I do not have one specific artwork, I have several artists from which I study in depth their work and writings.
In painting, the light hues of Turner and the sensibility of Rothko. The simplicity of the light of Lacamera, the versatility of Picasso, Kandinsky’s art theory, the works of Joseph Beuys, the anthropophagy of Oswald de Andrade. From Argentina, the depth of Lilianca Maresca, the honesty of Gripo, the poetry of Leon Ferrari and everything related to Luis Felipe Noe. Authors like Lao Tse, Platon, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Arnheim, Umberto Eco, Zygmunt Bauman, among several others that influeced and continue to infuencing and teaching me.
Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
The word memory in Argentina, as mentioned before, is intimately linked to a specific historical context. I believe that memory forms part of identity and at the same time, I consider that many communication problems arise because of identity, because of not being sure who we are in the world, at least that is the paradigm in Argentina, since it a recurring matter. Nationalism and cultures are nowadays blurred, as the writer Julio Cortazar once said. It might depend to what do you link identity to: is it your education? Is it your social class? Is it your neighbourhood? The process creates uncertainty, uncertainty is dangerous. If error has transformed animals into men, we could say that memory has a role in the human development. It is there where my interest lies and where I research on memory, and I as, as did Nietzsche, could we be capable of becoming animals on the name of truth? Again, paradox presents itself in my creative process. At the same time, as stated by the last law of the Gestalt, what we percieve in the present is conditioned by our previous experience. that is why I question regularly concepts that I use to define the world or to self-define me. I am also a story I tell myself, and on this path I could create false memories. hence, at certain point, I gather images and sensations, I put them under the magnifying glass to study and rethink them. And these same images are doors to different worlds. Cryptomnesia plays a big role in the process. In my performace “Removing Veils”, memory is present when I place myself, my personality and my whole human baggage at the height of the mask and the garments present in the performatic space as elements to travel through the world. Memory is a tool that can be used to mask or unmask. Deconstructing these concepts to rethink and refind ourselves are the elements of my quest and give way to my visual productions.
What is the role of technique in your practice? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating?
Depending on what I want to say I use different languages. Sometimes it is best through performance and the Didjeridoo, like In “Building My Mandala”, which represents the different vibration grades that occur when I present a performance or I paint. For the latter, I tend to use figurative images to connect with abstract images. Arnheim stated that we think in images, and that when we do not understand something we look in our archive of mental images what looks most alike to this thought. I think that landscapes are a step towards these abstract feelings and concepts. In “States of Being”, I provide this toehold as a bridge or key to other possibilities and I subjectively call it eternal, immutable. The immutable is related to my Qigong practice and the reading of the Tao but other people will call it otherwise. My creative process is rhizomatic, you never know where it starts or where it ends, but if a take just one part the process to a close up I could say that I regularly act first from intuition followed by the intellect. Exercising these two brains is a daily job.
How do you see the relationship between emotional and intellectual perception of your work? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience?
As I said previously, it is an exercise to get harmony between both brains. Not too emotional or naive nor too racional and tangible. A healthy relationship so as to define it somehow. “States of Being” might be more autobiographic about my path, since it is crossed by different philosophical, sociological, psychoanalytic, scientific currents and body practices, cultural cosmovisions, perception and art theories, all part of my being. I consider the contemplation of nature extremely important. Half the time invested in my works are observing. Nature is filled with information and meaning. it is mother earth, I go to her to see her shapes and listen to her colours. I always learn things from her.
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Federico. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?
For the moment, I am going to try to solely dedicate myself to creating art in Berlin, especifically the last pieces for the “States of Being” series and some other projects that include installations and performances that I already have in mind. As for art therapy I plan to create an art workshop for people in a vulnerable situation. I find it gratifying to share my experience and my tools to others, and viceversa, their’s shared with me. In October I am going back to Argentina to take part of a solo exposition at the French Alliance of Buenos Aires where I will showcase “Carnet de Voyage”, a series of travelling pen sketches I did while backpacking through Europe for one year.