Felipe Noé

A highly awaited encounter occasioned by the release of a CD, with the purpose of recalling a leader in the Argentine vanguard, Jorge de la Vega.

On Saturday, August 14, Argentine painter and journalist Felipe “Xuxo” Noé came to ProyectArte to preset and promote the re-release of musical works belonging to his close friend and colleague, the self-taught artist Jorge de le Vega.

De la Vega, an iconoclastic and original artist who worked in pop and surrealist traditions, had been in the process of producing his second disc when he passed away in 1971. From this project come previously unreleased songs that, together with classics like El Guisitano, were recorded for the first time this year under the direction of the Uruguayan artist Leo Maslíah, in collaboration with Lucía Gatti and Pablo Somma on cello, flute, and voice.

The result is a release that transcends space and time. It has been produced as part of the Rare Scores collection, a project of Epsa Music and the National Library.

During the chat, which took place in our studio, Felipe Noé shared two songs from the disc—“Historias de poetas” (Poets’ Stories) and “Proximidad” (Closeness)—with the nearly 50 ProyectArte students and graduates who had gathered there. In addition, he read a letter that he wrote in 1991 about his friend De la Vega, presenting it as a sort of prologue for the disc. In this way, Xuxo reconstructed the image of a versatile and multidisciplinary Jorge de la Vega. “He had a marvelous sense of poetry, which he expressed through his painting and music,” Noé explained, adding with a smile, “It’s certain that this disc is the best of his, because it preserves his lyrics but sung by good voices.”

Toward the end of the conversation Noé responded to questions that the students had formulated during the event,  bringing this interesting and anticipated encounter to its end.