Dennis Oppenheim was born in 1938. Tony Oursler was born in 1957. An interval in time-18 years is the difference between them-makes us think that it is possible to compare their practices, if we take into consideration the feared and repudiated globalization process. This is the context in which their oeuvre can be read: they are both Americans, live in New York, and the central issue of their activities is the opposition between being and the consumerism of our time.

Without doubt, in the gap of time that might establish the distance between their lives, they approach each other, creating a syncretism of meaning in their actions, where the density and intensity of their art derives from a process of contamination and resistance: on the one hand they absorb the hybrid culture resulting from urban growth-the procedures imposed by the mass media, the speed with which the culture industry builds up and reclaims the simultaneous contact between transmitters and receivers and the society of spectacle-on the other hand, they resist while developing an artistic practice that incorporates contemporary popular culture, the modern tradition, and social-political elements.

It is curious to observe that although they do not know each other, their approach to art also brings them together: they both place the viewer in a dreamlike atmosphere, where sensory perception is responsible for generating the meanings and the symbolic dimension of their art. Metaphor, deconstruction of linear thought, theatricality, rituals and magic are part of the production of both artists.

It is obvious that the gap in time aforementioned determines different obstacles with regard to their artistic production. Dennis Oppenheim comes from the minimal art of the '60s, and the attack on the purist and formalist art of the '70s became the genesis of his predicament. As his performances developed, minimalism was no longer his basic approach, and the artistic production itself became the central issue of his discourse.

As an artist of the '80s, Tony Oursler is critical and ironic about the pop art of the '60s, as well as TV syntax and mass media.

In the sculptures by Oppenheim, or in the video installations of Oursler, the use of a substitute, the dummy, constitutes the metaphor. In Oppenheim藄 Attempt to raise hell, a dummy in a sitting position is hit on the head by a bell. The sound of the bell, which is activated by magnets every 60 seconds, crosses the installation room reverberating in the space and in the brain. It is as if the artist, not being able to pass through a solid object is banging his head against it, producing noises. Is important to note that the dummy is a reproduction of the artist, and this self-reference can be understood as an act of self-cannibalization, almost a penitence, a tortured self-appropriation that evokes reason and the means of producing art. Simulated action, symbolic acting. This nonsense, this brushing with the absurd reveals the tragicomic in Oppenheim藄 oeuvre and surprises the viewer by its impact.

A similar attitude can be perceived in Oursler藄 production. If artistic creation穉 common question for the artist of the �s and �s穒s stressed in Oppenheim藄 discourse, in Oursler this question is not central. It is the investigation of different media that defines his production: TV syntax combined with theater, the work of the actor and the use of dummies to generate metaphors. The use of words completes each of Oursler藄 works. But the nonsense and the absurd are revealed in the way the sound is used: the meaning of the words is deconstructed through the use of metonymy.

The installation System for dramatic feedback, 1994, exemplifies the general tone of Oursler藄 work: reflection is closely linked to the analysis and interpretation of the content, and the surrealist aspects, allegory and symbolism are elements connected to unusual and unpredictable situations, where the duration of time and repetition are basic components of a way of working that proposes the reinvention of figurative art while relying on appropriation, on narrative structure and metaphysics穋reating a religious meaning, adding a mystic tone to the work. Of Catholic upbringing, he criticizes the paths of the church, but at the same time "the artist recognizes that through it, he acquired a mystic side that opposes the techno-materialism of our time."¹

With Dennis Oppenheim, mysticism is determined by an existential concern. Since the death of his father in the early �s, the artist became interested in shamanism and magic. Using surrealism as a tool of self-reference, he began performing experiments that recall passed events, extracting important psychotherapeutic aspects. This occurs through the appropriation of drawings of his own children, in recognition of the importance of archetypes. The allegorical character of his works has a symbolic content where the apparent narrative and irony are fictions that refer to his own being. His oeuvre engenders consciousness and is autobiographical, establishing the metaphor of his beliefs and faith.