Both of the works selected here were made in Bolivia. You have been
working there for a few years now, what makes it special as a decor for
your installations?I once heard a story about a Bolivian artist
who was using a lake (the Laguna Verde) as his gallery: he organized
exhibitions and performances there. The lake is very far in the south,
no paved roads go there, the place is hard to reach. I was intrigued by
this idea and tried to get in touch with the artist. After a long search
I found out his name – Gastón Ugalde – and sent him my proposal for the
lake; he answered that he would help me to finalize the project.
When
we started travelling towards Laguna Verde, we passed through many
other sites, such as the Salar salt desert and Laguna Colorada red lake.
I have been working with Gastón since 2004 and have been to Bolivia
many times, often travelling through the highlands.
I really like the
expanses of these landscapes; the scenery has a sense of purity, with
hardly any people, no human intervention in the landscape. You feel more
aware of the power of nature and your own insignificance. You can drive
for days without seeing other people, it’s amazing!
Your work
requires a lengthy and sometimes harsh process of preparation and
construction, often involving collaboration with local people, be they
the salt miners of Bolivia or inhabitants of Igloolik in the Arctic
Polar Circle. The installations you build in these faraway lands also
echo local imagery and beliefs. Can you tell us about how you produced
the two images we have selected?In my work, a lot has to do with
finding the right places, searching for local people who can help me to
reach the sites and manufacture the works. Most of the time, I travel
on my own with a backpack containing all my equipment - cameras etc. So I
am quite dependent on people I meet along the way. These might be
Inuits in a small settlement in the Canadian arctic, or perhaps
indigenous people in Bolivia, such as salt miners.
Both of the works –
‘Carpets’ and ‘Hats’ – were made in the Bolivian Altiplano and reflect
their surroundings. In ‘Carpets’, I played with the greenish colour of
the lake, almost like a watercolour, and added lightly-coloured carpets,
as if their colours could blend into the harsh landscape.
In
‘Hats’, I took hats from a local market and let them float in the remote
mountain landscape. It reminded me of old cowboy movies: in a way, I
enjoyed watching these hats go on their own travels across the emptiness
of the landscape.
Over the past ten years, you have
travelled and worked in the desert of Bolivia, in the mountains of China
or on the ice of the Polar Circle. What attracts you to such remote
locations?I guess to me it’s important to find spaces where
there are no traces of human intervention, where nature ‘prevails’. This
may be partly due to the fact I grew up in the Netherlands, where the
entire landscape is fashioned my men, with no ‘pure nature’ to be found.
I
am also quite simply drawn by the beauty of these isolated places, by
their magic. For instance, the salt desert of Bolivia is an immense
white landscape, almost like a blank sheet of paper placed before you.
As if the landscapes were to dictate the outcome of a work.
Limited edition, numbered and signed.