Mookie Tenembaum

Mookie Tenembaum (born 1955) is an Argentinian conceptual multidiciplinary artist. He is also a lawyer and an inventor.

Tenembaum's work reflects his views on the State, freedom, and ecology. For instance, he placed a ton of ice in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires and named it Placebo. He also caused controversy by publicly projecting on the chest and backs of six half naked ballerinas two video spots one a popular Coca Cola TV ad in which a Polar Bear played with a baby seal and shared a Coke with it while in the opposite one a Polar Bear hunts and blodily devours a baby seal, he named the piece Bearshit.

Biography

He attended Law School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and specialized in Anthropology at Temple University of Philadelphia. As a lawyer, he was also district attorney of the city of Jerusalem. During the 90s he decided that some of his ideas could only be created and developed through art, specially art related to new technologies. Therefore, during the past years, Mookie has concentrated specifically on reflecting on the different problems related to the State by means of creating new-media works, . Currently, Mookie is working on pieces having to do with the different social and ideological problems of the state, developing projects such as "Genesis", which by means of an on-line system which generates "trusts" with the status of juridical persons, it reveals how the State presents "traps" in their formulation and efficiency, which are not easily readable for most citizens. With this type of projects, Mookie makes them visible, strongly criticizing the State apparatus ruling Latin America. Chasing utopian goals, with his projects Mookie proposes social reinvention and, as a consequence, refoundation. His compasses in this goal are George Orwell, J.J. Rousseau, and John Locke's theories, as well as Minarchist ideas. An expert on the Internet and new technologies, Mookie is a member of FiRE (Future in Review) an annual event that gathers one hundred people from all over the world to discuss the likely penetration of the latest technological innovations and their impact on a not so far away future. He also founded United Virtualities, a company of on-line systems, and created over twenty on-line technologies, such as Ooqa Ooqa (Explorer's enhanced native toolbar), Schvitzer (an intelligent text highlighter), and Yachne (a 3D animated messenger).

Recently, his art piece "Paranoia" was awarded the highest prize in 2008 official National Salon of Visual Arts, the most prestigious award in Argentina.

Tenembaum is the father of five children and the eldest son of Baruch Tenembaum

References

• - 21k -Clarin: Un artista colocó una tonelada de hielo en la Plaza de Mayo
• Perfil: Armaron un "cubito" de hielo gigante en Plaza de Mayo
• [1]
• Arte al Dia Internacional: Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales 2008

External links

• Official site of Mookie Tenembaum

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Name	Tenembaum, Mookie
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Date of birth	1955
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