“We live in the future, including when we think about the past”

Between the historiographical and the speculative, the metaliterary and the plastic the artist works surgically with her stories, expressions and dissections, which has been confirmed by her most important recognitions, such as the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas (2021) or the representation of Spain at the Venice Biennale (2011).

From the door of this issue, we think about the project in a special way Phrase of goldand deepen our knowledge.

Please. Sus Phrase of gold have been converted into cult quotes. Between a lecture and an aphorism, slogan or sloganthey are ambiguous statements that leave the viewer confused. How did this project come about?

Response. In 2002, I launched a series of collections with ambition reconnect – in four lines at most – all the stories of the world. As I work on this review, I keep thinking that it would be good to collect phrases that I like, that’s the criteria.

»I am interested in your abilities to retain many feelings at times, to be mysterious and clear, to be able to think about cases as vital directions. I begin to collect phrases and then, to give them all the dignity and importance I create, I write them in gold to make them monumental.

P. The future must be dangerous, Phrase of gold which responds to the central theme of the fair “ARCO2045: The Future, Now”, has been returned in different materials. What did the phrase mean now, and what does it mean now, in a present marked by the rhetoric of security and insecurity?

R. To be alive is to think there is a future. You cannot live without faith in him, because you can only love. When we think, we always make the future happen. When we make things, we make them for what will sell, for those who will sell.

»We live in the future even as we think about the pastbecause we show it continuously. The past is never the past (as I say, I believe the record, William Faulkner), but it’s very hard to believe in it when it’s in the middle of a genocide, when you know your children could die at any moment. For example, in 2002 – when there were different crimes, different deaths – as now, the phrase is positive and calls for action and no disappointment. Affirm that it is not necessary to be safe to believe it, that there is no such safety, that it is always a risk, and that we must believe in it in order to live.

P. Cualquier pregunta debe evitar a toda costa una respuesta y El arte es para todos, pero sólo una élite lo sabe; son afirmaciones que desactivan los roles del sistema del arte. ¿Cuánto hay de político en ellos?

R. Al contrario que Wim Wenders en su vergonzosa afirmación en la Berlinale –”nosotros (a los artistas se refiere, imagino) no debemos meternos en política”–, yo creo que todo es política, desde la crianza, al amor, a la comida, a la vejez, al sexo… Y desde luego, el arte es política, el sistema del arte es política, pero también lo que yo hago con mi tiempo, lo que se llama “mi trabajo”, es absolutamente político.

P. ¿Cuál de los peligros que nos azotan le preocupa más?

R. El capitalismo y sus derivados. Lo más peligroso del mundo es pensar que el dinero importa más que la vida.

P. Su trayectoria ha estado vinculada a la literatura, conformando sus piezas como artefactos narrativos desde lo performático hasta lo objetual. ¿Qué hace de las historias de otros un material tan dúctil?

R. Creo que solo podemos conocer y llegar al mundo si lo contamos. Existe porque lo narramos, y por tanto, creo que la narrativa sostiene el mundo.

“Me gusta desmontar la idea de éxito, que es tan mentirosa y conveniente para la injusticia”

P. También se asocia su trayectoria a personajes marginales o inadecuados, a la idea de fracaso o de un arte imposible como en 100 obras de arte imposibles (2001) y El artista sin obra (2009). ¿Qué le interesa de la cara B del mundo? ¿Hay algún personaje real o de ficción con el que sienta hoy una afinidad inesperada?

R. “Todas las familias felices se parecen pero las desdichadas lo son a su manera” o “Solo hay dos tipos de artistas: los fracasados y los desconocidos”, son algunas frases que me han acompañado toda mi vida. Creo que aquellos a quienes llaman “perdedores” son quienes sostienen el mundo, y me gusta desmontar la idea de éxito, que es tan mentirosa y conveniente para la injusticia. Alguien especial… ¡Cipión y Berganza!

P. Usted reside en Oslo y su trabajo ha tenido desde el principio de su trayectoria una gran repercusión internacional. ¿Cómo ha influido esa experiencia en la manera en que piensa su práctica?

R. Resido en Oslo no porque sea artista internacional sino porque allí está la única escuela que me dio un trabajo de profesora [Oslo National Academy of the Arts]. I believe that the international experience is not yet and certainly never has been something special: Artists have always tried to support themselves, as students, immigrants, sometimes as refugees.

P. If you have associated your work with a mysterious and complex development that requires a quick explanation. What do you think about this demand for mediation and intelligibility in contemporary art?

R. Art does not interest or explain, on the contrary I believe that when you are “bound” by a work of art, you are “careful”and precisely because you do not understand everything, even if you know who is asking you and who needs to be contigo. But it is also the back of the viewer that I work on others that seem boring, difficult or pedantic.

P. In a context like ARCO, do you think the market has learned to relate to the immateriality of the artwork, or does it continue to demand quantifiable “objects”?

R. The truth is, I believe that an art fair is the worst place for art (although it is good to buy and sell it). I believe that art requires attention, a dimension that cannot be maintained at an art fair, be it an immaterial or material work. But I also believe that it is possible, with effort, to find ways to display art in a dignified manner during the holidays.

P. What projects are you working on?

R. I am very early in the above project end and resurrection. Ambitious, I… I want to do short chapters until I arm myself.