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