Noticias
Formed by 43 object art boxes
Marcela Lobo opens her Reading the past exhibition in France
March 15, 2016Paris.- Mexican artist Marcela Lobo (1959) who has explored for nearly 30 years multiple artistic disciplines such as ceramics, engraving, decorative arts and photography, opened her Reading the past exhibition made up of 43 object art works, last Friday, March 11 at the Institute of Mexico in Paris.
The exhibition is on display for the first time in France and was set up at the Centro Nacional de las Artes (National Arts Center) of Mexico City last year, where it was inaugurated by Secretary of Culture of the federal government, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa.
Marcela Lobo's works have been exhibited in several parts of Mexico, the United States, France and Portugal. Reading the past will remain in Paris until April 27th before traveling to the Juan Soriano Foundation in Poland and then expected to go to Italy. The opening of the exhibition in the French capital was attended by the Ambassador of Mexico in France, Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo.
Marcela Lobo's object art pieces illustrate her most intimate memories, those ranging from her childhood to maturity, and she does it in a delicate way through her own language: a fine setting that invites the viewer to reflect on the passing of time.
In a constant search for the development of her esthetics, Marcela Lobo has continued to undertake numerous cultural experiences to learn new and diverse artistic practices and enrich both her technical mastery, and her pictorial language.
-Where does your inspiration come from?
My creativity came to me since I can remember. I have always had a special interest in culture, music, I am a painter, a photographer and now I'm experimenting with object art. This exhibition was inspired by the idea of losing a past. Some time ago I was a victim of this. My house, together with all my belongings left with a hurricane, all my things were lost and I felt that my past was gone too. So I started to collect things, all kinds of objects that ended up in these 43 boxes that I show in Paris now and that talk about my childhood, my adolescence, my adult life and my maturity. The exhibition is the result of my need to recover my past that Nature took away, but also the time.
-In formal terms, color is perhaps the most characteristic element of your artistic production. What tradition do you catalog your artwork? What artists influence it?
My country influences strongly, I come from a very colorful place that produced great geniuses of color, to mention but a few, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros. However, I would say that my biggest influence I owe to the French Fauves: Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin.
-How do you learn the language of color?
I do not know. I can only say that I bring it inside me.
-In your nearly 30-year career as an artist could you make an analysis of the current situation of Mexican art? How do you think has changed the attitude and the look of the Mexican public towards art?
Contemporary art is what interests today. As much as we resist to change our taste, at the end of the day you just give in without realizing it. Young people are not longer interested in Renoir or Van Gogh, what they seek is conceptual art, we must accept that it is the taste of our time. However, I do not consider myself contemporary or conceptual. My work is very easy to see, to read, to show, to understand and collect, with formats that still fit in the room of a house.
- 'What future do you think has the Mexican art within the convulsive art market?
-Well, I think there are very few who manage to go abroad and successfully position themselves in the art market and they are usually always the same.
-And in this sense, do you think that the national talent is supported? What is the role of institutions in this regard?
The institutions do everything they can with the budget they have. It would be great, that everyone could show and go out, but we are many artists and it is impossible that institutions can protect us all. Besides the support I have received from institutions such as the Ministry of Culture, or the Institute of Mexico in Paris, I also make a great personal work with my own, because it is very difficult to be represented by a gallery in Mexico and usually they always take the same artists to international fairs.
-What represents Paris in Marcela Lobo´s work?
-Well, there is a work in the exhibition entitled Siempre quiero a Paris (I always want to go to Paris), whether for one night or a few days, I always make a stop in this city. The art is breathed in the street, for its historical museums, its constant cultural events. This place is a constant inspiration. Besides, my grandfather was born here.
-How you do these two cultures you were raised coexist through art?
For me it's not about two different cultures, for me is one. I grew up with my grandfather's education, who among many things, we inherited his taste for good food, which I consider an art too. For me, French culture has never been foreign. Most of the objects exhibited that I have brought to Mexico come from the mitic Flea market thanks to my constant trips to this city.
With your exhibition Reading the past, you introduce us in your privacy as we were observers of your life. Tell me what past is that and its interpretation…
It's really a reading of my own story. But what's fun about this exhibition is that many people when seeing objects find one that reminds them of their past. The exhibition is full of cliches in that regard. References where people find their own childhood or their teens, or some particular object that hides a personal story. These stories began as mine, but ended up being common to all.
-What is your fetish object? That is, the things that attracted the most attention you or attracted your curiosity.
Dolls, definitively. As a child I always played with them. I had an early motherhood with my dolls! That's why I identify myself a lot with the art of Katy Horna because in her work we find this same obsession with dolls.
If you were in a Contemporary Art Fair as Zona Maco or FIAC Paris with the variety of works that are there, that is, from the most classic to the most absurd, what would you buy?
-There are few things that attract me of these fairs. However, I love going because you see the incredible. I definitely choose photography in these events.
Your first solo exhibition in Paris, Colores de México (Colours of Mexico) also shown at the Institute of Mexico in '98, how did your esthetic concerns evolve today?
It was an extremely colorful exhibition in ‘98, and in comparisson with the one I just opened, there is a clear change, an evolution and maturity of my work. I started with painting and finished with object art. And I would like to bring a photograph exhibition. Between that first exhibition and this one, I would say there is a marked maturity of many years of work. I am now much more settled, more sure of my work and my style, with much more development for having more exhibitions in other countries. And in that sense, Paris always makes me feel like home, I have never felt intimidated to show here.
-How do you update your art? What made you go from painting to object art?
With painting I felt I had painted enough and should move. Photography serves me to escape when I want to update my art, I have been doing it for a long time. For this exhibition in particular I had collected many things in my studio and started making a box for me, and then I continued to do so until it was necessary to make an exhibition. The main thing is that the objects I use have its own history. They belonged to someone else, but I brought them out of its original context and introduce to my life, to tell my past, though these objects already have its own. Hence the title of the exhibition: Reading the past with objects that belonged to others.
For the important role of color in your work, I'll say a series of words or concepts and you answer me the first thing that comes into your head:
-Red
-Me
-Blue
-Sky
-Black
-Sadness
-Breakup
-Life
-Tradition
-Mexico
–Matisse.
-Inspiration
What color will you give the following concepts?
-Desire
-Red
-Transgression
-Green
-Music
-Purple
-Mexico
-All the colors
Mexico,Distrito Federal
