Ander Azpiri

How would you describe your relationship with your art?

As a way to consider new hypothesis, to interpret and interact with reality, art allows imagining other possibilities. Through the years, being an artist and thinking in terms of art have made intuition my main tool. I rely on intuition in many aspects of my life. But in a more material sense, I’m kind of a gatherer, constantly picking up feathers, dead bugs, sounds, meanings or images, and trying combinations with them.

You use different mediums from photography to installation art, what is your preferred medium?

I think of myself as a sculptor, and also as a draughtsman. And I like to uphold these words, somehow anachronistic. Several of my works can change their appearance depending on where they are situated. My installations are responses to places and situations, interactions of objects and materials with certain environments. Even when I work with the photographic image, I tend to think about it as an object, as a corporeal element that is displayed in space. In fact, those works are not single photos, but groups of photos, where the image itself is as important as its location and position. I also draw a lot; it’s another way to explore the same concerns.

How have you seen your work evolve? Have any significant travels or movements influenced your work?

In 2005, I moved from Mexico City to Madrid. At that time my work wasn’t solid enough, maybe because I wasn’t as focused as I should have been. Once based in Madrid, I’ve been able to develop it more, carrying out increasingly ambitious projects and exhibitions. It’s funny, but the trees in Madrid reminded me of a very productive winter I spent in Berlin in the late 1990’s. It was like a new starting point, I began to use trees as conceptual models for my work. I’ll probably return to Mexico soon, and I’m sure it will be a very enriching phase. And in general terms, other travels have had their impact, mostly those that allowed me to have a closer look at certain landscapes, vegetation and sounds.

What are you currently working on?

On the one hand, I’m continuing my research on organic growth and survival strategies taken as models, both for artworks and human behavior. It’s a biomimetic approach, with technical elements though. For example, I’m interested in how weeds come to grow in cracks or roofs, anywhere if there’s a bit of mud and water; or how plants distinguish external conditions in order to bloom or not; but also how cables, pipes or antennas keep on taking up our environment. These are metaphors: somehow we try to do the same in our daily struggle, and artworks also expand and multiply at the first opportunity. On the other hand, thinking about balance, I’m trying to make works coexist, to reach a kind of habitat where they interact, like different species in a shared space.

Describe your typical day.

I divide my days in four main activities. One of them, of course, is my studio work. But I also spend time in all those necessary things related to it: formulating and submitting projects, getting in touch with people, updating my webpage. I’m a consultant on cultural projects, mostly development-oriented, for the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And finally, for the past two years I have been very active in the professional artists’ association of Madrid (AVAM). We carry out projects, artist in residence programs, and negotiate with local and national authorities in order to improve our professional status.

How do contemporary issues affect your work or your process?

Many events have an influence on our actions and attitudes. I try to make poetic statements about different ways to inhabit this world, understanding it as a complex and changing system of related processes. In fact, one of my recent works is included in an exhibition about climate change and gender that took place in Mexico during the COP16 conference: “(Re-) Cycles of Paradise”, curated by Anne-Marie Melster. The sculpture makes an allusion to the rise of water level, death and the possibility to be reborn.

Do you find inspiration in your experience with both Mexico and Spanish cultures?

Maybe it’s all about contrast. Sometimes you fully understand what you are and how you think when you compare things that you take for granted. I try to get the best from both experiences.

How do you balance your art with your life?

Art allows me to think and act in a certain way. I’ve developed my intuition through art, and that has moulded my mind. It’s complementary and organic.

www.anderazpiri.com