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Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New York | Art21 "New York Close Up"

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    [Hunter College, Tribeca]
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    [New York Close Up]
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    [Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Artist]
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    Well, "Escape from New York" is my childhood
    movie.
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    --I'm not a fool, Plisskin.
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    --Call me Snake.
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    New York was kind of, like, the final frontier
    of toughness.
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    --Hey, Snake! When did you get in?
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    Snake Plisskin is forced to go to New York
    City--
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    with a time-lapse bomb in his body--
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    to rescue the president and then get out;
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    but, New York was a prison.
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    --[VOICE OVER] The rules are simple: Once
    you go in, you don't come out.
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    That kind of, like, really relates to what
    I'm living through.
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    I think Manhattan, it's not a prison now,
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    it's just become, like, a playground for really
    privileged people.
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    The thing that I'm kind of, like, sad about
    New York...
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    I think, what defines a city is its people
    that you know.
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    I've seen all of my colleagues,
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    and they're struggling a lot to find studios.
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    A lot of people are depressed because of the
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    quantity of space they get for their money
    is pretty bad.
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    The problem is, like,
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    everybody is committed
    to something.
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    That is kind of why I really admire New York.
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    A lot of people are really intense.
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    They're here because they want to do things
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    and be surrounded with other crazy people.
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    But, because everybody wants to do that stuff,
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    they need to be in the studios or working,
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    so you never kind of, like, socialize with
    them.
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    It's kind of difficult to find them in the
    streets--
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    or to get together--
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    it's impossible because...
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    "Oh no, I need to..."
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    "I'm working..."
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    "Oh no, I need to do this..."
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    So, now time and space,
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    it doesn't, kind of, connect.
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    I decided I was going to move out.
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    I was like, "Okay, I'm leaving New York,"
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    "I should go to Mexico City and try a new
    life there."
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    ["Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New
    York"]
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    [Alejandro's apartment, Williamsburg]
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    Oh no, messy!
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    I'm not good at making plans.
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    I always wait until the last minute
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    because you never know, you know?
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    It's just, that commitment--
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    I cannot do it.
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    That commitment kills me.
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    But yeah, now I have that one-way ticket to
    Mexico City.
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    When I bought the ticket, I had three weeks
    to pack my apartment--
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    to pack my studio.
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    Sell things. Bye bye.
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    But, as soon I was going to arrive to Mexico,
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    I had to kind of go crazy,
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    because I had to finish a new set of videos
    and photos
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    for my gallery in Mexico.
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    And I was like, thinking,
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    "Well, I just graduated from Hunter,"
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    "I should do it here."
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    "And I still have three more weeks."
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    "A prime spot in New York."
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    "I have a studio. Come on, just use it."
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    ["Better to have loved and lost than never
    to have loved at all" (2014)]
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    I had an idea of this project.
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    Just, like, experiment with materials and
    objects underwater.
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    So, I went to Phoenix this summer
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    because we had access to pools.
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    My favorite painters were the Dutch
    vanitas painting.
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    It's really attached to my work, in a way,
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    because they used objects
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    and they make this kind of relationship with them.
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    There's always these small details.
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    "There's a fly there."
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    It deals with death.
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    It deals with time passing, you know?
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    Beauty, decay.
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    There's no pool.
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    I asked people around.
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    "Do you know somebody with a pool? Jacuzzi?
    Whatever?"
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    And, yeah, definitely not.
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    --Okay, let's do this!
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    I say, "Okay, how difficult would it be to
    make a tank?"
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    So I look on the Internet,
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    and people do, like, plywood aquariums.
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    They make a sturdy, really nice box.
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    You can fill it with water.
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    I hope that one is going to be okay.
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    It has a bunch of silicone and...
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    you know, we'll see.
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    --Alright!
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    I filled it with water.
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    I was afraid that just, like,
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    one ton of water was going through my studio
    like The Shining.
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    --God, we have a leak here!
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    Whatever, you know?
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    It's going to be a leaking tank.
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    And we'll have a river here,
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    and shooting...
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    it's going to be wet.
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    It seems...
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    the time limitations by now,
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    and the technical issues, I've been having
    so much...
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    I think I have like,
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    "Okay, Alejandro, just focus on some, really,"
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    "Three, two objects. Let's create something
    with a minimum."
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    I have to say, I'm really excited about that.
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    --So big! Goddamn it!
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    --Can I have one pound?
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    --How much is this?
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    --$3.50.
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    --Oh yeah. Ah, why not.
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    I've got some eggplant...phallic.
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    Eggplants, bananas, cherries...
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    I think the cherries don't float.
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    Chinatown in my favorite place in New York
    City.
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    It's one of the most untouched places.
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    With attitude.
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    If you want to buy one nail, you can buy one
    nail, you know?
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    Not in this corporate...
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    Chinatown feels like more downtown Mexico City.
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    They're breaking so many rules--
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    like, urban rules of New York City.
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    It's messy. It's hectic.
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    It's how, like, a city should be.
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    I had a tank--a fish tank--when I was a teenager,
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    and I loved that stuff.
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    I loved how things behaved underwater.
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    I've always been, kind of, interested in
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    boats, submarines,
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    Jacques Cousteau.
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    Here, on the surface, everything is just,
    like, stays put--
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    the gravity.
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    In the water, you can use those, kind of...
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    those levitations to kind of create different
    sculptures, in a way.
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    It's pretty spectacular.
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    Here, it's getting kind of boring;
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    sculpture is so grounded, like a monument.
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    So I wanted sculpture like this, kind of floats around.
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    It's going to levitate.
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    --Moving day.
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    I have to say that I think everybody in the
    world
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    should live in New York at least one or two
    years,
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    to just, kind of, make sense.
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    --Alright, I think I'm more or less ready.
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    But, it's not the only lifestyle you can have.
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    It's not the only way of doing things.
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    --It's not so bad.
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    --[LAUGHS] Yeah!
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    --Yeah.
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    --Goddamn it, the keys...alright.
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    I never, kind of, think about the future.
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    I don't put plans on that, you know?
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    So, it's always transition for me.
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    Going to Mexico right now, it's in a bad situation.
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    A political crisis
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    A lot of crime.
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    It's funny, sometimes when I move cities,
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    it's, you know, the worst time ever,
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    you know?
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    It's kind of something though, to look for...
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    looking for trouble, you know?
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    So I might escape from Mexico City, you know?
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    I might go to L.A. and escape from there.
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    I have to escape all the time.
Title:
Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New York | Art21 "New York Close Up"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"New York Close Up" series
Duration:
10:21

English subtitles

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