Monuments of my personal history, 2015-17
Painting and drawing serie serie mix technic on cloth and paper, ashes on paper and collection of found debris from buildings of Berlin that where destroyed during the second War at Teufelsberg.
Abismo Humano, curated by Lucas Cuturi. Show Room Las Francesas, Valladolid, 2016.
Zur Große bestimmt!, zuratet by Cornelius Grau. Künstlerhaus Dortmund, DE, 2018
BACOS Bienale for emerging art Eve-Maria Zimmerman, Tenerife, ES, 2018
Painting Award BACOS, Tenerife, ES
Monuments of my personal history questions the unilateral narration of history and the dichotomy of the perception of two places Devil´s Peak South Africa and Teufelsberg in Berlin.
The Legend of Jan van Hunks relates how the Devil dressed up as a man and challenged Jan van Hunks to a smoking competition. Jan van Hunks accepted and after smoking during a day, died, leaving a huge smoke cloud behind him, that is still to see above Devils Peak in Cape Town.
Years later, in 1971, during the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Republic in the city, the three airplanes Mercure, crashed in the middle of an air spectacle, provoking an explosion and a huge smoke cloud.
During months people picked up the debris that were spread all over the Devil´s Peak.
In a plain area, out of Berlin, the Nazi Regime inaugurated 1940 the prototype for the defence faculty, related to the project Germania, that pretended to be the World Capital City.
During the second War, lots of airplanes overflew Berlin bombing the buildings. After the war, the city was reduced to smoke clouds and debris.
As the War finished, the Nazi prototype for the defence faculty was destroyed and over it, thousand of cubic meters of debris from the old Berlin were placed, creating this way, one of the biggest mountain of the city. Teufelsberg. The Devil´s Mountain.
The conversation that never took place.
The Mourning/ El Luto
Memories/ or /Past Reality/ or /History/
How was reality. Past reality.
- It is called history.
It is called memory.
The particularities of the moment disappeared like a cloud. It changed into another.
it is still the same cloud, isn’t it?
I was never in this place.
I have a nostalgic feeling related to the past in this place.
- To your past?
I got lost.
The self deception/ El Autoengaño
/Relations/ or /Decisions/ or /Personal/
Imagine the place could change into another place. Same-same but different.
- You mean you can give the place a different context in order to change it?
Are this your personal relations?
Just Relations. Conspiracy is not an artist attitude.
It is what you do, isn’t it? Investigate, find some facts, relate them and then let the people reflect about this relations.
Take the words of philosophers, talk about post colonialism, about biographies of other people, about migratory movements and this kind of contemporary topics.
Is that what you want to do?
At the end all this proyects has something personal.
Al final todos los proyectos tienen algo personal.
The reflexion is personal
The decision is personal.
The acceptance/ La Aceptación
/Memories and perception/ or /Monuments of personal fiction/
The history of the place makes the place an scenario that pretends to be a monument.
Consciousness of history is a daily fiction that seems too far to be real.
Memories of experiences are a daily fiction that seem too closed and too real.
The memory of the perception of the place is as intense as life.
- The history of the place shouldn’t be forgotten.
A lived place seems to be a good place to make a monument of personal history.
The truth/ La Verdad
What (not) to do, to come out.
What (not) to say, to speak true.
What (not) to show, to be honest.
The Change/ El Cambio
/The Past/ or /superation/
I went back to the place and it was like a different place.
Also the monument wasn’t there anymore.
- Somebody took it?
Somebody changed it.
- Where is the monument now?
It is here, it is this.
Monuments change with time.
You changed?
01.MAY.2016-01.FEB.2018
/Monument of my personal history/
(…)
/ I /
I used to go to Drachenberg, when I was living in this part of Berlin.
I walked always the same way used to pick up stones from the old Berlin, the Berlin before the War, and I used to sit down to observe people flying kites.
There is a lot of wind there, normally.
Once I also flight there a Kite.
From Drachenberg you can see Teufelsberg, the Devil Mountain.
I don’t have almost photos from this time of my life, just this memories and the stones.
Yo solía ir mucho a Drachenberg cuando vivía en esa parte de Berlín.
Siempre iba por el mismo camino, recogía piedras del Berlin de antes de la Guerra y después me sentaba en la cima a ver cómo la gente volaba las cometas.
Suele hacer bastante viento ahí.
Una vez vole yo ahí también una cometa.
Desde Drachenberg se puede ver todo Teufelsberg, la Montaña del Diablo.
Casi no tengo fotos de esa época, solo los recuerdos y las piedras.