On Saturday 30 November, the exhibition I am the son of the river by international artist Yo-Yo Gonthier opens at Proa21. In collaboration with the French Institute in Argentina and the Medifé Foundation, on the same day at 5pm Gonthier presents a performance work La nube que hablaba, an eight-metre embroidered aerostat that since 2011 has travelled the world collecting the stories of the various communities that collaborate with Gonthier in his intervention. In each activation, this collective performance is recorded in documentary, photographic and film essays made by the artist in collaboration with other colleagues.

Born in Niamey, Niger, Gonthier lives and works in Daumazan-sur-Arize, in the French Pyrenees. His artistic production draws on music, film, drawing, engraving, photography and performance to explore themes such as colonisation, memory and the role of the artist in society.

The exhibition Soy el hijo del río (I am the son of the river) proposes a journey through the genesis of La nube que hablaba (The cloud that spoke). From 30 November to 5 January, the public will be able to approach the different activations of the performance through a series of visual documents that bear witness to the singularity of the interventions, showing how the work dialogues with each space, each cultural context and the different reactions of the public that has witnessed this creative experience.

In an exclusive act for the opening, Yo-Yo Gonthier presents this piece for the first time in Buenos Aires accompanied by a group of local artists who participate in the preparation and execution of the performance: Sebastián Baez, Paula Casalderrey, Javier Ferrante, Pedro Montes de Oca, Yhomara Muñoz and Juan Carlos Urrutia.

La nube que hablaba allows us to experience a fundamental part of the artist's practice and invites the audience to become part of the action. The cloud intervened in Buenos Aires departs from the garden of PROA21 to travel through the neighbourhood of La Boca and radically and ephemerally transform its landscape and, with it, the experience of passers-by, witnesses of this new appearance of the work in the public space.

Proa21 is also the space where this group of artists will hold, during the week prior to the opening, a workshop that is a key component of this piece. The creative exchange enriches the work and creates a unique connection between the context that Gonthier brings with him and the contribution of the local artists from each of their backgrounds and experiences.