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ARTIST'S STATEMENT
The
West has built its culture on the idea that man is placed in the
center of the universe, controlling everything and explaining
things he does not understand in whatever manner suits him best.
We have moved away from the fundamental values of nature,
locking ourselves in an artificial and virtual modernity; We've
lost the notion that life is equally physical and that, in all
domains, we create meaning with the materials as much as with
the spirits.
I have settled here, in this mountain, to experience an
everyday life of nature and geological rhythms that help me find
a sense of equilibrium.
The studio is the space I built taking into consideration of
the work patterns, circulation of light ,and my own movement
depending on my different activities and their required
concentration. I do not like disorder in the studio. There has
to be a certain control over the space, as with meditation, an
ease that may take me further than the gesture itself. I don't
work on the object for a result alone, but on an intuition, a
force that surpasses the object and drives back the limits of
its form .
My studio is built in nature. Nature enters my studio.
Silence and nature's sounds permeate my work I "do" and then I
am what I have done; It's not me who defines or decides. I am
what escapes me
There is a strong awareness of time due to rhythmic
transformation of materials, gestures that become a reflection
of time, and the length of time: precise periods when the clay
dries ,stacks of wood cut years , the repetition of firings, the
long time cooling of the glass after sharp rises in
temperature...All of these easily take place in the silence.
I've always been conscious of human being a part of the
mineral universe. Since the beginning of my work in Clay in
1968, I've always approached the material as if it were a" field
of possibilities", a base of experimentation and reflection. I
give no more importance to concept than to the material as if it
and reflection. I give no more importance to concept than to the
material itself: each contributes to set something I call
"energies".
The years I spent working on these materials, that the
uninitiated might call inert, have brought me the idea of
constant movement in the universe: nothing is fixed. Ceramics
and glass are composed of minerals that we mix and fire in
different ways depending on what we're looking for or trying to
obtain. The fusion of minerals has become the constant in my
work , placed before form, color, or installation on specific
sites.
Something I often think about is the question of exactness,
Similar to the "satori" in Japanese Zen: that particular moment
when the condition is right. For what reason, and when, should
we consider an object or an action correct, to what state of
equilibrium of imbalance are we referring?
The same glaze can be fired to different temperatures, at
different speeds, in different atmospheres and give a thousand
different results.
There's a particular moment, or several brief moments, when
our eyes or mind find satisfaction; there are even more times or
states of mind when this satisfaction is "not enough" or "too
much" ...why, what does this mean?
The forms I've been experimenting with are always simple.
More than just geometric forms--circles, triangles, lines...They
are concentrated forms--"human signs", that I repeat in
different variations depending on my moods or the possibilities
available. Repetition can also be a way of neutralizing the
problem of form in favor of observing the varying phenomena of
transforming materials--an access to the notion of chance. The
notion of pleasure and liberty count a great deal in this type
of decision.
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