Part 22 of an interview series in which I invite artists to respond to six questions about art, process, and creativity (previous interviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). I am honoured this time to post an interview with +Juanli Carrión, a multimedia artist who was born in Spain and now resides in New York City. I was fortunate enough to encounter him when I entered a silent auction and won the right to commission a small print from him. іGracias, Juanli!
Philip Hartigan: What medium do you chiefly use, and why?
Juanli Carrion: My main medium is site-specific interventions, and then photography, video, installation, sculpture and drawing as a result of the mentioned interventions. My creative process works as a reaction to a situation or in some cases as an encounter between a pre-existing idea and the location of the right place at the right time. For these reasons every project talks about a specific concept in place and time, and that's why site-specific is the medium that better fits my practice.
 |
| Flyer (performance) |
Juanli Carrion: My main medium is site-specific interventions, and then photography, video, installation, sculpture and drawing as a result of the mentioned interventions. My creative process works as a reaction to a situation or in some cases as an encounter between a pre-existing idea and the location of the right place at the right time. For these reasons every project talks about a specific concept in place and time, and that's why site-specific is the medium that better fits my practice.
Philip Hartigan: What piece are you currently working on?
Juanli Carrion: I just finished my new project Opus 2012, a multimedia art project that brings together video, music composition, performance, photography and site specific intervention in the landscape to stage the current situation of Western society on a political and existential level via the union of the universe (as macrocosm) and the theatre of politics (as microcosm). Opus 2012 uses Mozart's opera Don Giovanni as a basis for its development. It presents President Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union Address as an opera performed in the North Mexican desert.
 |
| Individual (installation) |
Juanli Carrion: I have a background in music as a piano player, but it's been more than 10 years since I played. With the last project I have rediscovered music as a medium for visual art. It's a medium in which I am still very comfortable, and which I am already thinking about using for upcoming projects.
Philip Hartigan: What other artistic medium (or non-artistic activity) feeds your creative process?
Juanli Carrion: Literature, for its ability to create new realities that can be interpreted in so many different way for each reader. That's probably what feeds me most these days.
 |
| Kei Seki (installation) |
Juanli Carrion: It was actually an installation I did in college in which I created a cubicle made of wood and fabric with a pool three inches deep inside it, and a chair inside the pool. Visitors were invited to take off their shoes and take a seat in the chair, then put their feet in the water and watch a series of videos projected in three of the fabric walls of the cubicle. The videos I projected contained images that questioned the idea of memory.
Philip Hartigan: Finally, and you can answer this in any way that’s meaningful to you: why are you an artist?
Juanli Carrion: I am an artist because if not I would be in jail.
If you liked this interview, and you'd like to keep up to date with the series, why not Subscribe, or sign-up via Google Connect, using one of the options over on the right? Thanks, and keep creating.