WEBVTT 00:00:03.400 --> 00:00:04.820 [Hunter College, Tribeca] 00:00:04.820 --> 00:00:06.420 [New York Close Up] 00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:16.420 [Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Artist] 00:00:23.380 --> 00:00:26.640 Well, "Escape from New York" is my childhood movie. 00:00:27.840 --> 00:00:29.420 --I'm not a fool, Plisskin. 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:31.080 --Call me Snake. 00:00:32.349 --> 00:00:36.360 New York was kind of, like, the final frontier of toughness. 00:00:41.300 --> 00:00:43.280 --Hey, Snake! When did you get in? 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:47.660 Snake Plisskin is forced to go to New York City-- 00:00:47.670 --> 00:00:50.879 with a time-lapse bomb in his body-- 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:53.820 to rescue the president and then get out; 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:55.110 but, New York was a prison. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:00.680 --[VOICE OVER] The rules are simple: Once you go in, you don't come out. 00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:03.659 That kind of, like, really relates to what I'm living through. 00:01:03.659 --> 00:01:06.900 I think Manhattan, it's not a prison now, 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:11.620 it's just become, like, a playground for really privileged people. 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:18.340 The thing that I'm kind of, like, sad about New York... 00:01:18.350 --> 00:01:21.530 I think, what defines a city is its people that you know. 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:23.739 I've seen all of my colleagues, 00:01:23.740 --> 00:01:26.180 and they're struggling a lot to find studios. 00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:28.689 A lot of people are depressed because of the 00:01:28.689 --> 00:01:32.899 quantity of space they get for their money is pretty bad. 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:35.760 The problem is, like, 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:38.340 everybody is committed to something. 00:01:38.350 --> 00:01:40.770 That is kind of why I really admire New York. 00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:42.950 A lot of people are really intense. 00:01:42.950 --> 00:01:45.240 They're here because they want to do things 00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:47.600 and be surrounded with other crazy people. 00:01:48.140 --> 00:01:50.459 But, because everybody wants to do that stuff, 00:01:50.459 --> 00:01:52.030 they need to be in the studios or working, 00:01:52.030 --> 00:01:54.270 so you never kind of, like, socialize with them. 00:01:54.270 --> 00:01:56.420 It's kind of difficult to find them in the streets-- 00:01:56.420 --> 00:01:57.819 or to get together-- 00:01:57.819 --> 00:01:59.060 it's impossible because... 00:01:59.060 --> 00:01:59.920 "Oh no, I need to..." 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:01.039 "I'm working..." 00:02:01.039 --> 00:02:01.969 "Oh no, I need to do this..." 00:02:01.969 --> 00:02:03.909 So, now time and space, 00:02:03.909 --> 00:02:05.749 it doesn't, kind of, connect. 00:02:08.429 --> 00:02:09.970 I decided I was going to move out. 00:02:09.970 --> 00:02:12.110 I was like, "Okay, I'm leaving New York," 00:02:12.110 --> 00:02:15.660 "I should go to Mexico City and try a new life there." 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:22.040 ["Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New York"] 00:02:24.140 --> 00:02:25.380 [Alejandro's apartment, Williamsburg] 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:27.180 Oh no, messy! 00:02:28.569 --> 00:02:30.220 I'm not good at making plans. 00:02:30.220 --> 00:02:32.760 I always wait until the last minute 00:02:32.769 --> 00:02:34.549 because you never know, you know? 00:02:36.540 --> 00:02:38.879 It's just, that commitment-- 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:40.099 I cannot do it. 00:02:40.099 --> 00:02:41.980 That commitment kills me. 00:02:41.980 --> 00:02:45.200 But yeah, now I have that one-way ticket to Mexico City. 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:49.090 When I bought the ticket, I had three weeks to pack my apartment-- 00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:50.629 to pack my studio. 00:02:50.629 --> 00:02:52.629 Sell things. Bye bye. 00:02:52.629 --> 00:02:55.659 But, as soon I was going to arrive to Mexico, 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:57.159 I had to kind of go crazy, 00:02:57.159 --> 00:03:00.140 because I had to finish a new set of videos and photos 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:02.040 for my gallery in Mexico. 00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:03.820 And I was like, thinking, 00:03:03.829 --> 00:03:05.590 "Well, I just graduated from Hunter," 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:07.069 "I should do it here." 00:03:07.069 --> 00:03:08.920 "And I still have three more weeks." 00:03:08.920 --> 00:03:10.319 "A prime spot in New York." 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:12.780 "I have a studio. Come on, just use it." 00:03:24.260 --> 00:03:28.640 ["Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" (2014)] 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:31.840 I had an idea of this project. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:35.200 Just, like, experiment with materials and objects underwater. 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:39.600 So, I went to Phoenix this summer 00:03:39.939 --> 00:03:42.019 because we had access to pools. 00:03:53.920 --> 00:03:58.180 My favorite painters were the Dutch vanitas painting. 00:03:58.700 --> 00:04:00.599 It's really attached to my work, in a way, 00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:02.430 because they used objects 00:04:02.430 --> 00:04:05.470 and they make this kind of relationship with them. 00:04:05.940 --> 00:04:07.459 There's always these small details. 00:04:07.459 --> 00:04:08.999 "There's a fly there." 00:04:09.880 --> 00:04:11.300 It deals with death. 00:04:11.730 --> 00:04:14.310 It deals with time passing, you know? 00:04:14.310 --> 00:04:15.690 Beauty, decay. 00:04:31.710 --> 00:04:32.970 There's no pool. 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:34.060 I asked people around. 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:36.580 "Do you know somebody with a pool? Jacuzzi? Whatever?" 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:39.080 And, yeah, definitely not. 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:45.480 --Okay, let's do this! 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:50.080 I say, "Okay, how difficult would it be to make a tank?" 00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:51.140 So I look on the Internet, 00:04:51.140 --> 00:04:53.650 and people do, like, plywood aquariums. 00:04:54.620 --> 00:04:57.100 They make a sturdy, really nice box. 00:04:57.110 --> 00:04:58.670 You can fill it with water. 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:06.720 I hope that one is going to be okay. 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:09.540 It has a bunch of silicone and... 00:05:09.760 --> 00:05:11.420 you know, we'll see. 00:05:19.340 --> 00:05:20.080 --Alright! 00:05:20.820 --> 00:05:21.680 I filled it with water. 00:05:21.690 --> 00:05:23.160 I was afraid that just, like, 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.760 one ton of water was going through my studio like The Shining. 00:05:27.010 --> 00:05:28.990 --God, we have a leak here! 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:30.760 Whatever, you know? 00:05:30.770 --> 00:05:32.120 It's going to be a leaking tank. 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.140 And we'll have a river here, 00:05:34.140 --> 00:05:34.820 and shooting... 00:05:34.820 --> 00:05:36.400 it's going to be wet. 00:05:48.440 --> 00:05:49.360 It seems... 00:05:49.580 --> 00:05:51.640 the time limitations by now, 00:05:52.910 --> 00:05:55.340 and the technical issues, I've been having so much... 00:05:55.340 --> 00:05:56.390 I think I have like, 00:05:56.390 --> 00:05:58.640 "Okay, Alejandro, just focus on some, really," 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:02.300 "Three, two objects. Let's create something with a minimum." 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:06.440 I have to say, I'm really excited about that. 00:06:08.260 --> 00:06:09.980 --So big! Goddamn it! 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:12.120 --Can I have one pound? 00:06:12.870 --> 00:06:13.890 --How much is this? 00:06:13.890 --> 00:06:14.860 --$3.50. 00:06:14.870 --> 00:06:17.350 --Oh yeah. Ah, why not. 00:06:17.350 --> 00:06:19.440 I've got some eggplant...phallic. 00:06:19.440 --> 00:06:22.400 Eggplants, bananas, cherries... 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:24.280 I think the cherries don't float. 00:06:24.760 --> 00:06:27.280 Chinatown in my favorite place in New York City. 00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:29.230 It's one of the most untouched places. 00:06:29.900 --> 00:06:31.100 With attitude. 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:34.220 If you want to buy one nail, you can buy one nail, you know? 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:35.580 Not in this corporate... 00:06:36.430 --> 00:06:39.250 Chinatown feels like more downtown Mexico City. 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:41.740 They're breaking so many rules-- 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:44.200 like, urban rules of New York City. 00:06:44.780 --> 00:06:46.860 It's messy. It's hectic. 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:48.600 It's how, like, a city should be. 00:07:16.860 --> 00:07:21.180 I had a tank--a fish tank--when I was a teenager, 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:22.600 and I loved that stuff. 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.060 I loved how things behaved underwater. 00:07:27.840 --> 00:07:30.120 I've always been, kind of, interested in 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:31.580 boats, submarines, 00:07:31.580 --> 00:07:32.720 Jacques Cousteau. 00:07:42.700 --> 00:07:46.100 Here, on the surface, everything is just, like, stays put-- 00:07:46.440 --> 00:07:47.280 the gravity. 00:07:47.900 --> 00:07:50.380 In the water, you can use those, kind of... 00:07:50.980 --> 00:07:55.280 those levitations to kind of create different sculptures, in a way. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.100 It's pretty spectacular. 00:08:07.380 --> 00:08:09.160 Here, it's getting kind of boring; 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:14.260 sculpture is so grounded, like a monument. 00:08:26.840 --> 00:08:30.980 So I wanted sculpture like this, kind of floats around. 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:32.240 It's going to levitate. 00:08:46.280 --> 00:08:47.320 --Moving day. 00:08:49.980 --> 00:08:53.260 I have to say that I think everybody in the world 00:08:53.269 --> 00:08:56.070 should live in New York at least one or two years, 00:08:56.070 --> 00:08:57.610 to just, kind of, make sense. 00:08:59.520 --> 00:09:02.100 --Alright, I think I'm more or less ready. 00:09:02.140 --> 00:09:05.700 But, it's not the only lifestyle you can have. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:08.600 It's not the only way of doing things. 00:09:10.660 --> 00:09:12.060 --It's not so bad. 00:09:14.180 --> 00:09:15.580 --[LAUGHS] Yeah! 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:16.980 --Yeah. 00:09:17.220 --> 00:09:19.000 --Goddamn it, the keys...alright. 00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:26.380 I never, kind of, think about the future. 00:09:26.380 --> 00:09:29.440 I don't put plans on that, you know? 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:31.560 So, it's always transition for me. 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:35.320 Going to Mexico right now, it's in a bad situation. 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:36.560 A political crisis 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:38.560 A lot of crime. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:40.780 It's funny, sometimes when I move cities, 00:09:40.780 --> 00:09:42.500 it's, you know, the worst time ever, 00:09:42.510 --> 00:09:43.040 you know? 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:45.530 It's kind of something though, to look for... 00:09:45.530 --> 00:09:46.990 looking for trouble, you know? 00:09:49.580 --> 00:09:52.400 So I might escape from Mexico City, you know? 00:09:52.400 --> 00:09:54.080 I might go to L.A. and escape from there. 00:09:56.010 --> 00:09:57.570 I have to escape all the time.