Amparo Sard: “I don’t just want the artwork to be contemplated from an aesthetic point of view, but to disturb”

José Eduardo Iglesias. Palma

Photos courtesy of the artist.

– From the subtle, fragile, perforated white papers, to the gigantism of the large pieces, with resins, polyurethane, etc., on what mediums do you find yourself best?
– For me, the medium is never neutral. Choosing to work with white perforated paper was not just an aesthetic question, but a way of talking about fragility, time, emptiness. I feel very comfortable on that intimate scale, in the silence it generates, but at the same time, large installations allow me to do something else: to work with the spectator’s body, with the perception of space, with generating tension from a physical experience. The more industrial materials offer me the possibility of creating a sensation of instability that also interests me a lot. I move in a language that, as Eugenio Trías would say, is between “the beautiful and the sinister”, that is the language in which I find myself best, and to follow it each work can lead me to a different medium. For me it’s not so much a question of what I feel most comfortable with, but what is the most appropriate material in each situation..

– Which comes first, the message or the medium (materials and media)?
– This question you ask me brings back a lot of memories. I have been researching new ways of seeing for many years in order to understand why people don’t react to everything we see and endure. I was still a student when I happened to discover Marshall MacLuhan and his text ‘The medium is the message’. At that time it was already clear to him that the media and the technology we use to communicate have a great impact on how we perceive the world and our understanding of reality, often more important than the specific content transmitted.

Inteligencia emocional. (Poliuretano y caucho) 23x30x40 cm.

– How does the creative process happen in your case?
– I have always thought that we artists are artists because we filter out everything we see as out of place. Whether it’s ugliness or beauty. I have a predilection for the sinister, I detect it immediately. In reality, all artists who move in that language of strangeness recognise each other immediately. That means that my creative process stems from a deep need: to represent the tension of our contemporary environment, where speed and the saturation of information make it difficult to understand what is going on. I am interested in the unpredictable, the unknown, those spaces where the rational no longer serves us and we are only left with intuition. I seek to generate points of friction that make visible what normally escapes us.

– How is your research on haptic technology going?
– “Haptic Self-Portrait” is a work that was developed in collaboration with ADEMA University School, renowned for its expertise in haptic and holographic 3D simulation. I didn’t think it would become a pioneering work in the field of digital art, being the first haptic NFT in the world. It has been in the USA, Germany, Italy, etc. and in November it will be part of a big exhibition in a museum in China. We continue to do research with haptic technology and artificial intelligence.

– How do new technologies impact on art, what is their contribution?
– We know that new technologies have profoundly transformed the languages of art. In my case, technology is not an end, but a tool to explore themes such as perception, identity or contemporary anguish in the face of a hyper-accelerated world. I am interested in how technologies reveal the fragility of our perception. We live in an age where the real and the virtual overlap, where the image is saturated with fake news, filters and manipulations.

Paisaje desubicado. (Polietileno) 12x6x5 m. 2016.

– Is there a lack of art on the streets of Palma and the towns of Mallorca?
– Mallorca, and especially Palma, already has a great cultural and artistic wealth, but there is undoubtedly an enormous potential still to be explored in the field of contemporary public art. It would be very enriching to increase the presence of works in the streets and squares, especially if they are conceived from a contemporary perspective, in dialogue with the environment and with the problems of our times. But it is essential that there be an advisory committee, made up of experts in contemporary art, urban planning, art history and representatives of the public, to decide on the coherence of everything that is permanently on display to the public.

– You move in conceptual art and social activism. Do you reach people’s consciences?
– My intention is not to give lessons or impose a moral vision, but to generate a space where the spectator is confronted with an experience that takes them out of passivity. I’m interested in creating works that invite reflection, to pause before what we normally overlook. Do I reach people’s consciousness? I don’t know for sure, but I know that I provoke reactions, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes deeply emotional. And in that movement there is already a form of awareness, an opening. I don’t hope to change the world with a work, but I do hope to open cracks, spaces of doubt, of discomfort… because I believe that that is where transformation begins.

We live in an era in which the real and the virtual overlap, where the image is saturated with fake news, filters and manipulations

– It could happen that the force of your social denunciation doesn’t allow me to enjoy the aesthetics of your works and I come out overwhelmed and restless. Is that what you are looking for?
– Yes, I’m interested precisely in that friction. Nor am I only looking for the work to be contemplated from an aesthetic comfort, but for it to disturb, to leave a mark. Beauty on its own, without tension, doesn’t interest me as much as a beauty that makes you uncomfortable, that forces you to look again, to ask yourself questions.

– How effective do you think the role of artists in raising social awareness of social problems is?
– I firmly believe that the role of artists in raising social awareness can be very effective, as long as art manages to connect with emotions and activate reflection. Art is not a pamphlet or a direct political discourse, but it has enormous symbolic power: it can introduce a crack in perception, sow doubt, activate a critical gaze. And that, in a society saturated with information and stimuli, is profoundly valuable. As an artist, I am particularly interested in exploring the precariousness of our reactions to social, political or environmental problems.

– A giant work of yours, Rompiendo el mar (Breaking the Sea), has been on the cover of the first Spanish edition of the prestigious magazine Segno.es. What does it mean to you?
– It was very exciting because I met Lucía Spadano in Italy, founder of the magazine together with her husband Umberto Sala, thanks to my Italian gallery owner Paola Verrengia. As you say, it is a very prestigious magazine that has been at the forefront for more than 50 years. It’s a real luxury to be featured in issue number 1 of Segno España and with a text by Fernando Castro Flórez. The cover comes on the occasion of my participation in the exhibition at the European Capital of Culture in Germany (Chemnitz) curated by Claudia Tittel. I feel deeply grateful because I will be exhibiting the work Breaking the Sea, accompanied by artists such as Daniel Buren, Daniel Otero Torres, James Turrell, Gregor Schneider, Uriel Orlow, Ursula Biemann, Rikuo Ueda, Anne Duk Hee Jordan.

La artista, con su obra Rompiendo el mar.

– If you were to create a work to give to Donald Trump, what would it be about and what materials would you use?
– I recently did an experiment in the studio: three synthetic rocks the size of tennis balls, each with three faces drawn on them with perforations. One of them was Trump, the other two are easy to guess. The performance consisted of juggling the three heads and seeing which one fell to the ground first and broke. It was just an experiment that didn’t leave the studio, I don’t like to be so obvious.

– Pope Francis has died and we have to honour him with a sculpture to be placed in the Vatican, what do we do?
– Pope Francis has healed the wound of something as complicated as adapting tradition to the contemporary present. He also presents us with the human being as a being with a soul whose essence is collectively constructed. In terms of religion and beyond, at the very least, it allows for a deeper understanding of our way of being in the world, whether you are a believer or not. If I had to pay homage to him through a work, it would undoubtedly be an inclusive piece: a container space, a walkable installation that invites reflection and meditation, generating an atmosphere of both recollection and openness.