He has a license degree in Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca. In his work, you can clearly perceive his interest in the possible bonds between the day by day and fictional films. His work at the beginning was pictorial. His current work is developed in diverse media such as video installation, electronic music or the visual elements for the scenography.
Photography, video installation, even electronic music… Where’s the painting in your career? Was it always there as the Elefante Blanco?
Painting was the first thing I did. It occurred before starting with the university and during it. When I finished my studies, I moved to Barcelona. There, I started to listen and to see things that I didn’t know before and I liked them. Then, naturally, many languages were combined. I can paint during the morning. After eating something, I turn on the computer and the other devices. I can spend five hours experimenting with the sound or the video without notice. That is something you can only control. You are trying to do something sincere that is worthy.
In your case, the sense of sight, to observe, to see things seems to be a fundamental element of your work: the images have different supports and media… Is it like that?
Yes. At the beginning, I was obsessed with the fact of observing and being observed. You see in order to know the world and to know yourself at the same time. Those are games of mirrors that I like.
To what degree has technology determined the recent history of painting?
It seems like the new imagination and technologies have increased together with us. In order to deal with painting is convenient to do it by putting it into the right context: in its historical, social moment… Nowadays, technology is present from the moment that we wake up. We live with technology, or rather, it is an extension of us, which shapes the reality and bring us closer to it. It’s logical that the distances between painting and technology are dwindling.
Now you are doing research in the film language with your painting. Where does your investigation take you? What are you looking for?
I am keen on films because there’s a language that represents the present and is the medium, together with music, that is popularly consumed. My interest is in the emotional and brief connection with the observer and the way you can be known by means of fiction. The painting that I create drinks the history of painting as well as the history of film. From the origin of films, both media have been in a permanent connection.
What does it mean to “live from art”?
I wouldn’t know how to explain that. I suppose that, to an artist, to live from art means to be paid for what you do.
How is your experience with the market, the galleries, and fairs like Art Madrid where we see you for the first time?
It’s a fluctuating experience. I go to Art Madrid with great expectative and renewed energy.
For more information about Hugo Alonso, click here.
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