1
00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:08,180
[Abraham Cruzvillegas: Autoconstrucción]

2
00:00:09,870 --> 00:00:12,060
You can see, we have all this rebar coming out

3
00:00:12,060 --> 00:00:14,610
from the roofs of autoconstrucción houses

4
00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:18,840
as people think they can keep building--

5
00:00:19,740 --> 00:00:23,520
making new room for new members of the family
and so on...

6
00:00:26,780 --> 00:00:29,599
This is my father, with his cane--

7
00:00:29,599 --> 00:00:30,590
his walking stick.

8
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:31,800
My mother,

9
00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:33,220
my sister Eréndira,

10
00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:34,880
and Chucho, my brother.

11
00:00:36,500 --> 00:00:40,460
My parents decided to expand and to construct more

12
00:00:41,100 --> 00:00:42,560
because we grew up.

13
00:00:43,260 --> 00:00:44,740
We became teenagers

14
00:00:44,740 --> 00:00:46,740
and we needed independent rooms.

15
00:00:47,510 --> 00:00:49,370
We started building down...

16
00:00:49,370 --> 00:00:53,269
in the back there, rooms for Rosa and for
my brothers and me.

17
00:00:53,269 --> 00:00:55,109
And a new kitchen.

18
00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:56,880
But it was very slow.

19
00:01:02,579 --> 00:01:06,350
Autoconstrucción is more about self-constructing

20
00:01:06,350 --> 00:01:07,870
or constructing your own house.

21
00:01:09,460 --> 00:01:12,080
I like the term because, for me,

22
00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:16,280
it leads me to think on the construction of identity.

23
00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:23,160
This is where my father used to brush his teeth.

24
00:01:24,220 --> 00:01:28,440
So he had here a small tub with water and he...

25
00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:29,700
to wash...

26
00:01:29,710 --> 00:01:32,060
and spit here on the tree,

27
00:01:32,060 --> 00:01:33,950
covering, in white, the bricks,

28
00:01:33,950 --> 00:01:35,230
as you can see there.

29
00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,140
So it was, kind of, a slow painting.

30
00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:45,040
My father had an accident--

31
00:01:45,500 --> 00:01:46,410
a car accident.

32
00:01:46,900 --> 00:01:48,580
And then he wasn't able to walk anymore

33
00:01:48,590 --> 00:01:50,110
and he was on a wheelchair.

34
00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:52,750
And then we built the ramps

35
00:01:52,750 --> 00:01:53,870
all around the house.

36
00:01:55,060 --> 00:01:56,260
And here,

37
00:01:56,260 --> 00:01:58,260
the stairs, you can see,

38
00:01:58,470 --> 00:02:01,690
they change because it's for the wheelchair, here.

39
00:02:02,260 --> 00:02:03,020
All the additions--

40
00:02:03,020 --> 00:02:04,520
furniture and so on--

41
00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,090
we did many of these things ourselves.

42
00:02:07,090 --> 00:02:09,070
That's why they are so badly done.

43
00:02:09,420 --> 00:02:14,100
They are ridiculously made because they are
not made by experts.

44
00:02:15,180 --> 00:02:17,260
I never tried to illustrate this,

45
00:02:17,260 --> 00:02:21,200
but to use it as a source of energy

46
00:02:21,490 --> 00:02:22,470
for my work.

47
00:02:22,540 --> 00:02:24,900
[Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN]

48
00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:25,620
--Yeah.

49
00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:33,980
--It's good.

50
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,240
Many of my works are definitely unfinished voluntarily.

51
00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:55,400
When you look at the roofs of the houses

52
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,380
and there is this rebar coming out there

53
00:02:58,380 --> 00:03:02,670
like an optimistic hope of being finished,

54
00:03:02,670 --> 00:03:06,030
that’s my reference, I would say.

55
00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:11,800
I don't want to represent houses,

56
00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:13,180
or parts of houses

57
00:03:13,740 --> 00:03:16,920
or illustrate autoconstrucción,

58
00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:21,400
but to activate the dynamics of autoconstrucción
in my work.

59
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:22,860
Like, improvising--

60
00:03:22,860 --> 00:03:25,400
doing things with whatever you have at hand.

61
00:03:27,140 --> 00:03:31,020
Not thinking that much in an architectonic

62
00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:33,350
or tectonic way,

63
00:03:33,350 --> 00:03:37,460
but more like answering to immediate needs

64
00:03:37,460 --> 00:03:40,180
like a playfulness, for instance.

65
00:03:41,700 --> 00:03:42,800
--It's from the hotel!

66
00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,520
And I think what I like, a lot of these constructions--

67
00:03:48,530 --> 00:03:52,690
these houses that all overlap together,

68
00:03:52,690 --> 00:03:54,180
the houses and the people,

69
00:03:54,180 --> 00:03:56,560
you know, like the activities and the energy.

70
00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:59,360
You can see through them.

71
00:03:59,940 --> 00:04:01,600
They are transparent, let's say.

72
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:07,260
This is my ideal of what an identity should be,

73
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:08,470
transparent.

74
00:04:09,700 --> 00:04:13,620
We go through a long, long path to become
ourselves.

75
00:04:21,060 --> 00:04:23,380
I'm still constructing myself.

76
00:04:24,100 --> 00:04:26,840
I just want to understand who I am

77
00:04:26,849 --> 00:04:28,059
and where I come from.

78
00:04:28,059 --> 00:04:29,639
And I come from Marcel Duchamp,

79
00:04:30,479 --> 00:04:32,519
I come also from Colony Ajusco.

80
00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,580
I come from Eduardo Costa.

81
00:04:35,580 --> 00:04:38,039
And I come from David Medalla.

82
00:04:38,039 --> 00:04:39,830
And I come from autoconstrucción.

83
00:04:39,830 --> 00:04:41,790
And I come from Mexico.

84
00:04:44,700 --> 00:04:46,720
What can I say? [LAUGHS]