Sometimes my fertilizer is absolute silence: sometimes I lock myself in the studio because I need to be completely alone and inside a space that is mine only.
I am against the idea of making plans. When I teach kids I always tell them to focus on the process
If I say “unfinished” what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
I am reminded of things that I am doing but I have not finished, for me, it is not associated with failure, but with a possibility, a discovery, an opening. The unfinished amuses me a lot, and it reassures me a lot. I am terrified of things that are schematic, finite, too detailed. Unfinished for me means “possible”, and if I were to associate it with something it would be a space full of possibilities.
Unfinished what colour/shape is it?
A pink colour, a bright and gaudy colour. As a metaphor: a bridge of which I can’t see the end.
When does the unfinished does not depend on you?
Obviously, there is a bit of regret when the projects are not carried out. Sometimes I had to abandon projects that were interesting to me and that have not found their way. Then there is an instinctual part of me that knows long before that things sometimes take the time or that they won’t work out, so I’ve learned to rely on this instinct and it’s not like I just tell myself it doesn’t matter, but I observe that. I tell myself that maybe it’s not the right time, or now I’m not able to understand. Sometimes hasty things happen and I understand that it is I who do not yet have the tools to carry them out as I would have liked. After two or three years I may have come back to something I had left unfinished and I was able to complete it. The same in relationships, with my grandmother, with whom I had not spoken for a long time, now I found a way to connect, we found each other… I had to wait for the right moment.
When is work done for you?
A project is completed when I get tired of seeing it. When I can’t stand it anymore.
I am against the idea of making plans. When I teach kids I always tell them to focus on the process. I don’t understand this obsession with the finished work. With the people, I work with I like to dismantle this idea that projects have to be completed.
What is fertilizer for you? What does it mean to fertilize?
My fertilizer is sometimes absolute silence: sometimes I close myself in the studio because I need to be completely alone and inside a space that is mine only. Other times I need to get lost, to visit places outside the box, out of my routine because there I realize that I receive a lot of stimuli, and I collect everything, I take a lot of visual notes. I am also reading the Bible, very fascinating, and it is a well of fantastic archetypal images. The other day I had a triptych with: the Bible, Jung and the International on the table, and I said to myself either I’m going to catch fire or I’m solving some world problems …
3 words that you would combine with unfinished
Possible, essential, chaos