Francisco Infante-Arana

Born to a Spanish father and a Russian mother, Francisco Infante—after completing secondary art school at the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow at age 14—enrolled in the Stroganov State Institute of Arts and Industry in the same city, where he studied until 1966. During his early years, he already evinced a particular interest in geometric and constructive art as reflected, for example, in the works of Naum Gabo (1890–1977), Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935), Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953), Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), and Nicolas Schöffer (1912–1992). In 1964, together with Vladimir Akulinin (b. 1943), Lev Nussberg (b. 1937), and other colleagues all drawn to Western kinetic art, Infante cofounded the group Dvizhenie [Movement]. Three years later, the group contributed to the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy in Moscow by assembling a kinetic object called Galaxy, the first of its kind in the Soviet Union.

During the 1960s–90s, Infante was a prominent figure in the nonconformist movement, his art being at loggerheads with Soviet socialist realism and his aesthetic stance being one of independence. However, what Infante would first formulate in 1977 as the Artefakt [Artifact] did attract a select public audience, especially scientists and engineers, and, occasionally, his prototypes were presented in “alternative spaces” such as the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow (1966). In 1970, Infante and his wife, the artist Nonna Goriunova (b. 1944), left Dvizhenie and, together with engineer Valerii Osipov, created ARGO (Authors Working Group) with the aim of designing artificial systems analogous to natural phenomena, culminating in the construction of a kinetic environment entitled Zvuk i tsvet [Sound and Light] for the Chemistry-70 exhibition in Moscow. Two years later, Infante built another kinetic installation for the exhibition Communications-1975 in Moscow's Sokolniki Park. Infante and Goriunova have also worked on Artifacts in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Qatar, the USA, and many other countries, often fulfilling commissions and showing their works at both public museums and private galleries.

The Artifacts are made of aluminum, plastic, tinfoil, string, and other elements, sometimes recalling the geometric tradition of the Russian avant-garde, in particular the work of Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin. A fundamental intention here is to superimpose the artificial onto the natural as, for example, in the Spiral series (1965), in which the continuous impulse of the spiral oscillates to the rhythm of the horizontal and the vertical. As Infante has explained: “The entire everlasting and well-defined visible ‘body’ of the spiral, whatever its location and independently of the point of observation, e.g., the artist’s own viewpoint, can turn into a point of absolute meaning, tantamount to a ‘moment of truth.’”[1] But the Artifacts also rely upon an essentially theatrical strategy, with Infante and Goriunova often “decorating” their environments with patterns, colors, and unexpected backgrounds that recalibrate the fields, forests, and horizons behind the structures. The Artifacts also suggest that the space between the installation and the background could be the virtual, if not authentic, reflection of “reality”: on the one hand, the Artifacts attract by their mellifluous rhythms, but on the other, they may also disenchant by implying that the invisible made visible could be nothing but a reflection or a shadow. To create the Artifacts, Infante inserts artistic interventions into the natural environment, photographs them, and then dismantles the material elements, meaning that only the photographic print itself survives as the work of art.

Over time, the Artifacts have tended to become less material, evocative of a reality suspended between the physical and the spiritual. If initially they tended to be temporary installations associated with land, water, and sky (trees wrapped in tinfoil, structures vying with snow, artificial rainbows curving against the sky), later on, they accentuated the issue of ambivalence or, rather, the interaction between artificial “perfection” and the perfection of natural forms.

On this level, the Artifacts might create the impression of a rude affront to nature or of a hindrance to its wholeness, but such is not the case. The fact that the photographs are after the fact—i.e., they are the visual records of the original, material, three-dimensional Artifacts, designed, constructed en plein air, recorded, and then demolished—offers immediate solace. In effect, Infante leaves nature intact, unadulterated and untouched by human hand—and in this anarchic nullification, in this literal iconoclasm, lies the genius of his art.

Infante and Goriunova often gravitate to the concept of a grid or net or to checkerboard sequences, suggesting a movement from positive to negative, from “here” to “there,” and affirming that our everyday life may be but a pale shadow compared to the immense and unfathomable universe beyond. Infante and Goriunova often build a hyperbola out of, for example, the dynamic form of ductile spirals generating elasticity, gyration, and undulation. In this case, the hyperbola, essentially a symmetrical spiral curve obtained by the intersection of the cone with a plane, may also be perceived as a metaphor for infinity.

Indeed, the hyperbola is a fundamental element in Infante’s artistic vocabulary: even the early projects such as Necklace (a necklace of lights intended to surround the earth) (1960s) often contain allusions to the hyperbola. Confronted with chaos and entropy, the spectator will also look back—not without anxiety—to the world of reason and sobriety. Consequently, Infante and Goriunova seem to be proposing that the Artifact can be seen both as a reaffirmation of the here and now and as a bridge to the celestial spheres, yet also as an autonomous work of art, free from any prerogative.

In 1996, Infante received the State Prize of the Russian Federation for his achievements in the field of visual arts. Since then, he has continued to develop the notion of the Artifact, creating new installations and writing theoretical treatises in which he often touches upon the philosophical notions of eternity, spatiality, divine power, and reflection. Infante has participated in numerous exhibitions in Russia and abroad, most recently with the cycles of Artifacts entitled Towards Night (2020), Chain Reaction (2023), Celestial Artifacts (2024), Portals (2024), and Intervals (2024). Parallel to focused exhibitions at the Krokin Gallery in Moscow, during 2023–24, the GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow presented a group of Infante’s installations (together with works by Platon), and during 2024–25, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow organized a panoramic retrospective exhibition of his work.

Infante and Goriunova are the subject of numerous publications, the latest major monograph being Infante’s own second Auto-Al’bom: Prodolzhenie (iskusstvo i sem’ia) [Auto-Album: A Continuation (Art and family)] from Iskusstvo XXI vek, Moscow (2024). Their works are housed in major public and private collections worldwide, from the Centre Pompidou in Paris to the Museum of Modern Art in Doha, from MOMus in Thessaloniki to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Their two sons, Platon and Pakhito, are also both prominent artists, working predominantly with electronic media. 

Nicoletta Misler and John E. Bowlt

Photo portrait: Francisco Infante at the shooting of Artefacts, Vorobyevy gory, Moscow. Courtesy of the artist

Notes:

1.  F. Infante: Auto-al’bom, Moscow: Iskusstvo XXI vek, 2013, p. 54.