and built according to the same aesthetic and philosophical principles that govern his audiovisual output. The Solar subsequently became a museum and library. This period is defined in part by the transition to digital media, including the conversion and reprography of works from earlier periods to high-definition formats. New works adopted the 16:9 aspect ratio alongside the classical 4:3. The period concludes with Autumn Song (Light and Color Steeped of Yellow) (2014) and the digital remastering of El Eterno Anhelo.

Title English title Year Duration Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual Solar of Audiovisual Art and Memory 2007 30 min Luz del Azul Light from the Blue 2011 14 min Una Voz sobre la Tierra (Parts 1 & 2) A Voice over the Earth (Parts 1 & 2) 2013 100 min Life Steeped by Shades of Red — 2013–2014 41 min Autumn Song (Light and Color Steeped of Yellow) — 2014 23 min

Sixth period (2015– )

The sixth period is marked by a significant shift in Farjat's approach to extrinsic montage. He moved away from what he terms the "extrinsic association point due to the lap dissolve understood as free will" toward a new formal precision elaborated in his concurrent theoretical writings. The period opens with several works derived from documentary material captured the previous year and concludes the trilogy Una Voz sobre la Tierra with its third part. In July 2015, Farjat published El audiovisual y las artes, proposing an aesthetic hierarchy of the arts grounded in aesthetic psychology. The period's theoretical capstone is Los niveles de la experiencia estética: sinopsis y antología de los principios de la teoría (2016).

Title English title Year Duration El Jardín Secreto: Lo Imperceptible en Invierno The Secret Garden: The Imperceptible in Winter 2015 20 min The Great Dawn — 2015 14 min Una Voz sobre la Tierra (Part 3) A Voice over the Earth (Part 3) 2015 32 min Spring Music — 2015 27 min

Technical formats

All works are available on Full HD digital support (1080p) in the 16:9 aspect ratio and are in the process of conversion to 4K resolution. Works originally produced on 35 mm color reversal film (First through Fourth periods) have been digitalized and remastered accordingly.

Literary works

Collaborative works with Graciela Swiderski

La Inmigración (The Immigration). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 1999. La Inmigración: Historia Ilustrada y Memoria Audiovisual / Los Antiguos Hoteles de Inmigrantes (The Immigration: Illustrated History and Audiovisual Memory / The Old Immigrants' Hotels). Buenos Aires, 2nd ed. 2001. Los Antiguos Hoteles de Inmigrantes (The Old Immigrants' Hotels). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2000. Los Viajes y Arribos (Voyages and Arrivals). Buenos Aires, 2nd ed. 2003.

Individual works

Audiovisualogía: El audiovisual como arte y medio de comunicación (Audiovisualogy: The Audiovisual as Art and Means of Communication). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 1979. Obra Audiovisual: Selección Iconográfica (Audiovisual Work: Iconographic Selection). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2002. Citas y Testimonios: El Audiovisual como Arte. Identificación de Obras (Quotations and Testimonials: The Audiovisual as Art. Identification of Works). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2002. Migraciones y Supervivencia: Principales Extractos (Migrations and Survival: Main Excerpts). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2002. Obras Varias (one volume, including Obra Audiovisual, Migraciones y Supervivencia, and Citas y Testimonios). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2003. Teoría Audiovisual (Audiovisual Theory). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2004, 2nd ed. Teoría y Obra Audiovisual (Audiovisual Work and Theory). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2004. Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual (Solar of Audiovisual Art and Memory). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2008. La crisis y deshumanización del arte en el siglo XX: su manifestación en la música (The Crisis and Dehumanization of Art in the 20th Century: Its Representation in Music). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2011, 2nd ed. 2015. El Audiovisual y las Artes (The Audiovisual Theme and the Arts). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2015. . Declared of cultural interest by the Buenos Aires Province Government. Res. 22. La música en la crisis y deshumanización del arte contemporáneo (Music in the Crisis and Dehumanization of Contemporary Art). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2015. . Declared of cultural interest by the Buenos Aires Province Government. Res. 22. El Arte Audiovisual: fotografías proyectadas unidas al sonido. Antología de principios estéticos y antecedentes históricos (The Audiovisual Art: Photographs Projected Together with Sound. Anthology of Aesthetic Principles and Historical Background). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2015. . Declared of cultural interest by the Buenos Aires Province Government. Res. 22. 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 Theory's Principles). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2016. Obra Audiovisual: Selección Iconográfica. Períodos 2007–2016 (Audiovisual Work: Iconographic Selection, Periods 2007–2016). Buenos Aires, 1st ed. 2016.

Other published works

Migraciones: Más de una década de difusión histórico documental. Brochure for the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones [Argentine Immigration Office], Ministry of the Interior. 1987–1999.

Other activities

Dirección Nacional de Migraciones

Between 1989 and 2001, Farjat developed a program of historical and testimonial dissemination of the migratory experience at the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (Argentine Immigration Office). Between 1990 and 1992, he organized and directed the institution's museum, serving as coordinator of the commission responsible for collecting related objects and documents (Resolution DNM 3753).

Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual

The Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual was designed and built by Farjat as a material expression of the philosophical concepts underlying his audiovisual and literary work. Its architecture integrates the built environment with the surrounding natural landscape — both fauna and flora — drawing on elements from several classical architectural traditions to form an eclectic style. The Solar serves as a museum, library, and research center.

Asociación Arte y Memoria Audiovisual

In 2007, Farjat established the Asociación Arte y Memoria Audiovisual, an organization whose purposes include the promotion of audiovisual art as both an artistic form and a means of communication, its use as a didactic and sociocultural inquiry instrument, theoretical research into the genre, and the preservation of the Solar de Arte y Memoria Audiovisual. These activities were declared of cultural interest by the Government of the Province of Buenos Aires (Resolution No. 177/07).