1
00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:04,820
[Hunter College, Tribeca]

2
00:00:04,820 --> 00:00:06,420
[New York Close Up]

3
00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:16,420
[Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Artist]

4
00:00:23,380 --> 00:00:26,640
Well, "Escape from New York" is my childhood
movie.

5
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:29,420
--I'm not a fool, Plisskin.

6
00:00:29,700 --> 00:00:31,080
--Call me Snake.

7
00:00:32,349 --> 00:00:36,360
New York was kind of, like, the final frontier
of toughness.

8
00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:43,280
--Hey, Snake! When did you get in?

9
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:47,660
Snake Plisskin is forced to go to New York
City--

10
00:00:47,670 --> 00:00:50,879
with a time-lapse bomb in his body--

11
00:00:50,879 --> 00:00:53,820
to rescue the president and then get out;

12
00:00:53,820 --> 00:00:55,110
but, New York was a prison.

13
00:00:55,840 --> 00:01:00,680
--[VOICE OVER] The rules are simple: Once
you go in, you don't come out.

14
00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:03,659
That kind of, like, really relates to what
I'm living through.

15
00:01:03,659 --> 00:01:06,900
I think Manhattan, it's not a prison now,

16
00:01:06,900 --> 00:01:11,620
it's just become, like, a playground for really
privileged people.

17
00:01:15,500 --> 00:01:18,340
The thing that I'm kind of, like, sad about
New York...

18
00:01:18,350 --> 00:01:21,530
I think, what defines a city is its people
that you know.

19
00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:23,739
I've seen all of my colleagues,

20
00:01:23,740 --> 00:01:26,180
and they're struggling a lot to find studios.

21
00:01:26,180 --> 00:01:28,689
A lot of people are depressed because of the

22
00:01:28,689 --> 00:01:32,899
quantity of space they get for their money
is pretty bad.

23
00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:35,760
The problem is, like,

24
00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,340
everybody is committed
to something.

25
00:01:38,350 --> 00:01:40,770
That is kind of why I really admire New York.

26
00:01:40,770 --> 00:01:42,950
A lot of people are really intense.

27
00:01:42,950 --> 00:01:45,240
They're here because they want to do things

28
00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:47,600
and be surrounded with other crazy people.

29
00:01:48,140 --> 00:01:50,459
But, because everybody wants to do that stuff,

30
00:01:50,459 --> 00:01:52,030
they need to be in the studios or working,

31
00:01:52,030 --> 00:01:54,270
so you never kind of, like, socialize with
them.

32
00:01:54,270 --> 00:01:56,420
It's kind of difficult to find them in the
streets--

33
00:01:56,420 --> 00:01:57,819
or to get together--

34
00:01:57,819 --> 00:01:59,060
it's impossible because...

35
00:01:59,060 --> 00:01:59,920
"Oh no, I need to..."

36
00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:01,039
"I'm working..."

37
00:02:01,039 --> 00:02:01,969
"Oh no, I need to do this..."

38
00:02:01,969 --> 00:02:03,909
So, now time and space,

39
00:02:03,909 --> 00:02:05,749
it doesn't, kind of, connect.

40
00:02:08,429 --> 00:02:09,970
I decided I was going to move out.

41
00:02:09,970 --> 00:02:12,110
I was like, "Okay, I'm leaving New York,"

42
00:02:12,110 --> 00:02:15,660
"I should go to Mexico City and try a new
life there."

43
00:02:16,900 --> 00:02:22,040
["Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New
York"]

44
00:02:24,140 --> 00:02:25,380
[Alejandro's apartment, Williamsburg]

45
00:02:25,380 --> 00:02:27,180
Oh no, messy!

46
00:02:28,569 --> 00:02:30,220
I'm not good at making plans.

47
00:02:30,220 --> 00:02:32,760
I always wait until the last minute

48
00:02:32,769 --> 00:02:34,549
because you never know, you know?

49
00:02:36,540 --> 00:02:38,879
It's just, that commitment--

50
00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:40,099
I cannot do it.

51
00:02:40,099 --> 00:02:41,980
That commitment kills me.

52
00:02:41,980 --> 00:02:45,200
But yeah, now I have that one-way ticket to
Mexico City.

53
00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,090
When I bought the ticket, I had three weeks
to pack my apartment--

54
00:02:49,090 --> 00:02:50,629
to pack my studio.

55
00:02:50,629 --> 00:02:52,629
Sell things. Bye bye.

56
00:02:52,629 --> 00:02:55,659
But, as soon I was going to arrive to Mexico,

57
00:02:55,659 --> 00:02:57,159
I had to kind of go crazy,

58
00:02:57,159 --> 00:03:00,140
because I had to finish a new set of videos
and photos

59
00:03:00,140 --> 00:03:02,040
for my gallery in Mexico.

60
00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:03,820
And I was like, thinking,

61
00:03:03,829 --> 00:03:05,590
"Well, I just graduated from Hunter,"

62
00:03:05,590 --> 00:03:07,069
"I should do it here."

63
00:03:07,069 --> 00:03:08,920
"And I still have three more weeks."

64
00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:10,319
"A prime spot in New York."

65
00:03:10,319 --> 00:03:12,780
"I have a studio. Come on, just use it."

66
00:03:24,260 --> 00:03:28,640
["Better to have loved and lost than never
to have loved at all" (2014)]

67
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,840
I had an idea of this project.

68
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:35,200
Just, like, experiment with materials and
objects underwater.

69
00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,600
So, I went to Phoenix this summer

70
00:03:39,939 --> 00:03:42,019
because we had access to pools.

71
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:58,180
My favorite painters were the Dutch
vanitas painting.

72
00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:00,599
It's really attached to my work, in a way,

73
00:04:00,599 --> 00:04:02,430
because they used objects

74
00:04:02,430 --> 00:04:05,470
and they make this kind of relationship with them.

75
00:04:05,940 --> 00:04:07,459
There's always these small details.

76
00:04:07,459 --> 00:04:08,999
"There's a fly there."

77
00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:11,300
It deals with death.

78
00:04:11,730 --> 00:04:14,310
It deals with time passing, you know?

79
00:04:14,310 --> 00:04:15,690
Beauty, decay.

80
00:04:31,710 --> 00:04:32,970
There's no pool.

81
00:04:32,970 --> 00:04:34,060
I asked people around.

82
00:04:34,060 --> 00:04:36,580
"Do you know somebody with a pool? Jacuzzi?
Whatever?"

83
00:04:37,100 --> 00:04:39,080
And, yeah, definitely not.

84
00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:45,480
--Okay, let's do this!

85
00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:50,080
I say, "Okay, how difficult would it be to
make a tank?"

86
00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:51,140
So I look on the Internet,

87
00:04:51,140 --> 00:04:53,650
and people do, like, plywood aquariums.

88
00:04:54,620 --> 00:04:57,100
They make a sturdy, really nice box.

89
00:04:57,110 --> 00:04:58,670
You can fill it with water.

90
00:05:05,100 --> 00:05:06,720
I hope that one is going to be okay.

91
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,540
It has a bunch of silicone and...

92
00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:11,420
you know, we'll see.

93
00:05:19,340 --> 00:05:20,080
--Alright!

94
00:05:20,820 --> 00:05:21,680
I filled it with water.

95
00:05:21,690 --> 00:05:23,160
I was afraid that just, like,

96
00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:25,760
one ton of water was going through my studio
like The Shining.

97
00:05:27,010 --> 00:05:28,990
--God, we have a leak here!

98
00:05:29,860 --> 00:05:30,760
Whatever, you know?

99
00:05:30,770 --> 00:05:32,120
It's going to be a leaking tank.

100
00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:34,140
And we'll have a river here,

101
00:05:34,140 --> 00:05:34,820
and shooting...

102
00:05:34,820 --> 00:05:36,400
it's going to be wet.

103
00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:49,360
It seems...

104
00:05:49,580 --> 00:05:51,640
the time limitations by now,

105
00:05:52,910 --> 00:05:55,340
and the technical issues, I've been having
so much...

106
00:05:55,340 --> 00:05:56,390
I think I have like,

107
00:05:56,390 --> 00:05:58,640
"Okay, Alejandro, just focus on some, really,"

108
00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,300
"Three, two objects. Let's create something
with a minimum."

109
00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,440
I have to say, I'm really excited about that.

110
00:06:08,260 --> 00:06:09,980
--So big! Goddamn it!

111
00:06:10,980 --> 00:06:12,120
--Can I have one pound?

112
00:06:12,870 --> 00:06:13,890
--How much is this?

113
00:06:13,890 --> 00:06:14,860
--$3.50.

114
00:06:14,870 --> 00:06:17,350
--Oh yeah. Ah, why not.

115
00:06:17,350 --> 00:06:19,440
I've got some eggplant...phallic.

116
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,400
Eggplants, bananas, cherries...

117
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:24,280
I think the cherries don't float.

118
00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,280
Chinatown in my favorite place in New York
City.

119
00:06:27,290 --> 00:06:29,230
It's one of the most untouched places.

120
00:06:29,900 --> 00:06:31,100
With attitude.

121
00:06:31,100 --> 00:06:34,220
If you want to buy one nail, you can buy one
nail, you know?

122
00:06:34,220 --> 00:06:35,580
Not in this corporate...

123
00:06:36,430 --> 00:06:39,250
Chinatown feels like more downtown Mexico City.

124
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:41,740
They're breaking so many rules--

125
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,200
like, urban rules of New York City.

126
00:06:44,780 --> 00:06:46,860
It's messy. It's hectic.

127
00:06:46,860 --> 00:06:48,600
It's how, like, a city should be.

128
00:07:16,860 --> 00:07:21,180
I had a tank--a fish tank--when I was a teenager,

129
00:07:21,180 --> 00:07:22,600
and I loved that stuff.

130
00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,060
I loved how things behaved underwater.

131
00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:30,120
I've always been, kind of, interested in

132
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:31,580
boats, submarines,

133
00:07:31,580 --> 00:07:32,720
Jacques Cousteau.

134
00:07:42,700 --> 00:07:46,100
Here, on the surface, everything is just,
like, stays put--

135
00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:47,280
the gravity.

136
00:07:47,900 --> 00:07:50,380
In the water, you can use those, kind of...

137
00:07:50,980 --> 00:07:55,280
those levitations to kind of create different
sculptures, in a way.

138
00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:57,100
It's pretty spectacular.

139
00:08:07,380 --> 00:08:09,160
Here, it's getting kind of boring;

140
00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:14,260
sculpture is so grounded, like a monument.

141
00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:30,980
So I wanted sculpture like this, kind of floats around.

142
00:08:30,980 --> 00:08:32,240
It's going to levitate.

143
00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:47,320
--Moving day.

144
00:08:49,980 --> 00:08:53,260
I have to say that I think everybody in the
world

145
00:08:53,269 --> 00:08:56,070
should live in New York at least one or two
years,

146
00:08:56,070 --> 00:08:57,610
to just, kind of, make sense.

147
00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,100
--Alright, I think I'm more or less ready.

148
00:09:02,140 --> 00:09:05,700
But, it's not the only lifestyle you can have.

149
00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:08,600
It's not the only way of doing things.

150
00:09:10,660 --> 00:09:12,060
--It's not so bad.

151
00:09:14,180 --> 00:09:15,580
--[LAUGHS] Yeah!

152
00:09:16,340 --> 00:09:16,980
--Yeah.

153
00:09:17,220 --> 00:09:19,000
--Goddamn it, the keys...alright.

154
00:09:24,420 --> 00:09:26,380
I never, kind of, think about the future.

155
00:09:26,380 --> 00:09:29,440
I don't put plans on that, you know?

156
00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:31,560
So, it's always transition for me.

157
00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,320
Going to Mexico right now, it's in a bad situation.

158
00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:36,560
A political crisis

159
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:38,560
A lot of crime.

160
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:40,780
It's funny, sometimes when I move cities,

161
00:09:40,780 --> 00:09:42,500
it's, you know, the worst time ever,

162
00:09:42,510 --> 00:09:43,040
you know?

163
00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:45,530
It's kind of something though, to look for...

164
00:09:45,530 --> 00:09:46,990
looking for trouble, you know?

165
00:09:49,580 --> 00:09:52,400
So I might escape from Mexico City, you know?

166
00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:54,080
I might go to L.A. and escape from there.

167
00:09:56,010 --> 00:09:57,570
I have to escape all the time.