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“ The world around me ”

Artist Statement

This exhibition intends to show my true passions, what makes me tick,take a deep breath, make a stop and feel alive. Horses, boats, flowers,landscapes, people, or whatever speaks to me, even if it is just a group of chairs scattered in a park, but with a strong presence and where the absence makes a statement. I look at “the world around me”, and a new level of consciousness emerges.In this process, I intend to reveal and share aspects of my daily routine,which depict fragments of my history, projecting a universal language. I love to work with the dynamics presented by opposites, photographing the same landscapes over and over through the different seasons, under a different light, and documenting its transformation and rebirth. I hope to invite the viewer into my space and dimension, filled with poetry.Skies, water, earth, the grand creation of nature that connects me to our environment and roots. A reminder that respect is vital, and I should allow it to have a deep impact in my life, making it worth living, no matter where in the world I find myself. This body of work is in progress and constant transformation.

Teresa

​Teresa Caro Ottens, also known artistically as MATECA, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, and spent a year in Florence, Italy, dedicated to the study of Art History, Drawing and Painting. Toronto is her home and she regularly visits her native Argentina, always committed to continually building cultural bridges between the two countries.

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As a painter, sculptress, photographer, music producer and impresario, she has worked in many design and arts related events, organizing and curating different Latin American Art Exhibits for organizations in Toronto, starting with the CCEI, the Cultural Celebration of Spanish as a language, the Colombian travelling exhibition of the United Nations in Canada. She has also presented shows at the Harbourfront Centre, produced the Cono Sur project which now resides in the City Hall archives, and was a part of the ‘What did you bring’ exhibition and the collective at the Hittite Gallery in 2018. She has presented her work internationally, and in Buenos Aires she has exhibited at the Centro Cultural San Martin and Casa de San Luis amongst other venues. 

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As an advocate and activist of Heritage and Multiculturalism, she founded the International Women’s Association of Toronto 30 years ago, which is a group that includes women of approximately 30 nationalities that holds yearly programs honouring and reflecting the city we live in, Toronto. Events run from September through June, since 1988.

 

As an event and community catalyst, Teresa frequently gives workshops on how to use art as therapy and how to work in art collectively as a community. She's always teaching the pride we must have regarding our own roots while adopting new cultures, and as a consequence becoming a part of many worlds, creating new spaces, allowing growth and opening the road for future generations. 

Mateca Productions Inc.

Mateca Productions Inc.In 1987 she founded Mateca Productions Inc., through which she has presented Latin American musicians in Canada, worked with celebrities and iconographic figures such as Mercedes Sosa, presented at Roy Thomson Hall, NG La Banda, Mayra Caridad Valdes, Harbourfront Centre which included a cross Canada tour, presented Adrian Iaies, the director of the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival at Isabel Bader Theatre, Victoria College, as well as worked in cooperation with a number of Festivals across Canada. 

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One of the highlights of her career was the production and direction of the Mateca Arts Festival at the University of Toronto, emphasizing the presentation of works in art, science and technology. A multi-arts festival hosted in 2014, it included visual artists, performances and musicians with representatives from universities in both Argentina and Canada participating. The festival was “Diversity” in every every possible art form, and the focal theme was “The Earth”, Women from Six Nations Canada received in ceremony Mapuche musicians from South America.  

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This past year Teresa was the recipient of the Ontario Service (Volunteers) Award 2018, for her work with the Broad Reach Foundation, an organization that teaches leadership to youth from marginal communities (ages 12- 24), through the mastery of sailing.

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Mateca rediscovered her love and passion for “Tango” after leaving her native Argentina in the early 70s. The deep sense of rootlessness drew her closer to deepen her knowledge about an important part of her heritage. In 2000/2001 she was featured in the book “Canada at the Millenium, A Transcultural Society, a book about the contributors to  Canadian Heritage, Heirloom Publishing Inc., volume 7.

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Mateca was the producer/organizer of the trip to the Power Plant Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires, organizing a back to back agenda for the Museum and its Patrons to visit the best visual artists, universities, private and public collections, and they were able to interact with institutions and highly influential international curators, 2015. For over 10 years she was also the organizer of trips to Cuba, which featured special cultural events in all disciplines of the arts, while also presenting Cuban musicians to mainstream Canada.

Artist Statement

Artist Statement​For the past 20 years my work reveals aspects of my history, with views of social, political and cultural issues. It goes back to my roots which have had a deep impact in the culture that surrounds me today. This includes living and working in different continents. Migration is also an important part of the subject matter.

 

  1. ”De Norte a Sur" and "De Sur a Norte", is a work in progress. After accomplishing approximately 50 drawings and paintings, I am now in the process of developing the next step of the project. 

 

  1. A "Video Collage”, depicting a mix of abstract imagery of Tango dancers in different landscapes that include Canadian content. It documents how Tango has travelled through the American Continent and the rest of the world, transforming and evolving itself with many cultural elements, leaving a mark on its way. This is a constant work in progress. 

 

  1. The final proposal includes a set of sculpture installations. 

 

The presentation of the paintings and drawings is a fragment of other inventions, and I like to think that I am inviting the viewer into this space and dimension filled with poetry and seduction. 

 

Art is the perfect instrument to share ideas that have survived all politics, and remain an endless source of inspiration.

 

At times, I also like to intervene past works updating feelings and perception. Tango is about migration and transformative learning experiences; through its path it took cells and elements from Europe, Caribbean, African and North American cultures and recycled it as a new art form and composition. Tango is diversity and multicultural.

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