“When creating abstract art, I felt excluded from feminist exhibitions”

The workspace is practically empty: toda la obra ya ha sido transportada to go to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, which increases our curiosity about his new pieces.

On refined sensitivity and above, on the bottom, intuitive and A warm reference to geometric abstraction they are used in industrial materials such as foams, polyurethanes, wires and packaging scraps, giving life to materials that have become completely despised these days.

Please.how is it

Response. Nervous.

P. Why?

R. It is the first time that I am presenting works from different phases in such a museum; never had it before.

P. Is it a retrospective?

R. Yes. Commissioner Rocío de la Villa selected the work of the last ten years.

P. Cuéntenos, ¿qué podremos ver?

R. If it is titular Inside and outside the brand and represents piezas que They are not painted in the traditional sense. The title refers to the fact that from now on I work with everything that gnaws at a work of art: its structural elements that define a painting without being a painting; materials, in appearance, secondary.

P. I find it amazing that this work goes into dialogue with pieces from the museum’s own collection. How did they choose these items? Are there direct links to your work?

R. This aspect is special. They forced me to make a decision once I picked my pieces. I have been to the museum several times to examine the collection and select those names and works to discuss formally with mi trabajo. There are works in the exhibition hall and others must be defeated by the small hundreds wasted for the collection: three in concrete.

“I try to make my work more sustainable because I use very toxic and industrial materials”

P. For example, create a piece starting with a Kurt Schwitters song: Merzbild Kijkduin (1923).

R. It gave me a lot of illusions to create a new piece for this project. As I went through the collection of these steps, suddenly there was a picture of Schwitters that I did not know, and I saw a new production. It’s such a piece It is between painting and sculpture: It is a geometric composition that starts from the rest and has a slightly playful point, as if it were a game, which attracted me a lot.

P. What other items from the collection will accompany you?

R. There is the wonderful Joseph Albers, Theo van Doesburg, Nikolái Suetin, Moholy-Nagy, as well as the Anunciación de Bellini, which goes into dialogue with the plinth that once won the Alhambra prize. And Degas from the Carmen Thyssen collection, He stands in the forest1867-1868, who conducts a dialogue with a piece of green lila. This picture might be one of my favorites: it is a vision of the much-anticipated landscape, abstract monochrome. I scratched and painted; The process layer has a lot of space.

P. What materials will we see?

R. Hay cardboard, foam and soundproof foam. It’s the materials—especially the newest ones—that have one constructive character and forms part of architectural practice; I’m thinking about saving money by eating my capas. What I want is to save the light.

P. How do you work with him?

R. When I think of remaining hidden, I have no care for them: they are damaged by the factory, and this gives me some anxiety. Adamas, use of materials, labeling and two uses for those not designed; voy contra su naturaliza.

P. If “all art is political”, what is the political dimension of your work?

R. The subject of industrialization and the use of synthetic materials and their subsequent contamination is the garden. I try to be much more sustainable because I make from very toxic materials. Now I make from recycled paper, I am forced to change. They actually gave me a new production aid from the Ministry of Culture to make this transition because recycled materials are much more expensive.

P. Do you think that has affected the reception of your work?

R. No self; personal level was algo que don’t worry about me.

P. How do you define your work?

R. It is a very difficult question. I come out of the picture and feel like I’m trying to paint. I seem to keep my work very thought out and well planned but I never have any problems. I work on a wave of immediacy, of what happens in the higher: times and materialsput them in a studio and see how they talk.

P. Usted, ¿qué le inspira?

R. Los polígonosindustrias, honestly. Also art transporters, the way they have to package and protect the works; carpinteros muzeí… Industrial processes tempt me a lot, looking for a factory without any predispositions. It’s a rather old process: I ask myself what I choose objects for, because I like the color or the texture, which I call “the time of the material”. Materials change in higher ones: they must coexist between them and with other elements of the workspace. And this time we lift the taller one during work.

P. Is the influence of other artists a trick or a gimmick?

R. I don’t see it that way. Looking at other artists is always an inspiration or stimulus. He accused me of having a very variable job. The market asked me to buy the streak a bit. yeah I am concerned about this and need to try other thingsthough obviously all my work is done with the previous one.

P. Are you free to create or is the market too strong?

R. I ran into this problem but moved on from it. For me, this was one of the reasons to stop painting at this point.

P. Why do you want to create?

R. Geometric abstraction worked very well at the market level, and it seemed that I could do nothing else: I was completely suffocated because I did not encounter surprises. It was a violent coup. I have not been able to work for many years, in a state of anxiety, even in this crisis, fortunately God wishes another new line of work, because the process of observation is a lot. I kept going to the studio and doing seemingly unproductive things like reading or watching a movie, but it feeds you a lot.

P. We talk about the market: what do you think about the price of galleys for the reduction of cultural VAT?

R. I think it is insufficient. We have to have more radical proposals because this is a structural problem; Let’s talk about all of them. In the end, many helpful gestures – like last year’s event at ARCO – are forgotten.

“The price of goods including VAT is insufficient, helpful gestures are ignored”

P. We conduct this research in our studio, specifically on the famous ship Porto de Carabanchel. What does this collective creative experience bring you to your work?

R. I have been here since 2003. Taller charms me; Everything goes there. It is very important to me. I prefer working in a company like ours here, where the doors are not closed. I work hard and go deep into the people who bother me because of the conversations we have. I took a few minutes to consult with my Porto colleagues. Otherwise, I don’t participate in the creative process, and I feel bad when my companions aren’t there.

P. Why did you decide to study fine art?

R. I come from an artistic family. My father was a painter; I have sculptor tío abuelo: Enrique and Manuel Álvarez-Laviada. My father was self-taught and could not pursue a career, although he died at 38. Oh, here’s a very important point: throughout a generation of artists, I’ve been held by the hand and taken to my heels to enjoy it. I’m always clear about that.

P. Usted is a professor at the faculty.

R. I went as a docent, even though I was not entitled to an academic career. Giving me an hour, no matter how uncertain it was, was a duty: I came here with the support of the public and by teaching I can give back what I got. However, I believe that what is happening in the faculties in Berlin, Austria or London is much more interesting: these are more tutored processes.

P. Have you thought about going to Spain?

R. Yes, I thought so, but it is something that, as you know, cannot be given. I have been traveling to Madrid since 2001 and yes, I never had an individual until Juan Silió last year.

P. Have you ever thought about ending your art practice?

R. No, no, no. As I say: This is a story of obsession. Unless you were a little obsessed, you weren’t capable. It’s a tare for good and bad.

P. What exhibit have you seen recently that sparked this obsession?

R. I mean I have very little art because it bothers me a lot. They bring me other areas of culture, such as reading or cinema; I didn’t go deep enough, but Jannis Kounellis in Es Baluard charmed me; also Cristina Mejías in Matadero and Luis Claramunt in Ehrhardt Flórez. Maravillas extremes.

P. Su Commissionaria is one of the most recognized general theories in the country. How does geometric abstraction coexist with gender discourse?

R. I’m not starting from the general discussion, but yes there is work on objects: presence and absence, positive and negative, or relief and emptiness. And something very interesting that Rocío has been working on is this incorporation: geometric abstraction into a general discussion. It is true that my work has never been present in collective feminist exhibitions, because my art is perceived as something very fresh, very hard and even masculine.

P. Have you seen the exclusion of art circles for being a woman and doing abstract art?

R. Yes. I believe that this assumption has a somewhat reductive vision. It is clear that text art or specific themes are much more tied to a woman and that visions of this were also some ideas that appealed to her as well. I didn’t feel excluded from the art world in general, except for feminist designs.