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15
Hello Rodrigo and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
Hi, it is such a pleasure to do this interview.
I like to describe myself as a rationalizer, it describes me really well not only me as a human but also as an artist. As you said, we are currently experiencing unstable and dynamically changing times, I personally do not depict it as a negative thing because that sort of instability and dynamism generates an energy that not only connects us human beings but also motivates us to improve as individuals and artists. And to rationalize all this change, energy and instability, it’s a really hard task that will keep you busy for a lifetime, and to be honest I like to be busy. Answering your other question, yes it obviously helps to form my aesthetics. Cinema, more particularly Stanley Kubrick’s work, is the main visual influence in my aesthetics; from my point of view, they create a contrast with my surroundings, almost as if it absorbed all of the energy around me and concentrated it into the binary colours of black and white.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
My immediate family has always been extremely supportive towards me; they have always encouraged me to pursue my studies in the field of visual arts and to become an artist. Although, I would be lying if I said that “I’ve always wanted to be an artist” – in pre-school I was actually the kid who took the longest to learn how to draw. As a child I was quite introverted and shy. So I created the habit of overthinking things; whatever pops into my mind, no matter how small of a thought, I analyse it over and over again, until there’s nothing left to understand or expand. I think this is how I began to develop my conceptualism. I started to develop my love for film in high-school. One of my friends used to host movie sessions at his house – here I was introduced to Kubrick, Scorcese, Tarantino, Tarkovsky, and many other filmmakers who would significantly influence my work. This was also around the time when I started creating my own “movies,” eventually motivating me to buy my first DSLR and begin experimenting with photography and video editing. Towards the end of my high-school education I had settled on becoming an architect or graphic designer, but instead ended up taking a more all-encompassing visual arts degree, and I do not regret it at all! I am still coming to terms with how big the art world really is – at the beginning it was quite overwhelming, but thinking of all of the possibilities ahead of me is actually one of my biggest incentives.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual culture?
Personally, I find it very hard to pinpoint any one single piece, however, Nam June Paik’s 1993 Untitled (Piano) and Gary Hill’s 1977 Electronic Linguistic have massively influenced my artistic identity and art making practices. Not only are those two artists some of my biggest references, but those two specific pieces have helped me view my work in a completely different manner; they helped me find my personal artistic discourse and aesthetics. Although Nam June Paik has heavily influenced the way I install my works, Electronic Linguistic really helped me better my understanding of communication through moving image, even if said communication is achieved through an abstract visual image. I also consider myself quite a perfectionist in the sense that I strongly believe that every frame counts. Though the whole is more than just a sum of its parts, I try to be as meticulous as possible when deciding what to shoot and how to shoot it – that care must be taken in order to enhance the viewing experience of my pieces. Another similarity between these two pieces is their ability to create and depict a symbiotic relationship between art and technology. A lot of my work is also based on this function, which is why implementing technologic elements into it is such a key part of my creative process.
Many of your works carry a sensual message, “both a reflection of yourself and an analysis on how your surroundings may ultimately impact the art itself.”. Since you transform your (sub)consciousness into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
I have been developing my visual imagery since I began studying art and film - from conceptual thinking, composition, using light and colour in different ways, through all the different techniques I've utilised over the years in my work and in my collaborations with stage artists such as dancers, musicians and actors. My approach is always developing through exploring these things. Visual imagery in essence is your way of experiencing what you see and transforming it. This is my world that I want to share and express through my art. The body consciousness, embodied emotions and the image of body and personal identity is part of this visual imagery, the emotional essence in my practice. Always present and always developing in different themes and projects.
Marina Abramovic stated: You see, what is my purpose of performance artist is to stage certain difficulties and stage the fear the primordial fear of pain, of dying, all of
which we have in our lives, and then stage them in front of audience and go through them and tell the audience, 'I'm your mirror; if I can do this in my life, you can do it in yours.'Can you relate anyhow to these words?
de-identify myself, by losing my roots, my culture, I would be very happy. Unfortunately the human being does'nt choose the place where he is born. He grows up in a society that automatically identifies, through education, culture, family... More than ever I think it's more important to go on a way of self-knowledge with the aim to meet “the other”.. This other without which we can not exist. It's the same for the artist. It is more important for me to be focused on my practice than to try to define it according to esthetic criteria of identification. It's probably the reason i like to remember the painter Matisse who said or wrote that an artist must never be prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation.
Would you like to tell us something about your background? Could you talk a little about experiences that has influence the way you currently relate yourself to your artworks?
All my way is influenced by encounterings.
It began by the meeting with my professor of literature at school. More than giving French or Literature classes, she brought us to discover texts, movies, plays, visual artworks and to think about on what we saw or read.. Thanks to her that I met Pierre Vincke, a theatredirector who was worjink in the tradition of Grotowski ... Both of them have led me to go to theater school. In this school I had meetings. Meetings with artists but also and especially human beings that made me discover. I always need o discover rather than to master a practice. It's probably the reason my encounter with Monica Klingler and Boris Nieslony was decisive for me and led me on the path of Performance Art which is a form still difficult to define. Each performance artist has a different definition of what it is...
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about race and ethnic identity in visual culture?
No I don't have a specific artwork that has influenced my artistic practise but many.
I'm influenced by some philsophers as well as poets or musicians or dancers or visual artists but also by some places or landscapes or atmospheres ... For some years, I was used for example to go to India where I was used to follow some traditionnal muscians or to learn bharatanatyam and practice vipassana meditation... Of course this experience has impacted my art work.... This brought me to think and work differently... My experience in India brought me to discover traditionnal strong art and paradoxally to the way of Performance Art. But there I see one common point: to make no separation between art and life and to be here and now, without projection on the future.
It's difficult for me to speak about race and ethnic identity. But I can say that today we miss more and more this notion of “to be here and now” which is more present in some cultures ... By practising Performance Art, it's my way to be connected to this way of thinking. And even in this field actually it's more and more difficult. The society and the art world brings us more and more to plan in advance, to define our work, more than to do. Just to do. To do what we deeply need.
And of course, my encountering with Black Market International and later the notion of Open Source or Open session via PAErsche have also a big impact on my work. When we go on that, each of us perform by sharing time and space but without trying to convince each other on some common way. This is for me a wonderfull way how we can meet each other, regardless of our origin, our race or our “identity”...
Many of your works carry an autobiographical message. Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
My memory is clearly a starting point to create. I don't have any autobiographical message. I use my personnal experience ( what I feel , what I see, what I learn, what I ear...) to work. It's a motor or a material. I'm not able to paint, so I can't do something with red or white or yellow or black colors. All I have is life, a body alive. And I need to do something with that...
My sensation about life sometimes is too intense then I need to transform this intensity in some action. Some artistic action... If people can take something from this action this is great... but I don't want to give them “a specific message” or to control the translation of my experience.