Pedro Blumenfeld (aka melon_manga) is an audiovisual producer and video artist born in Argentina on May 20, 1998. He specializes in analog video processes, focusing his work on video art, video installations, live visuals, and creative direction. He explores textures, synesthesia, and abstraction, and as a graduate in Social Communication Sciences (UBA), he focuses his academic work on the relationship between human and technology through analog video.
Coming from the music world—having studied guitar since the age of 9 and worked as a composer, producer, singer, and guitarist in various projects—he incorporates his musical perspective into the way he creates visuals. Much of the musical can be found in his work, weaving a reversible path between the audio and video universes.
The Human Is the First Screen
The Human Is the First Screen is a space where multiple TV art installations engage in dialogue, combining critical communication concepts and video art.
It is a work influenced by the idea of the human being as an interface of meaning—a device that configures, distorts, and reproduces reality. The relationship between humans and technology, and the mediated production of discourses, subjects, and artworks, constitute the core of the exhibition’s inquiry.
How does the technical device influence the consumption of an artistic piece? How are subjects formed through the visual imaginary of the screen? What is the relationship between the medium and its sender? Is there a distortion in the discourse generated by the channel of expression itself?
“My stories are my work,” “Counterattack,” “Mirror Screen,” and “Digital Greenhouse” are some of the pieces included in the show, representing Argentine video art with a New Wave gaze that is both critical and emancipatory. The exhibition is accompanied by the artist’s personal work in various digital formats, recovering the pop art atmosphere that characterizes his collaborations with different artists on the scene. This includes his career as a VJ and director for multiple musical projects such as Neo Pistea, Doppelgangs, Marilina Bertoldi, and many more.
Pedro Blumenfeld, aka melon_manga, questions the space of his work—similar to Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci—creating an atmosphere of existential questioning and artistic exploration. Inspired by Nam June Paik, he reveals the radical nature of performance and the critique of the artist’s position in relation to screens. His work, which blends glitch art and pop art, invites the viewer to reflect on their place within a mediatized system, adopting a critical stance toward the construction of subjects, artworks, and virtual discourses.
This installation is not only a visual and conceptual exploration but also an invitation to intellectual emancipation, reminding us that vitality and creativity belong to the human being—not to the devices they use.
