0:00:16.949,0:00:19.600 ARTURO HERRERA:[br]Collage is something 0:00:19.600,0:00:21.760 that you could do very inexpensively. 0:00:21.760,0:00:23.709 When I started I had no space. 0:00:26.120,0:00:31.014 You know uh, money was tight [br]and so this allowed me to, 0:00:31.960,0:00:39.352 to move forward without the elements[br]that are required like canvases, brushes. [br] 0:00:45.360,0:00:50.567 You need Xacto blade, scissors, [br]uh, glue and, and paper. 0:00:56.960,0:01:02.160 It was accessible, it was [br]uh, in the studio and um, 0:01:02.160,0:01:06.200 you could actually do it on a [br]table with very little resources. 0:01:06.200,0:01:08.676 This pile had been added for many years. 0:01:11.200,0:01:12.920 When one thing was uh, 0:01:12.920,0:01:16.760 at the beginning easily [br]recognizable as a foot or as a hat, 0:01:16.760,0:01:18.948 now it’s just become just a shape of color. 0:01:21.877,0:01:25.000 You have the, in the pile of [br]fragments there is huge variety, 0:01:25.000,0:01:26.904 handmade and also found. 0:01:27.400,0:01:30.859 This is from one of my [br]drawings from a printed book. 0:01:31.400,0:01:33.720 Here is paper from coloring books. 0:01:33.720,0:01:38.760 This is a water color shape, [br]acrylic on paper, crayon and ink, 0:01:38.760,0:01:41.440 construction paper, printed paper. 0:01:41.440,0:01:45.534 Finger painting or paint [br]directly applied from the tube. 0:01:45.960,0:01:47.827 Uh, crayon also. 0:01:48.120,0:01:49.680 Marbleized paper. 0:01:49.680,0:01:53.380 Paint-by-numbers found in a secondhand shop, 0:01:54.056,0:01:55.300 here you see is very old. 0:01:55.734,0:02:00.800 And I’m interested in how can an [br]image that is so well composed 0:02:00.800,0:02:04.720 and it’s so clear and it’s so objective uh,[br] 0:02:04.720,0:02:07.507 it’s made out of this disparate fragments. 0:02:08.160,0:02:12.720 Glued, forced to be together to create uh, 0:02:12.720,0:02:15.600 image that will have a different reading from 0:02:15.600,0:02:18.901 what the fragments you know uh, say. 0:02:23.280,0:02:26.595 Structure is a preoccupation of mine. 0:02:28.240,0:02:33.477 I’m always looking for something [br]that will hold the image into place. 0:02:37.600,0:02:39.560 What I want to create is basically an image 0:02:39.560,0:02:44.655 that has you know aesthetic [br]and also this conceptual power. 0:02:53.960,0:02:57.362 The world of cartoons and animation [br]is now a universal language. 0:03:00.360,0:03:08.123 And I think everybody has specific memories[br]to specific characters uh, or stories. 0:03:09.520,0:03:16.672 The idea of memory with images [br]of childhood or images of uh, 0:03:17.235,0:03:24.600 that are represented in the, you know,[br]pop culture are as important as any other image. 0:03:24.600,0:03:30.583 So people seem to have very [br]strong attachments to those. 0:03:33.760,0:03:35.320 I think being Latin American you’re, 0:03:35.320,0:03:38.697 you’re made up of so many [br]fragments from different cultures. 0:03:40.680,0:03:45.646 Being from Venezuela you are a mixture of things. 0:03:46.705,0:03:49.880 I mean you’re both uh, from the region 0:03:49.880,0:03:54.320 and you’re also North American, [br]South American, Central American. 0:03:54.320,0:03:55.404 So you’re American. 0:03:58.220,0:04:00.680 And being there you know that you’re [br]part of the European tradition 0:04:00.680,0:04:01.980 and the American tradition. 0:04:04.120,0:04:10.600 It was totally uh, natural for [br]us to shift from you know uh, 0:04:10.600,0:04:15.640 from going from a European film to uh, 0:04:16.293,0:04:18.480 a samba concert, uh, 0:04:18.480,0:04:25.600 from a Walt Disney cartoon [br]festival to uh, to folk… 0:04:25.600,0:04:27.680 folkloristic dancing from Venezuela. 0:04:27.680,0:04:29.320 So it was all very natural. 0:04:29.320,0:04:32.640 It was a, it was never any kind of division about 0:04:32.640,0:04:35.360 what consisted in high culture or low culture. 0:04:35.360,0:04:39.400 So we, I think everybody in [br]Latin America takes everything 0:04:39.400,0:04:45.434 because you know that you [br]are just a mixture of things. 0:04:48.080,0:04:52.120 Moving to a new country and [br]now living in Berlin is, uh, 0:04:52.120,0:04:54.779 allows you to uh, try new things. 0:04:57.640,0:05:00.473 The beginning when I moved here was difficult, 0:05:03.808,0:05:05.720 because I wanted to keep working with the same, 0:05:05.720,0:05:07.954 at the same rhythm as I was working in New York. 0:05:08.720,0:05:12.920 Producing, producing, working, [br]producing without thinking too much. 0:05:12.920,0:05:15.920 And here it’s the other, it’s the opposite way. 0:05:15.920,0:05:22.059 There’s more time to think, there’s more [br]time to reflect on what you’re doing. 0:05:34.320,0:05:37.246 I trying to use the camera lens as a, 0:05:38.080,0:05:44.915 as a blade that cuts rectangular [br]fragments from my own drawings. 0:05:58.501,0:06:01.310 And then once the roll is done,[br]then I put it into water. 0:06:03.000,0:06:05.840 And that’s what another [br]much, much more specific uh, 0:06:05.840,0:06:08.021 way of chance happens. 0:06:13.880,0:06:16.960 And um, the way the water slips into the film 0:06:16.960,0:06:22.160 and if it’s hot water or cold or [br]coffee or you know, with ice cubes, 0:06:22.160,0:06:24.736 then that will effect the emulsion on the film. 0:06:25.953,0:06:29.209 It’s interesting to me after I [br]did the photographs is that um, 0:06:29.840,0:06:33.120 images that I thought that were already finished 0:06:33.120,0:06:37.867 and that paper form and its collages [br]have a complete different life now. 0:06:41.720,0:06:44.460 Life is made of just connecting things. 0:06:46.600,0:06:50.580 We’re not really clear [br]about why we connect things. 0:06:52.360,0:06:56.000 Our emotional life is you know [br]a very important part of this. 0:06:56.000,0:07:00.106 And I think that memory is also a very [br]important part of this and desire. 0:07:00.520,0:07:03.840 So when looking at visual images, 0:07:03.840,0:07:07.935 you could actually be [br]informed by association only. 0:07:17.720,0:07:20.802 It’s satisfying to see them for [br]the first time up on the wall. 0:07:23.416,0:07:28.398 And the whole tone quality [br]is almost like graphite. 0:07:29.480,0:07:31.065 It’s almost like drawing. 0:07:33.160,0:07:37.840 Usually photography is so much about [br]perfect blacks and whites and uh, 0:07:37.840,0:07:40.104 these are really about perfect grays. 0:07:40.960,0:07:44.720 So I’m interested in this kind [br]of ambiguity about the images. 0:07:44.720,0:07:47.240 And they’re clearly based on fragments 0:07:47.240,0:07:50.920 and they’re being juxtaposed as [br]opposed to being forced to be together. 0:07:50.920,0:07:55.263 And yet they’re just abstractions. 0:07:56.840,0:08:00.161 I think there is a potential [br]for these images to communicate 0:08:00.840,0:08:03.440 different things to different viewers uh, 0:08:03.440,0:08:09.240 in a very touching way. Uh, but that [br]experience is not a public experiences, 0:08:09.240,0:08:12.240 it’s a very, very private 0:08:12.240,0:08:14.134 and it’s very, very personal. 0:08:17.240,0:08:19.840 My interest in wall paintings is that 0:08:19.840,0:08:22.400 it takes the imagery to a larger scale 0:08:22.400,0:08:25.294 and provides a different kind [br]of impact for the viewer. 0:08:32.031,0:08:37.309 Well this is the template for the [br]painter who executed the wall painting. 0:08:38.120,0:08:40.040 The drawing is to scale. 0:08:40.040,0:08:43.120 Every shape has been identified with a color. 0:08:43.120,0:08:45.960 The numbers correspond to the Pantone colors. 0:08:45.960,0:08:49.442 Any paint stored will be able to reproduce them. 0:08:49.960,0:08:55.120 The wall painter will uh, transfer [br]these lines onto the wall directly. 0:08:55.120,0:09:00.865 And then he will just follow the [br]template to paint color by color. 0:09:02.600,0:09:07.480 It’s a little bit peculiar [br]because the final result, 0:09:07.480,0:09:10.326 you really have no idea [br]until you are finished there. 0:09:11.520,0:09:17.304 I tend to take into consideration the [br]space where the paintings will be placed. 0:09:25.600,0:09:28.720 The wall painting for the museum [br]in Santiago de Compostela, 0:09:28.720,0:09:30.240 it’s a different set of circumstances 0:09:30.240,0:09:32.338 because the architecture is very prominent. 0:09:35.920,0:09:39.560 Never done this before where [br]an image has uh, could see the… 0:09:39.560,0:09:41.480 only be seen from the upper galleries 0:09:41.480,0:09:45.120 and then you can actually go [br]down and see it from, from below. 0:09:45.120,0:09:47.320 Uh, so it’s an interesting challenge and uh, 0:09:47.320,0:09:50.640 the image is, comes from one of the collages uh, 0:09:50.640,0:09:53.960 and it’s going to be done by a professional, uh, 0:09:53.960,0:09:57.804 sign painter of movie posters uh, from Madrid. 0:09:58.548,0:10:03.000 What I’m working on right now is trying [br]to give very simple instructions, 0:10:03.000,0:10:04.904 preliminary instructions to the painter. 0:10:05.400,0:10:09.040 So it actually helps to have this [br]file here to be able to think 0:10:09.040,0:10:10.918 and reconsider different aspects, 0:10:12.000,0:10:14.560 to tell the painter what to do exactly 0:10:14.560,0:10:18.951 because I’m not going to be there [br]when he executes this piece. 0:10:19.920,0:10:25.252 I have never done a piece that is in a [br]space that is actually dissected like this, 0:10:25.545,0:10:31.042 and with two unusual elements in it [br]which is a window door on the wall, 0:10:31.560,0:10:33.800 where the wall painting will be executed 0:10:33.800,0:10:37.424 and then a bridge that connects [br]the galleries into that window. 0:10:37.920,0:10:40.320 So I don’t know what the effect will be 0:10:40.320,0:10:46.040 and so I’m hoping that all the [br]elements and the imagery itself 0:10:46.040,0:10:53.096 will also convey some kind of [br]connection with the architecture. 0:10:55.800,0:10:59.240 Santiago is such an important [br]place for pilgrimage. 0:11:00.760,0:11:02.571 There is so much history there. 0:11:05.160,0:11:07.094 But the museum is very close to the cathedral. 0:11:08.040,0:11:11.129 So it’s a very charged city. 0:11:13.720,0:11:17.880 The wall painting actually has [br]these references to movement, 0:11:17.880,0:11:20.000 upwards or downward, 0:11:21.080,0:11:22.960 which is interesting to me because in Santiago, 0:11:22.960,0:11:28.000 people come with lots of [br]hopes and ideas, memories. 0:11:28.000,0:11:30.222 They go there looking for something which, 0:11:30.920,0:11:34.234 in a sense, it’s a very spiritual connection. 0:11:36.901,0:11:43.571 That maybe is what allowed me to take that image[br]and to bring it into Santiago. 0:11:47.640,0:11:50.480 I think it’s still potential [br]for abstraction to become 0:11:50.480,0:11:53.000 a viable language of visual communication. 0:11:58.880,0:12:00.384 The same thing with collage. 0:12:01.015,0:12:04.771 I think we need to explore [br]what else they could do. 0:12:07.520,0:12:12.828 Going to continue, see what I could [br]say with this, with this language. 0:12:15.960,0:12:20.440 The longer you work a thing the more [br]possibilities you have of creating something. 0:12:20.440,0:12:21.640 It just comes through, 0:12:21.640,0:12:24.880 at least with my case it doesn’t come through uh, 0:12:24.880,0:12:27.534 divine touch, it just comes through just work.