Damián Ortega in "Mexico City" - Season 8 | Art21

[strumming music]

[Dog barking]

[Damian Ortega] I like the objects
when they have experience,

history.

My work is a form of
appropriation.

Appropriation is a political
statement

because it gives me the chance
to transform and

recontextualize

everyday objects we take for
granted.

It's just, uh, the way of
working in Mexico,

the way of found materials in
the everyday life.

"Cosmologia Doméstica" is a
crazy

or schizophrenic carousel, uh,
kind of cosmos,

more like a homemade solar
system.

It was my own chairs, my own
table.

I planned it, but never with
the real context of the

weather,

and then we have a lot of
problems after a few days

because the leather strings
grows and expanded

with rainy weather...

[Drill whirring]

and we decide to bring the
piece again to the studio

to repair and to adjust
everything.

— With inertia they begin to...

— Perhaps they are moving, aren't they?

Right?

I think
one of the most exciting

moments

during the construction of an
art work

is to take some risks.

The most important thing is
the, um the failure

because you learn a lot of
things.

I always had the idea to be an
artist

since being very young.

It's funny because my--my
brother likes a lot the

to do experiments and to take
apart kitchen appliances

to see how they work,

and I was watching him carefully. Yeah.

We grow up like this always
with curiosity

because our parents was
permissive with us

and we had the chance toto
play.

[sawing]

— It's your turn.

[Damian Ortega] It's very
exciting.

It's, uh, really a revelation,
what is happening inside.

— Ah, esta.

— OK. Entonces.

— Hah. OK.

Esta.

I name this works "Geodes"

like a geological term of the
stones.

In this one, we use, uh,
cardboard boxes

and--and newspaper...

and
we found this paper they

find in the streets,

especially during the Day of
the Dead,

and I think it's really
beautiful,

and I decide to include them
into the pieces.

You can see the skull,

the eye, the nose, and the
mouth.

It's really interesting, the
dialogue

with the with the street.

[Door lock clicking]

[Drum and trumpet playing]

[Damian Ortega] I was in
high school,

and I had really bad relation
with my professors.

I took one day off, and I went
to visit

the university to see how it
works,

and I get really shocked
because I thought it was

boring.

— Hola. ¿Que tal?

— Hola.

I decide I
create my own, um,

self-organized, uh,
university...

and I found a painter.

His name is Gabriel Orozco,
and we meet every Friday

in a very informal, absolutely
nonacademic

but self-made school...

like a Renaissance studio with
a mentor

who shares his knowledge...

but at the same time, it's a
party

where you can find your
friends and have a beer and

paint.

We start to move little by
little

to understand the painting
more as an object,

as a sculpture.

Then we start to use everyday
objects,

and you can see this change
from representation

to presentation...

because, uh, if you, uh, don't
use anymore,

um, oil painting and you start
to--to use tortillas,

the town, the guy who works in
the factory,

the culture is involved in the
piece.

People said, "What are you
doing?

"You are very good to paint."

"You are very good to draw,
and what is this [beep]"

"What you are doing?" [laughs]

— Can we try it where it gets some light

to see if it casts a shadow.

— Si.

— Maybe if we see it from this side it will look better

like a shadow there.

All my
friends from the workshops,

we are doing this show, first
time all together.

— Towards the outside, no? To lighten.

— Right. Poquito mas. OK.

[Damian Ortega] I love when a new work, a new piece

needs to create their own
tools.

The piece which I'm doing is a
big cube

made with Styrofoam, and I am
carving

a big hole inside to create
your own living space.

[Scraping]

The ideas comes from different
places.

Sometimes reading, sometimes
materials

give some ideas.

Well, I found a beautiful book
years ago,

"Architecture Without
Architects,"

and, uh, I saw beautiful
pictures of, um,

troglodyte, uh, house--houses
which are a cave.

They start to carve from
inside,

which is a completely
different approach than

architecture,

and you start to understand
the space from inside.

I think it's interesting just
to follow my own curiosity.

It's important, this dialogue
between ¿como se dice? uh,

intuition and rationality

to--to produce, uh, the click or
the twist.

[Speaking Spanish]

I love tools.

The tool is a kind of hand, an
extension of your hand,

and you can touch, and you can
transform.

You can modify,

and then the tools are this
extension

of your own knowledge.

In Mexico, we say…

The tool makes the teacher.

[synth music]

I went to Berlin, and one of
my pleasures

was to visit the flea market
every Sunday,

and I found beautiful tools
and amazing tools,

different than the ones we
use in Mexico.

I start to collect them, and
when I had many,

I start to play with idea to
to put all around me,

to hold all of them.

♪ ♪

The idea, for me, was to
permit the audience

to come inside of the piece
and feel

how many possibilities

and how we see everything
through tools,

through instruments to
transform everything.

[Speaking Spanish]

I found a book

to--to repair your own car,

and it was some beautiful,
exploded views

or the car and the engine, the
transmission.

I decide to use the Beetle
because it was my own car.

It was part of my own family.

Second is because it was the
most popular car in Mexico City,

and then, uh, I start to do

these kind of exploded
installations.

You can find a universe in
every single object.

It's amazing how objects have
this life and this energy.

I don't know exactly how comes
the idea to do a trilogy.

The second piece is "Moby Dick."

I have my white Beetle car,

and I thought it's a kind of
whale,

and you need to control it,
and you need

to move it and to push it.

It's a kind of obsession, no,
how Captain Ahab

becomes completely engaged
with the power of that whale,

and he tried to control,

and my performance was a
caricature

of this domestic mythology.

[distant drum music]

The third piece is I had the
idea to create

this mythology of this
character who was a car as a hero.

To have a mythological tour,
going back to the same place

where the car was born in Puebla

in the factory of Volkswagen

and going exactly to the same
place to die...

and it was a sad moment,

like everyone was like in a
funeral,

but it was a beautiful
experience.

[Barrel organ playing]

[Dog barking]

[Speaks Spanish]

OK.

Bueno.

— One by one, make sure there are no mistakes.

Bien.

Es perfecto.

Actually I get
very obsessed with order.

I try to classify the pieces
and the objects

to make comprehensible.

Of course,
it's nicer than the dark side,

no, what you saw.

Order is boring, and disorder
is exciting...

but I like this dialogue
between both.

I think it's also part of the
language of my works.

If you ask me to--to put in the
balance

what is more important, the
object or the idea,

I think the important is the
combustion,

the sparks between both when
they create a new experience

because, uh, maybe the object
itself is not important,

but if you put in a different context,

there's, um, the chance to
understand life

in a different way.

[soft electronic music]