0:00:12.557,0:00:15.720
OSORIO: It's hard to explain to people [br]what I'm trying to do as an artist,

0:00:15.720,0:00:19.010
because I do not fit the artist description.

0:00:19.520,0:00:22.760
I'm always doing everything so subvertive.

0:00:22.760,0:00:24.543
Like always differently.

0:00:30.040,0:00:34.640
My work deals a lot with contradiction.

0:00:34.640,0:00:36.701
I embrace contradiction.

0:00:40.760,0:00:46.780
Contradiction can coexist with [br]beauty—it can coexist with anger.

0:00:47.866,0:00:53.071
It can coexist with the different [br]emotions. The human body.

0:00:54.623,0:01:13.863
[ latin music ]

0:01:19.160,0:01:25.351
In "No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop," [br]it's about recreating my memory.

0:01:27.080,0:01:31.240
When I was five years old, my father [br]took me to get my first haircut,

0:01:31.240,0:01:32.475
right around the neighborhood.

0:01:35.600,0:01:41.190
What was meant to be a celebration, [br]became a disastrous event.

0:01:44.160,0:01:49.415
This barber, he was not used to [br]dealing with kinky hair, curly hair.

0:01:51.720,0:01:58.113
I was crying a lot, I was scared. I was [br]traumatized by the sound of the hair clipping.

0:01:59.000,0:02:06.680
There was a combination of race, a right [br]of passage into becoming a little man,

0:02:06.680,0:02:11.097
and I think that they both [br]came together simultaneously.

0:02:30.080,0:02:33.960
"No crying allowed in the barbershop" [br]deals with the issue of machismo,

0:02:33.960,0:02:35.320
but as a whole.

0:02:35.320,0:02:38.923
And as a whole, it connects [br]to the universe, somehow.

0:02:41.960,0:02:47.960
The piece pays homage to my [br]father, a man of African descent.

0:02:47.960,0:02:51.400
I often feel that as people of African descent,

0:02:51.400,0:02:56.810
we were completely displaced from [br]the community that we come from,

0:02:57.320,0:03:02.144
which is, which is a contradiction, but [br]it makes sense in Puerto Rican reality.

0:03:04.516,0:03:07.480
MAN: when he was about eight or nine years old,

0:03:07.480,0:03:12.080
I noticed that he painted the [br]ceiling of the house, of his room.

0:03:12.080,0:03:16.340
It was beautiful, you know, it looked [br]beautiful, so later on I got happy.

0:03:16.739,0:03:20.560
LUISA: He always—everything, [br]he wanted always to, to—

0:03:20.560,0:03:28.887
he was doing all kinds of articles like, like [br]houses, trucks, cars and everything, he would.

0:03:30.040,0:03:33.240
And we enjoyed seeing him working, [br]because I want him to make,

0:03:33.240,0:03:34.920
at least to have a trade.

0:03:34.920,0:03:39.280
Coming from a working-class family, [br]being an artist is not an option,

0:03:39.280,0:03:42.560
it's more of a challenge than anything else.

0:03:45.840,0:03:52.003
I just cannot remember ever saying, [br]"I'm going to be an artist."

0:03:53.000,0:03:58.634
It was not a possibility, [br]It was not an alternative.

0:04:06.360,0:04:10.920
I was working as a social worker, [br]and I put that role in my pocket.

0:04:10.920,0:04:14.400
I always had to have two things [br]happening simultaneously,

0:04:14.400,0:04:19.259
just in case one didn't go good, well [br]then I had the other one to survive.

0:04:35.280,0:04:41.680
The only way that I can connect [br]Is by doing installation work,

0:04:41.680,0:04:47.814
because I feel that I needed to say something [br]that had to be beyond something on the wall.

0:04:55.040,0:04:59.640
I need to create a space that is overpowering.

0:05:06.040,0:05:10.760
I'm very much aware that my [br]work, it's one that provides,

0:05:10.760,0:05:15.000
aesthetically, an uncomfortable [br]reaction in many people.

0:05:17.680,0:05:20.880
It's interesting, because a lot of the [br]people ask me, "Do you live like this?"

0:05:20.880,0:05:26.759
"Is this how your home is?" And it isn't—I [br]am making a very calculated intervention.

0:05:31.480,0:05:35.160
When this piece, "The Scene of a [br]Crime," was at the Whitney Museum,

0:05:35.160,0:05:39.520
it almost felt as if I had [br]taken a piece of the South Bronx

0:05:39.520,0:05:43.193
and placed it in the middle of Madison Avenue.

0:05:45.520,0:05:52.520
The Latino community has been portrayed [br]as one that is very accessible.

0:05:52.520,0:05:54.840
And in, specifically "The Scene of a Crime,"

0:05:54.840,0:05:58.510
it has a yellow ribbon where [br]people are not allowed to come in—

0:06:01.920,0:06:05.600
because I have delineated [br]these very specific spaces

0:06:05.600,0:06:10.229
and very specific issues as sacred spaces.

0:06:26.560,0:06:30.726
And as you stand and you're not allowed [br]to come in, then you need to reflect.

0:06:31.834,0:06:33.926
And you need to confront yourself—

0:06:35.280,0:06:38.616
almost as if I stand a giant [br]mirror right in front of you.

0:06:42.960,0:06:48.480
Every time I create a work of art, and I go [br]into different, other sectors of society,

0:06:48.480,0:06:55.960
to gather information, and the work is [br]created when I bring together where I am

0:06:55.960,0:06:59.520
and where the rest of society is.

0:06:59.520,0:07:04.760
MAN: okay, I just want to know if this, do [br]we have to keep on visiting you behind bars,

0:07:04.760,0:07:12.880
or are we going to live like a family already, [br]'cause you in jail and us two out here,

0:07:12.880,0:07:15.929
you know mom is probably, ain't barely [br]making it, you know what I'm saying?

0:07:17.859,0:07:21.640
MAN: I used to get up in the middle of [br]the night to change your pampers, to…

0:07:21.640,0:07:26.440
You pissed on me a couple of [br]times, you used to cry and,

0:07:26.440,0:07:27.680
and I remember all of that.

0:07:27.680,0:07:31.738
I remember the first words that [br]came out of your mouth was "daddy."

0:07:35.240,0:07:40.600
I didn't pass this year, 'cause [br]it was one death after the other,

0:07:40.600,0:07:42.520
and then you getting locked up.

0:07:42.520,0:07:45.660
And it was just like everything, [br]you know, just falling on me.

0:07:45.660,0:07:50.160
OSORIO: What I would love people to [br]come out is thinking who they are

0:07:50.160,0:07:55.680
in relationship to what they have [br]just seen, and start a negotiation.

0:07:55.680,0:08:00.360
Not only with the artwork, [br]but the public at large.

0:08:02.520,0:08:08.180
Who I am. Where do I stand?

0:08:09.089,0:08:10.859
MAN: I love you now, son.

0:08:12.201,0:08:16.440
OSORIO: I'm very much aware that what [br]I wanted to do is to provoke change,

0:08:16.440,0:08:20.507
not only socially, but physically and spiritually.

0:08:41.320,0:08:49.040
MAN: You've done public art projects in [br]barbershops,in taxi cabs, in basketball courts.

0:08:49.040,0:08:51.920
Is this the first time you do a [br]project within a domestic setting?

0:08:51.920,0:08:54.720
OSORIO: No, I've worked in Santa Barbara.

0:08:54.720,0:08:56.920
It was called "state of preservation."

0:08:57.880,0:08:59.160
And it was about plastic.

0:08:59.160,0:09:04.040
I went with the whole issue of the stereotypical [br]imagery of Latino family using plastic.

0:09:04.040,0:09:07.920
And I went into this very open-minded [br]family, a very wealthy family,

0:09:07.920,0:09:12.268
and we plastified the whole house.

0:09:12.268,0:09:14.680
[ laughter ][br]And they lived like that for about three months.

0:09:14.680,0:09:16.960
Every single precious object was plastified.

0:09:16.960,0:09:20.080
And it was incredible—they [br]were really open-minded people.

0:09:20.080,0:09:27.280
"Home Visits," it's loosely rooted in religious, [br]popular tradition of the visiting saint.

0:09:27.280,0:09:36.697
When I was a kid, we were visited by a niche [br]of a virgin of Guadalupe, sent by the church.

0:09:38.160,0:09:43.060
And I thought, what about the [br]same thing with contemporary art?

0:09:44.035,0:09:46.560
WOMAN: It almost looks like [br]there's flame in there.

0:09:46.560,0:09:51.031
OSORIO: Why can't contemporary art visit [br]one home after the other for the week?

0:09:56.240,0:10:03.920
The idea of the new century, [br]it's about… a renewal, for me.

0:10:03.920,0:10:06.400
I wanted to go back and renew all this—

0:10:06.400,0:10:10.240
my mission, my philosophy, [br]my way of looking at art—

0:10:10.240,0:10:13.995
and I know there's something missing [br]that I wanted to find or create again.

0:10:15.480,0:10:16.857
Who's that in the front?

0:10:17.633,0:10:18.320
GIRL: That's the...

0:10:18.320,0:10:20.074
[ laughter ]

0:10:20.074,0:10:21.180
GIRL: Telling a story.

0:10:21.180,0:10:23.415
OSORIO: Telling the story of how it happened.

0:10:24.080,0:10:27.400
The story's based on Tina and her two daughters.

0:10:27.400,0:10:32.040
Tina lost her house and all [br]her possessions, due to a fire.

0:10:32.040,0:10:34.800
Shortly after it happened, she put [br]a little blanket over the girl.

0:10:34.800,0:10:40.720
And, you know, so there's a lot of [br]stories inside that the family told me.

0:10:40.720,0:10:50.000
I was intrigued by the idea that I've gained so [br]much, yet the possibility of losing it overnight.

0:10:50.000,0:10:54.366
So, moving right along, I've got to take [br]it to another place, another opening.

0:10:55.120,0:10:57.960
I'm going to miss the house, [br]'cause it's been here for a week[br]

0:10:57.960,0:11:02.560
and it's going to feel funny [br]having this space opened.

0:11:02.560,0:11:06.920
Since childhood, I have felt that [br]somehow there is one piece missing.

0:11:09.120,0:11:17.200
When I got to New York, I spoke [br]English, but it wasn't good enough.

0:11:17.200,0:11:24.880
So then I just felt that somehow I couldn't [br]understand completely what was going on,

0:11:24.880,0:11:26.280
but I got a picture of it.

0:11:26.280,0:11:30.400
But it wasn't so good that it [br]didn't get the real picture of it.

0:11:30.400,0:11:35.200
And sometimes I feel that I'm eternally, [br]you know, displaced, that I'm there,

0:11:35.200,0:11:37.167
but I'm not quite there.

0:11:39.960,0:11:46.388
But I think that, as an artist, I've been able [br]to resolve one thing—to find my own place.

0:11:48.760,0:11:54.080
I have a very clear mission. I know [br]exactly what I wanted to do with my work,

0:11:54.080,0:12:00.720
and how my displacement somehow seems [br]perfectly fine for the people out there.

0:12:00.720,0:12:04.334
Because there are many of [br]us in the same boat as I am.