Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New York | Art21 "New York Close Up"

[Hunter College, Tribeca]

[New York Close Up]

[Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Artist]

Well, "Escape from New York" is my childhood
movie.

--I'm not a fool, Plisskin.

--Call me Snake.

New York was kind of, like, the final frontier
of toughness.

--Hey, Snake! When did you get in?

Snake Plisskin is forced to go to New York
City--

with a time-lapse bomb in his body--

to rescue the president and then get out;

but, New York was a prison.

--[VOICE OVER] The rules are simple: Once
you go in, you don't come out.

That kind of, like, really relates to what
I'm living through.

I think Manhattan, it's not a prison now,

it's just become, like, a playground for really
privileged people.

The thing that I'm kind of, like, sad about
New York...

I think, what defines a city is its people
that you know.

I've seen all of my colleagues,

and they're struggling a lot to find studios.

A lot of people are depressed because of the

quantity of space they get for their money
is pretty bad.

The problem is, like,

everybody is committed
to something.

That is kind of why I really admire New York.

A lot of people are really intense.

They're here because they want to do things

and be surrounded with other crazy people.

But, because everybody wants to do that stuff,

they need to be in the studios or working,

so you never kind of, like, socialize with
them.

It's kind of difficult to find them in the
streets--

or to get together--

it's impossible because...

"Oh no, I need to..."

"I'm working..."

"Oh no, I need to do this..."

So, now time and space,

it doesn't, kind of, connect.

I decided I was going to move out.

I was like, "Okay, I'm leaving New York,"

"I should go to Mexico City and try a new
life there."

["Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New
York"]

[Alejandro's apartment, Williamsburg]

Oh no, messy!

I'm not good at making plans.

I always wait until the last minute

because you never know, you know?

It's just, that commitment--

I cannot do it.

That commitment kills me.

But yeah, now I have that one-way ticket to
Mexico City.

When I bought the ticket, I had three weeks
to pack my apartment--

to pack my studio.

Sell things. Bye bye.

But, as soon I was going to arrive to Mexico,

I had to kind of go crazy,

because I had to finish a new set of videos
and photos

for my gallery in Mexico.

And I was like, thinking,

"Well, I just graduated from Hunter,"

"I should do it here."

"And I still have three more weeks."

"A prime spot in New York."

"I have a studio. Come on, just use it."

["Better to have loved and lost than never
to have loved at all" (2014)]

I had an idea of this project.

Just, like, experiment with materials and
objects underwater.

So, I went to Phoenix this summer

because we had access to pools.

My favorite painters were the Dutch
vanitas painting.

It's really attached to my work, in a way,

because they used objects

and they make this kind of relationship with them.

There's always these small details.

"There's a fly there."

It deals with death.

It deals with time passing, you know?

Beauty, decay.

There's no pool.

I asked people around.

"Do you know somebody with a pool? Jacuzzi?
Whatever?"

And, yeah, definitely not.

--Okay, let's do this!

I say, "Okay, how difficult would it be to
make a tank?"

So I look on the Internet,

and people do, like, plywood aquariums.

They make a sturdy, really nice box.

You can fill it with water.

I hope that one is going to be okay.

It has a bunch of silicone and...

you know, we'll see.

--Alright!

I filled it with water.

I was afraid that just, like,

one ton of water was going through my studio
like The Shining.

--God, we have a leak here!

Whatever, you know?

It's going to be a leaking tank.

And we'll have a river here,

and shooting...

it's going to be wet.

It seems...

the time limitations by now,

and the technical issues, I've been having
so much...

I think I have like,

"Okay, Alejandro, just focus on some, really,"

"Three, two objects. Let's create something
with a minimum."

I have to say, I'm really excited about that.

--So big! Goddamn it!

--Can I have one pound?

--How much is this?

--$3.50.

--Oh yeah. Ah, why not.

I've got some eggplant...phallic.

Eggplants, bananas, cherries...

I think the cherries don't float.

Chinatown in my favorite place in New York
City.

It's one of the most untouched places.

With attitude.

If you want to buy one nail, you can buy one
nail, you know?

Not in this corporate...

Chinatown feels like more downtown Mexico City.

They're breaking so many rules--

like, urban rules of New York City.

It's messy. It's hectic.

It's how, like, a city should be.

I had a tank--a fish tank--when I was a teenager,

and I loved that stuff.

I loved how things behaved underwater.

I've always been, kind of, interested in

boats, submarines,

Jacques Cousteau.

Here, on the surface, everything is just,
like, stays put--

the gravity.

In the water, you can use those, kind of...

those levitations to kind of create different
sculptures, in a way.

It's pretty spectacular.

Here, it's getting kind of boring;

sculpture is so grounded, like a monument.

So I wanted sculpture like this, kind of floats around.

It's going to levitate.

--Moving day.

I have to say that I think everybody in the
world

should live in New York at least one or two
years,

to just, kind of, make sense.

--Alright, I think I'm more or less ready.

But, it's not the only lifestyle you can have.

It's not the only way of doing things.

--It's not so bad.

--[LAUGHS] Yeah!

--Yeah.

--Goddamn it, the keys...alright.

I never, kind of, think about the future.

I don't put plans on that, you know?

So, it's always transition for me.

Going to Mexico right now, it's in a bad situation.

A political crisis

A lot of crime.

It's funny, sometimes when I move cities,

it's, you know, the worst time ever,

you know?

It's kind of something though, to look for...

looking for trouble, you know?

So I might escape from Mexico City, you know?

I might go to L.A. and escape from there.

I have to escape all the time.