WEBVTT 00:00:11.322 --> 00:00:14.120 IÑIGO MANGLANO-OVALLE: If art for me is a platform from which to speak, 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:15.680 but not tell you something? 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:17.018 That’s good. 00:00:26.360 --> 00:00:31.560 And if that’s a way in which I give you a  platform from which to think and debate it, 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:37.389 that’s even better, because ultimately  art for me does not reside in the object, 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:40.748 it resides in what’s said about the object. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:47.548 All my work, even the most formal work, has... 00:00:48.622 --> 00:00:52.565 an underlying politics to it. 00:00:54.400 --> 00:00:57.526 But I don’t want to reveal my position. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:03.505 In LE BAISER or “the Kiss” 00:01:04.378 --> 00:01:10.120 I’m washing windows in Mies van der Rohe’s  Fansworth House out in Plano, Illinois. 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:16.519 The camera outside is always mic-ed to  the sound of the squeegee on the glass. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:21.480 And it’s very sort of ambient in  one way and then very physical. 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:26.260 The squeegee squeaks and  sarcastically kisses the building. 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:27.360 (MUSIC) 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:31.600 Whenever the camera is inside the  pane of glass or inside the building, 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:34.480 there’s an ethereal sort of electronic music 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:39.359 which is a single moment of a  guitar solo by the band KISS, 00:01:39.762 --> 00:01:42.960 and then that little guitar, nanosecond, 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:49.502 is stretched to make the sound piece or  the score for all the interior shots. 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:54.880 I have a strong connection  to architecture in my work. 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:59.069 At a very young age I was taken by  my parents to see Mies’ architecture. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:05.880 For me, on one level, the piece was just  about visiting a shrine of modernity. 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:10.396 It was about trying to figure out a  way to actually touch the building. 00:02:12.320 --> 00:02:14.120 You’re three things as the actor. 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.824 You’re artist, you’re  laborer, and you’re architect. 00:02:18.920 --> 00:02:21.000 You’re artist because you’re making the film 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.200 and because sometimes when  you’re washing the windows 00:02:23.200 --> 00:02:29.400 the camera is watching your hand make a gesture. 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.996 Almost a painting gesture across the pane. 00:02:33.600 --> 00:02:36.440 You’re also just simply washing a window. 00:02:36.440 --> 00:02:38.040 So it’s mundane. 00:02:38.040 --> 00:02:41.229 And, then you’re outside the  building tending to its form. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:43.040 So you’re the architect. 00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:48.720 And inside is a young woman  spinning some discs on a platform 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:51.920 with headphones being separated by the… 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:55.000 a thin skin of transparency. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.610 But ultimately total separation. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.840 The female actor at one moment in the piece 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:04.182 actually raises her eyes and  looks straight into the camera, 00:03:05.480 --> 00:03:09.400 thereby looks into the viewer of the  installation and acknowledges them or says, 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:12.640 I see you and that’s the one moment for me that 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:15.261 she’s able to penetrate through the architecture. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.840 Of course LE BAISER is about love, 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:23.562 but it’s a kind of restrained love. 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:34.302 I thought what we would do  is run through the edit. 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:40.920 The School of Architecture  in Chicago auctioned off 00:03:40.920 --> 00:03:44.680 breaking the windows at the  Mies van der Rohe’s Crown Hall. 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:47.712 They were going to renovate, put new glass in. 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:56.658 As it turns out, the winner of the auction  is Mies’s grandson who is also an architect. 00:03:57.978 --> 00:04:00.960 I was interested in this whole  notion of almost like patricide, 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:05.000 you know the son breaking the father’s temple. 00:04:17.840 --> 00:04:20.880 The show in New York is a show that I think is 00:04:20.880 --> 00:04:23.520 kind of difficult to negotiate 00:04:23.520 --> 00:04:29.720 because there is no apparent sort of common theme. 00:04:32.760 --> 00:04:35.880 I’ve been wanting to make  this umbrella for a long time. 00:04:35.880 --> 00:04:40.960 When you actually look at an umbrella,  there’s so many complex curves in that fabric. 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:44.040 There are so many parabolic equations. 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.160 It’s very much like a flower. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.000 That’s probably one of the best  designs out there in the world. 00:04:53.879 --> 00:05:00.199 I enlisted the help of a fabricator that  does prototypes for stealth bombers. 00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:02.680 It’s called BULLETPROOF UMBRELLA. 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:04.360 And it’s exactly that. 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:09.560 It’s made out of graphite and  Kevlar and space age materials. 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:14.120 So I think it actually responds in  many ways to the climate of our times. 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:16.444 Although it does it very quietly. 00:05:17.003 --> 00:05:19.240 My mother would freak out. 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:20.940 She’s from Bogotá and… 00:05:20.940 --> 00:05:27.364 and an open umbrella indoors is like  bad luck for the rest of your life. 00:05:29.400 --> 00:05:33.240 The jack, very much like the  umbrella takes an every day object 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:38.320 and sort of scales it up  and deforms one axis of it. 00:05:38.320 --> 00:05:40.140 What you end up having is this, 00:05:40.140 --> 00:05:46.548 it’s almost like missile that points up  and almost touches the ceiling itself. 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:54.400 There are many connections between  these things and I think it’s just, 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:57.803 for me important not to make it readily apparent. 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:02.841 This sort of troublesome  condition is what I’m looking for. 00:06:03.982 --> 00:06:07.816 On a very, sort of, formal sense,  the exhibition is all about color. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:13.680 So the red film on the window  of the gallery is a work itself. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:17.520 It’s called FROM RED TO ORANGE AND ORANGE TO RED. 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:21.547 Going from high alert to not so high alert. 00:06:28.200 --> 00:06:35.640 I’ve been very interested in weather patterns that  occur both inside and outside of architecture. 00:06:35.640 --> 00:06:37.560 In the case of RANDOM SKY in Chicago, 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:41.160 the weather station is outside  and takes the temperature, 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:44.080 barometric pressure, wind speed, wind direction. 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:48.680 All these streams of data connect  directly to a set of computers 00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:54.902 that are running a program that generates  these blue and white scan lines. 00:06:56.200 --> 00:07:01.000 When I decided to do this  project I met Mark Hereld, 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.385 an astrophysicist at Argon National Labs. 00:07:05.347 --> 00:07:09.200 MARK HERELD: I was asked originally  to help the Hyde Park Arts Center 00:07:09.200 --> 00:07:12.028 figure out how to build this façade. 00:07:13.080 --> 00:07:17.080 We have a large effort in what’s  called scientific visualization, 00:07:17.080 --> 00:07:21.400 we think about ways to sort of  tame these herds of computers 00:07:21.400 --> 00:07:24.200 that are intended present environments 00:07:24.200 --> 00:07:26.760 that are large enough that  people can step into them, 00:07:26.760 --> 00:07:30.280 become directly involved with  what’s being put out on the screen. 00:07:30.280 --> 00:07:36.116 The outside world is coupling  to this internal universe. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:40.173 So there is a kind of little  bit of a living ecology there. 00:07:41.895 --> 00:07:45.640 MANGLANO-OVALLE: We got to a certain  point where I needed to consider sound, 00:07:45.640 --> 00:07:48.480 and in this case I worked with a young artist 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:49.760 by the name of Rick Gribenas 00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:52.150 who is an artist as well as a composer. 00:07:54.745 --> 00:07:57.680 RICK GRIBENAS: RANDOM SKY is really  just an examination of this building 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.520 and its architecture and the  space that is contained within it 00:08:00.520 --> 00:08:02.134 and the space that kind of surrounds it. 00:08:03.320 --> 00:08:04.880 It’s definitely an exploration. 00:08:04.880 --> 00:08:06.720 It’s a, you know, the kind of great lengths that 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.360 we as humans go through to kind  of understand our environment 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:11.820 and kind of adjust our environment. 00:08:12.849 --> 00:08:16.720 MANGLANO-OVALLE: RANDOM SKY  addresses that idea of the arbitrary 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.520 or the randomness or the uncontrollable, 00:08:19.520 --> 00:08:23.668 the impossibility of our desire for stability. 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:31.080 CLOUD PROTOTYPE #1 was a thunderstorm 00:08:31.080 --> 00:08:36.702 that was captured by the department of  atmospheric sciences at University of Illinois. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.840 I watched the three-dimensional  data development as a storm 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.351 and at a certain moment I said, “Right there. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:46.587 That’s the moment I want.” 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:49.720 It’s about stopping time. 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.855 It was just before the storm erupts. 00:08:55.920 --> 00:08:58.267 Capturing ephemera is an impossibility. 00:08:59.640 --> 00:09:01.800 And in the end you really  haven’t captured ephemera, 00:09:01.800 --> 00:09:03.188 you’ve made a sculpture. 00:09:07.640 --> 00:09:11.400 The space between things is just as important 00:09:11.400 --> 00:09:15.403 or more important than the  space that things occupy. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:18.240 Once you enter the exhibition, 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.080 this little infrared video  of my son at five months old 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:25.160 is neglected by you because  as soon as you walk in, 00:09:25.160 --> 00:09:27.413 you see the iceberg in the cloud. 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:34.240 Another sculpture is so  miniscule you can step on it. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:37.080 Red Fist and it’s in a central location, 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:39.647 it’s dismissed by the viewer. 00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:44.880 Red Fist actually came about playing  with my son a year-old with Play dough, 00:09:44.880 --> 00:09:48.234 it’s all about just grabbing  things and holding them. 00:09:48.760 --> 00:09:50.200 So I would roll little balls 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:51.400 and he would grab them 00:09:51.400 --> 00:09:52.320 and we squished them 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:54.080 and his hand would open up 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:56.480 and I would see this glorious, like, 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:00.000 shape that’s made by his fist. 00:10:01.760 --> 00:10:04.800 SEARCH was a piece where the  architecture of the site, 00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:08.680 this bullfight ring down in  Tijuana sort of called it forth. 00:10:08.680 --> 00:10:13.698 I mean the bullfight ring already looked  like a speaker facing up into the sky. 00:10:16.920 --> 00:10:19.840 The bullfight ring was  converted into a radio telescope 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:24.882 that would search for the real aliens only  fifty meters south of the U.S. border. 00:10:27.880 --> 00:10:29.080 And for me it was a joke. 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:31.960 I wanted to do a piece about alienation 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:34.760 and about UFOs and about the alien 00:10:34.760 --> 00:10:36.013 and about immigration. 00:10:40.040 --> 00:10:44.680 When I first came to United States as a baby, 00:10:44.680 --> 00:10:48.400 you know I came in as a resident alien. 00:10:48.400 --> 00:10:52.200 And SEARCH was titled SEARCH (EN BÚSQUEDA), 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:55.150 the subtitle was Searching for the Real Aliens. 00:10:56.560 --> 00:11:03.868 In Tijuana everybody from cab drivers  to artists to politicians got the joke. 00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:08.520 I grew up with parents that were always 00:11:08.520 --> 00:11:14.640 having to shift the family from  Madrid to Bogotá to the United States, 00:11:14.640 --> 00:11:17.760 so the world was very small at a very young age 00:11:17.760 --> 00:11:22.173 and I almost had to learn that there were borders. 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.080 The General Service Administration asked me 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:30.920 to propose a work for the Immigration  Naturalization Service Building. 00:11:30.920 --> 00:11:33.080 Now it’s part of Homeland Security. 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:34.360 I actually like the idea, 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:37.040 because a whole host of  people that I know have been 00:11:37.040 --> 00:11:40.532 through that building as what they call clients. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.800 So LA TORMENTA, these two clouds, or THE STORM, 00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:47.480 there’s a kind of critique that’s going on there 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:50.360 because it’s a storm system that arrives 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:56.640 and historically all waves of  immigration to the U.S. have been storms. 00:11:56.640 --> 00:12:00.040 And have gone through  turbulence, upon their arrival, 00:12:00.040 --> 00:12:02.080 and have caused turbulence 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:06.200 and all of those waves come  with a great deal of hope, 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:08.176 and a great deal of anxiety. 00:12:09.228 --> 00:12:11.080 And that’s what a thunderstorm is. 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:17.304 It’s one of the most destructive  and most productive events. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:20.800 It was about the duality of that, 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:22.931 and duality of hope and anxiety 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:30.096 and the fact that the piece in a  sense reflects its public in a way, 00:12:31.752 --> 00:12:33.840 you know that they are the storm. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:36.717 La Tormenta somos nosotros.