00:03For me, art is the answer to questions I hadn't consciously asked myself.
00:07and that are slowly revealed as they happen.
00:12Today I realize that I've always had the same concerns.
00:17and that have been carried out in very different ways.
00:24Generally I have been fragmenting, fragmenting the wood, fragmenting.
00:30The garden, almost all my constructions are made from fragments.
00:37And I always thought that this fragmentation is meant to bring us back together.
00:43to recreate what is no longer there.
00:47But now I wonder what unites us,
00:51because in my work I talk a lot about union with the other.
00:55And from that fragmentation I ask myself, what unites us?
01:10This was something completely different.
01:14It was very compartmentalized, an old building with low ceilings.
01:21And something told me, this is the place I've been intuitively searching for forever.
01:27And I started to renovate it, I tore everything down and little by little something started to come together.
01:33which has a lot to do with the ideal I dreamed of.
01:37Here I am at home, but I'm not at home.
01:41And as I was telling you, well, I go out into the garden and enter through the garden to enter another place.
01:47These are two spaces I like; they also allow me to work as long as I want.
01:57until I get tired, until I don't want any more.
02:01Because then I go back the way I go straight to my house and I go right in.
02:26I've been living here for about 10 years.
02:28I arrived at a white space.
02:30I wanted to start from scratch.
02:32The wall is white, the floor is white, everything is white.
02:34That it would allow me to enter and feel it, not with the burden, however good or bad it might be,
02:42It had nothing to do with a judgment regarding that charge, but...
02:47I also work in a very organic way.
02:53Ideas keep coming to me, and those ideas are inviting me to work.
02:58from other materials, other ways.
03:02To be honest, I don't like to repeat myself.
03:07Once I've found a way to do something or an idea that I've developed to a certain point,
03:14Suddenly another one comes in that I want to go in and do.
03:18I've found that way here.
03:20In other words, that white cube I entered allowed me to do, for example,
03:28something I had intuitively wanted to get out of the frame for a long time.
03:33Making paintings.
03:35I had all these wall hangings here, freestanding and without a frame.
03:41that it would fall as I wished.
03:46I really don't have a routine for anything.
03:49I don't arrive at the same time, nor in the same way.
03:53If I've left a project unfinished, it's very likely I'll sit down for a while in front of it.
04:00and meditate on it and get closer to the work that is pending.
04:06If there's nothing else to do, it's very likely I'll arrive and read for a while.
04:13I looked for a while, I looked outside.
04:15I suddenly do some gardening for a while, because I am the gardener.
04:20And it's a space in the garden and in the shower where I get the ideas that come to me like that.
04:30And I say, well, they will be valid, they will not be valid.
04:33That's a different matter altogether.
04:35Whether they are carried out or not.
04:39Each place has allowed me to work on pieces in different ways.
04:45Every place has its own energy and every place invites you to work, to approach it in one way or another.
04:56I work very organically, I just let things happen.
05:00And what I was telling you about the garden that I just hung on the ceiling
05:04and that it is a garden that I had already exhibited twice, always against the wall,
05:10Since I no longer have storage space, which is the truth,
05:16because that garden is stored in 40 boxes like a herbarium,
05:21I decided to take it out, but not to take up space on my walls, which are work walls.
05:27And I began to put it against the ceiling, suspended from the ceiling.
05:32And honestly, I feel that it's because the place allowed it for me,
05:36The workshop invited me to do it; not having the space, but having the space on the roof.
05:47This new organization allowed me to do so.
05:54The most spectacular workshop was the studio where he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris,
06:03because it was full of movement, other artists from all over the world,
06:09that we were all trying to create the same image, whether it was a model,
06:15The concerns were quite similar.
06:19And I found that place as if I were transported to an unreal, extraordinary world,
06:27and worked every day with...
06:31It wasn't even that we were friends, there was a lot of camaraderie.
06:37But there was something, there was an absolutely extraordinary energy that united us.
06:43From there I was lucky enough to find a place on the outskirts of Paris,
06:51more or less at the same time, because I worked at the school almost every day,
06:57But I also worked at this place I found on the outskirts of Paris,
07:02No, I didn't really use it to live in, but I did use it as a workshop.
07:07I started sculpting with the sculptor César,
07:11which at that time in France was very...
07:15He was the great master of sculpture and I felt very privileged.
07:19Then I entered this house, which was an old manor house,
07:24that it had a theater, that it had its own little church,
07:28which had this other large space where I could work freely,
07:33what I would like.
07:38The little photo of Picasso.
07:41I entered the School of Fine Arts when I was 20 years old,
07:45completely in love with Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso.
07:50They were two images, two people, two artists who called to me in a total way.
08:00The night before entering the School of Fine Arts for the first time,
08:04going to school for the first time,
08:06I dreamt about Picasso.
08:08And the next day I opened a magazine that had a picture of Picasso.
08:14And I cut it out and put it in my workshop.
08:16And they've taken me all my life...
08:19I've been carrying it with me and the first thing I put on...
08:22And it's not that I think,
08:23I have been too critical of Picasso.
08:25I have other artists who suddenly interest me more than Picasso.
08:30But it was like a fetish.
08:33Now I always have a little something that my grandson made,
08:37which he handed over to me and said, "For your good luck."
08:41And that, for me, is the magic of today.
08:45Upon arriving in Colombia,
08:47I rented a workshop in the Left Forest.
08:52I worked there for a while.
08:54He was small and he was...
08:59At that moment I was...
09:01I was going to get married,
09:02I was going to have my own house,
09:04mine here in Bogotá,
09:06and a workshop we were building.
09:09The workshop in the Left Forest...
09:12Well, some strange things happened there.
09:15You really are strange.
09:17Because...
09:18It's a workshop that had a door that opened onto the street.
09:22A closed door.
09:26I left everything inside.
09:28My camera,
09:29my equipment, everything.
09:31I was never scared of anything.
09:33But it so happened that several times I found the door open.
09:37A chair looking at the painting I was doing at that moment.
09:43Next to it, an ashtray full of cigarette butts.
09:47From the same cigarette that I used to smoke back then,
09:49But he hadn't even taken one of my cigarettes.
09:54And it was someone who spent the night,
09:56because with so many cigarettes,
09:58Well, a lot of time must have passed.
10:00sitting in front of that painting.
10:04And I changed the lock.
10:08He went back inside.
10:10And it happened...
10:12I already had a curiosity,
10:14a scare under no circumstances,
10:17But I'm very curious to know who might be watching.
10:19at night, anyone who dared to enter a place,
10:23Well, it's not his.
10:25To smoke.
10:26And observe.
10:27And finally, my workshop is finished.
10:32And I left it.
10:35I gave it to a friend who is an artist.
10:39who knew someone was coming in,
10:42He changed the locks,
10:43Everything changed,
10:45He did it very, very bunker-like.
10:47and they entered.
10:49But no longer to observe,
10:51but things were stolen from him,
10:54They destroyed some things.
10:59I don't have an open workshop,
11:01so to speak.
11:03My friends come over when they want to see something.
11:07When suddenly,
11:09spontaneously,
11:10I'm in such a central location,
11:12so central,
11:13What do you tell me?
11:14what are you doing?
11:15Invite me for a coffee.
11:17Okay, here comes a person
11:18so we can chat for a while.
11:20Other great friends
11:23who are interested in the work,
11:27artists,
11:28What do you tell me?
11:30Invite me,
11:31I want to see what you're doing.
11:32Or what I say,
11:33come,
11:34I want you to take a look.
11:35I have some concerns
11:36And I invite you to come and see.
11:41That's a situation I love,
11:44when there is communion,
11:46when there is genuine communication,
11:51when a work is in progress
11:53and I can talk to her.
11:56That happens here in the workshop.
12:01But I can tell you
12:02which is almost always a workshop
12:03quite lonely,
12:05quite private.
12:06Because I feel comfortable,
12:09Being here is almost like a place
12:14which allows you to expand your imagination,
12:19but also feeling protected,
12:24being comfortable,
12:26having what I need at hand
12:29and I feel it's a place that suits me.
12:33And we've already talked about it.
12:36from other places,
12:38from a practical standpoint,
12:40but from that place,
12:41let's say,
12:42spiritual as well,
12:43I feel at peace,
12:45I feel like things are happening here
12:46which allows me to develop
12:50that part
12:54of communion with the present,
12:57of being here
12:59without needing to think about anything else.
13:02When I speak of spirituality, that's what I mean.
13:04being present with myself.
13:13Thank you!
