Conversando con Josué Pellot

Posted on 21. Sep, 2010 by in Arte, Entrevistas

[Entrevista por Facebook con Josué Pellot, Enjoy!]

Estaba pensando en la obra que presentaste en el Museo de Arte de Caguas y me parece que en realidad no tiene nada que ver con Campeche, que igual puede haber partido de cualquier otra imagen de la época. ¿Estas de acuerdo conmigo?

I was reintroduced to the Campeche Dama paintings while doing research (mostly looking for equestrian portraits). It is not the work of Campeche per se that is important. However, I did find his status as being a pioneer and using borrowed background as his backdrops to be interesting and reflective of Puerto Rico’s reality. The installation with the studio set for the “Caguas Dama” was in direct response to that (And what a good way to get a horse into the expo. right!?)

I wouldn’t divorce the work from Campeche because I did use his paintings as a loose model to formally execute the portraits. What I can tell you is that the conversation doesn’t begin nor end at Campeche.

Lastly, The attached image is a portrait of Catherine the II (a known nymphomaniac). This is where Campeche probably got his background from (Charles Juhasz turned me on to this). I’ll send you a painting he did were one of Campeches’ dama is getting looked at by Catherine (I think his dog is in the portrait too).

Another thing:

The new world as same as Orient have always been represented as a virgin – from the colonial Eurocentric point of view. Like virgin country – always represented by pointing out its femininity (i.e the women and her Horse).

The girl is representing that face of the colony – nature, beauty, exoticism, advertising, like Carmen Miranda or something, with bananas, palm trees, while this horse represent passive, or made-passive labor class, working class of the colony – the people, horsepower, masculine part turned into a passive servant, a pedestal, infrastructure for – dolce vita, for a nice colonial life – for the imperial representatives. The horse is the imperial subject, tamed and made into a servant. (The horse in Barrio Obrero portrait was looking tired and skinny (donkey like even).

¿Conceptualmente que nació primero, el documental o las damas a caballo?

The Dama came first, eventually the projects were worked on simultaneously.

Y hasta ahora, ¿donde has presentado el documental?

I have only had one ‘official’ public presentation, which was the Hyde Park Art Center. I have done a few informal screening, which includes El local, PR.

We have submitted to some Local Chicago Film Festivals and notable international ones. We are waiting to hear back from them before we push for a bigger venue.

Also, the film will be showing at the Queer Film Festival in Puerto Rico.

I went from ‘I’ to ‘we’ because it’s both my project along with Henrique Cirne-Lima. He’s a videographer from Brazil I meet a few years ago. We’ve been doing some collaborative films for the past year and a half (I am Queen being the first feature length project).

¿Cómo funcionaban como equipo? ¿Tu dirigías el concepto y él la filmación como tal o fue un proceso colectivo?

It began with me wanting to dabble in documentary film. My work already deals with personal experience so it felt like a good avenue to explore.

When we began the film I did direct the concept while he filmed but as we continued with the project we both got equally invested in all the aspects of the film. We did divide some of the footwork needed to keep the project in motion. I would call the girls and make sure we stayed in touch a few times a week. He would digitize and begin to layout the film as we went along.

Volviendo a Dama a Caballo, me parece interesante sobre lo que comentas de los backdrops de Campeche, de hecho en el montaje del MUAC, me pareció que esa cuarta dama con el background en ladrillo era la Dama en Chicago, la Dama emigrada.  ¿Tiene algo de cierto o es puramente mi interpretación?

In a sense she can be seen as the migrated dama. The backdrop is an undetermined space (abstract space). The image comes a series of paintings I’ve been working on.

Here is another image of an installation were I placed small figurines of my family members atop an abstracted space or Island.

Me encanta ese trabajo, me recuerda a los primeros trabajo que conocí de ti, (el de los cubos con los colores de marca de malta y el de la maquinita con tu familia) pero se siente más completo.

Hablame más sobre esas pinturas.

The new paintings are mostly coming from images in Aguadilla. Paintings that stand out as misplaced abstractions around town.

¿Qué planes tienes para el futuro próximo, hay alguna otra exhibición en camino?

A couple of the Caguas pieces will be in a group expo at the MAPR. I also may do a performance and exhibition with the new College of Architecture in Ponce coordinated by Celina Nogueras, across el Parque de Bomba. A solo exhibition in New Castle, England for 2011 and a couple pending exhibitions in New York and Illinois.

¡Nos mantendremos pendientes!

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