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Interview with Sílvia Prada |
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| Frederic Montornés has since January this year been a member of the board of curators of the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (together with Miguel von Hafe Pérez and Ferran Barenblit he is responsible for planning the Centre’s exhibitions programme). His first contribution here was a presentation of work by Marcel Dzama, and he is currently curating the exhibitions by Carles Congost and Sílvia Prada. To mark the occasion we are publishing his declaration of intentions with regard to his work at the Centre and, more generally, what amounts to a virtual statement of his position as a critic/curator. In addition we are also publishing the interview with Sílvia Prada that Joan Morey did for La Luna in February 2003. |
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| Sílvia Prada. Vuitton by Richardson, 2005 |
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JOAN MOREY
Who was responsible for the fact that your work is orientated towards the fashion side of culture?
Hunger. Yes, I arrived in Barcelona in 1992 and I was completely broke. I got into a firm of architects but I didn’t earn any money. Then magazines like Disco 2000 started appearing and this idea of the art professional began to emerge – something that was already well established in London and the United States. Before coming to Barcelona I was also on the gallery circuit, with Juana de Aizpuru, but this wasn’t right for me either and so I began to get work wherever I could find it.
Was your artistic work linked to the language of illustration, painting or drawing?
No, I never painted. I never liked it. What’s happened is that I’ve gone back to it now, with a reinterpretation that gives me what you might call a morbid pleasure. Since I’m always looking for areas that are under-exploited, and since nowadays everything is saturated with technology, I made the return to realism, to the idea of the Baroque still-life, although that’s not exactly the concept behind my work.
Has your work managed to find a place in the modern scene as a result of factors such as trends?
Some of what I do, yes. As far as its visual content goes, it can be divided into three sectors: one that is very much blacks, another that is more celebrities, and the third more porn-erotic. For example, the first |
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shows my fascination with rap, that black look that’s appearing now and will become trendy – in fact Madonna is going to do a hip hop disc – and I like being a bit of a visionary. That’s certainly very fashion.
The constant appearance of illustrations, particularly in fashion magazines, has made you something of a media phenomenon. Is there a danger of this becoming a passing trend?
Illustration is already a trend. Although I think that right now everything is rather undefined: illustration, fashion photography, art… You sometimes see a photo in a gallery and it’s indistinguishable from the latest H&M advertising campaign. The boundaries are very blurred, which is a good thing since everything is more accessible to the viewer and it produces a brilliant visual culture.
The kind of drawing that’s successful in the market is the sort that has the personal mark of the artist, something that’s recognisable, exclusive, different. Do you think that illustration as language is linked to authenticity?
I don’t know. I’d like to imagine it isn’t. I think it’s a field in which trends are too important. Today it’s the fashion trend that rules because it’s the market that calls the tune and what brings in the money, what sells. On the other hand little use is made of it in porn.
I say this because my interests as far as art is concerned rather shun this conception of the authentic in favour of an extended vision, filled with samples and revisions. This is why I think the profile of your work has little to do with a personal style of drawing, since its attraction and freshness lies in the skill in combining a traditional medium with an exploded composition that makes the overall result somewhat eclectic. Could we situate your way of illustrating as being close to stylism or the figure of the DJ?
Exactly. My work is multi-generational because everyone knows the cartoon figures I include in them, and it’s also multi-iconographic, but I avoid independent meanings through excessive use of them. It’s like a salad without any kind of aesthetic judgement. Which is why the most important thing for me are general magazines, MTV and everything to do with immediate youth culture.
Does photography play an important part in the execution of your drawings?
Of course. I love using Mario Testino’s photos. Bringing Testino into my field is brilliant.
Any legal problems in using pictures by famous photographers to portray the celebrities that appear in your work?
No, although the first time I tried to publish something from my book here I was told I couldn’t because of copyright. It would be wonderful if Disney sued me – I’d love to put it in my CV. On the other hand, there was no problem when I showed it outside Spain. In fact, the first people to ring me were from the American magazine Interview.
Your monochrome work in pencil represents a distancing from all the dominant aesthetics and transmits a certain infantile regression typical of a boarding-school girl. Is the irony in these lines linked to your adolescent obsessions?
Definitely, and particularly my attitude to sex. A large part of my work is concerned with erotica. A sexual state can suggest things, lead you to an aesthetic intuition, to a whole creative process.
Jordi Labanda is promoting himself as a brand name. Would you use this international projection strategy to launch merchandising based on your style?
Jordi led the way and he’s given many illustrators the chance to be professionals, creating a school and a market. The Jordi Labanda product is easy to integrate, but I think mine would need a different type of marketing. I’d like my work to be seen as belonging to a different type of circuit, more closely related to art. If I have to do merchandising, I’d like it to be in galleries. Although I’ve always enjoyed launching products. In fact the book I published is a genuine product.
Artists and illustrators are also in demand for modernising or recycling big firms, like Marc Jacobs is doing at Louis Vuitton. Silvia Prada for …?
Marc Jacobs yes, or a Miyake. Although it can be risky, because they are one-off platforms: if you work with one firm, you won’t be asked to work for another one. It’s a unique opportunity and you have to be smart and study it carefully.
What visibility tools did you use to make yourself known or your work recognised?
Mainly my book Silvia Prada, a limited edition of 100 copies that I sent to all the publications I was interested in. As a medium, it’s size is deliberately large – I was thinking of Visionaire, which for me represents luxury – because I wanted to play on the surprise element. It’s like an artist’s book, a published portfolio.
How did your relationship with a magazine such as The Face come about?
I sent them a copy of the book and they phoned me. It’s one of the great showcases that bring recognition. |
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