WEBVTT

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[strumming music]

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[Dog barking]

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[Damian Ortega] I like the objects
when they have experience,

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history.

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My work is a form of
appropriation.

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Appropriation is a political
statement

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because it gives me the chance
to transform and

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recontextualize

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everyday objects we take for
granted.

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It's just, uh, the way of
working in Mexico,

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the way of found materials in
the everyday life.

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"Cosmologia Doméstica" is a
crazy

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or schizophrenic carousel, uh,
kind of cosmos,

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more like a homemade solar
system.

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It was my own chairs, my own
table.

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I planned it, but never with
the real context of the

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weather,

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and then we have a lot of
problems after a few days

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because the leather strings
grows and expanded

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with rainy weather...

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[Drill whirring]

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and we decide to bring the
piece again to the studio

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to repair and to adjust
everything.

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— With inertia they begin to...

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— Perhaps they are moving, aren't they?

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Right?

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I think
one of the most exciting

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moments

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during the construction of an
art work

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is to take some risks.

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The most important thing is
the, um the failure

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because you learn a lot of
things.

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I always had the idea to be an
artist

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since being very young.

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It's funny because my--my
brother likes a lot the

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to do experiments and to take
apart kitchen appliances

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to see how they work,

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and I was watching him carefully. Yeah.

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We grow up like this always
with curiosity

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because our parents was
permissive with us

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and we had the chance toto
play.

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[sawing]

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— It's your turn.

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[Damian Ortega] It's very
exciting.

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It's, uh, really a revelation,
what is happening inside.

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— Ah, esta.

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— OK. Entonces.

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— Hah. OK.

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Esta.

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I name this works "Geodes"

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like a geological term of the
stones.

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In this one, we use, uh,
cardboard boxes

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and--and newspaper...

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and 
we found this paper they

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find in the streets,

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especially during the Day of
the Dead,

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and I think it's really
beautiful,

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and I decide to include them
into the pieces.

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You can see the skull,

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the eye, the nose, and the
mouth.

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It's really interesting, the
dialogue

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with the with the street.

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[Door lock clicking]

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[Drum and trumpet playing]

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[Damian Ortega] I was in
high school,

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and I had really bad relation
with my professors.

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I took one day off, and I went
to visit

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the university to see how it
works,

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and I get really shocked
because I thought it was

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boring.

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— Hola. ¿Que tal?

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— Hola.

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I decide I
create my own, um,

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self-organized, uh,
university...

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and I found a painter.

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His name is Gabriel Orozco,
and we meet every Friday

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in a very informal, absolutely
nonacademic

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but self-made school...

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like a Renaissance studio with
a mentor

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who shares his knowledge...

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but at the same time, it's a
party

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where you can find your
friends and have a beer and

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paint.

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We start to move little by
little

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to understand the painting
more as an object,

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as a sculpture.

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Then we start to use everyday
objects,

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and you can see this change
from representation

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to presentation...

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because, uh, if you, uh, don't
use anymore,

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um, oil painting and you start
to--to use tortillas,

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the town, the guy who works in
the factory,

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the culture is involved in the
piece.

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People said, "What are you
doing?

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"You are very good to paint."

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"You are very good to draw,
and what is this [beep]"

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"What you are doing?" [laughs]

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— Can we try it where it gets some light

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to see if it casts a shadow.

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— Si.

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— Maybe if we see it from this side it will look better

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like a shadow there.

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All my
friends from the workshops,

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we are doing this show, first
time all together.

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— Towards the outside, no? To lighten.

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— Right. Poquito mas. OK.

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[Damian Ortega] I love when a new work, a new piece

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needs to create their own
tools.

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The piece which I'm doing is a
big cube

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made with Styrofoam, and I am
carving

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a big hole inside to create
your own living space.

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[Scraping]

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The ideas comes from different
places.

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Sometimes reading, sometimes
materials

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give some ideas.

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Well, I found a beautiful book
years ago,

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"Architecture Without
Architects,"

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and, uh, I saw beautiful
pictures of, um,

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troglodyte, uh, house--houses
which are a cave.

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They start to carve from
inside,

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which is a completely
different approach than

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architecture,

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and you start to understand
the space from inside.

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I think it's interesting just
to follow my own curiosity.

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It's important, this dialogue
between ¿como se dice? uh,

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intuition and rationality

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to--to produce, uh, the click or
the twist.

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[Speaking Spanish]

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I love tools.

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The tool is a kind of hand, an
extension of your hand,

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and you can touch, and you can
transform.

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You can modify,

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and then the tools are this
extension

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of your own knowledge.

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In Mexico, we say…

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The tool makes the teacher.

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[synth music]

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I went to Berlin, and one of
my pleasures

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was to visit the flea market
every Sunday,

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and I found beautiful tools
and amazing tools,

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different than the ones we
use in Mexico.

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I start to collect them, and
when I had many,

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I start to play with idea to
to put all around me,

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to hold all of them.

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♪ ♪

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The idea, for me, was to
permit the audience

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to come inside of the piece
and feel

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how many possibilities

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and how we see everything
through tools,

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through instruments to
transform everything.

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[Speaking Spanish]

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I found a book

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to--to repair your own car,

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and it was some beautiful,
exploded views

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or the car and the engine, the
transmission.

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I decide to use the Beetle
because it was my own car.

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It was part of my own family.

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Second is because it was the
most popular car in Mexico City,

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and then, uh, I start to do

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these kind of exploded
installations.

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You can find a universe in
every single object.

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It's amazing how objects have
this life and this energy.

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I don't know exactly how comes
the idea to do a trilogy.

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The second piece is "Moby Dick."

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I have my white Beetle car,

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and I thought it's a kind of
whale,

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and you need to control it,
and you need

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to move it and to push it.

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It's a kind of obsession, no,
how Captain Ahab

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becomes completely engaged
with the power of that whale,

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and he tried to control,

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and my performance was a
caricature

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of this domestic mythology.

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[distant drum music]

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The third piece is I had the
idea to create

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this mythology of this
character who was a car as a hero.

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To have a mythological tour,
going back to the same place

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where the car was born in Puebla

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in the factory of Volkswagen

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and going exactly to the same
place to die...

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and it was a sad moment,

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like everyone was like in a
funeral,

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but it was a beautiful
experience.

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[Barrel organ playing]

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[Dog barking]

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[Speaks Spanish]

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OK.

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Bueno.

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— One by one, make sure there are no mistakes.

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Bien.

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Es perfecto.

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Actually I get
very obsessed with order.

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I try to classify the pieces
and the objects

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to make comprehensible.

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Of course,
it's nicer than the dark side,

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no, what you saw.

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Order is boring, and disorder
is exciting...

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but I like this dialogue
between both.

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I think it's also part of the
language of my works.

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If you ask me to--to put in the
balance

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what is more important, the
object or the idea,

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I think the important is the
combustion,

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the sparks between both when
they create a new experience

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because, uh, maybe the object
itself is not important,

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but if you put in a different context,

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there's, um, the chance to
understand life

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in a different way.

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[soft electronic music]