Biography of David Lamelas
David Lamelas (born 1946 in Buenos Aires, AR) is an Argentinian photographer, filmmaker, sculptor, and conceptual artist. Together with artists like Dan Flavin or Fred Sandback, he can be accounted as one of the pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s Minimalist art movement, abandoning traditional definitions of sculpture. Well taught in film and television techniques, Lamelas creates structural installation projects using news footage and plain information as content.
His most famous piece is called Office of Information about the Vietnam War at Three Levels: The Visual Image, Text, and Audio (1968), with which he managed to bring real-time information into the gallery space. Lamelas produces works that deal with art's capacity as a means of communication as well as a ground for establishing self-awareness. Simultaneously expressing critique and humor, Lamelas is also interested in demonstrations of stardom and celebrity culture – a prominent example being his work Rock Star (character appropriation) (1974), a series of self-portraits. He produced several multiples, including Conflict of Meaning (Film Script) (1972/2008, edition of 21 + 3 A.P.) or A Fiction (1975), which is a set of 8 color film stills (edition of 3 + 1 A.P.). Lamelas lives and works in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Paris.