{"id":3603,"date":"2010-10-22T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T09:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.saic.edu\/cate\/?p=3603"},"modified":"2025-01-09T23:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T05:50:31","slug":"interview-with-luis-gispert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/2010\/10\/22\/interview-with-luis-gispert\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Luis Gispert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2_CATE_Gispert_Rene\"<\/a>
R\u00e9ne (Luis Gispert, 2008). Image courtesy the artist.<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Charlotte Marra spoke with artist Luis Gispert in advance of his October 21 appearance at Conversations at the Edge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Charlotte Marra<\/strong>: In the video <\/em>Ren\u00e9 (2008), you create a portrait of a family friend. There is a marked difference in style and subject matter from your previous work (<\/em>Stereomongrel, 2005, or <\/em>Smother, 2008) and elements of neo-realism are perhaps more apparent in this work. Could you tell us more about your impetus for creating <\/em>Ren\u00e9?<\/em><\/p>\n

Luis Gispert<\/strong>: Ren\u00e9<\/em> came out of a desire to work in an opposite manner to Smother<\/em>. Smother<\/em> had been a grand collaboration with filmmakers and actors, referencing the history and conventions of narrative cinema, indulging in fiction. Ren\u00e9<\/em> was to be an intimate portrait of someone close to me. It would only involve Ren\u00e9, the camera, and me. It would end up being an amalgam of Ren\u00e9’s life and fictions we created together.<\/p>\n

CM<\/strong>: Do you feel that a viewer\u2019s understanding of these narratives or references is an essential important part of their understanding of the work as a whole?<\/em><\/p>\n

LG<\/strong>: Not necessarily. I try to make every piece autonomous. They have to work on their own.\u00a0 My personal cosmology is always a starting point for all work, but at some point it\u2019s superceded by the form, process, and new information that\u2019s picked up along the way. I guess all the sub-plots or narratives (if we can call them that) serve as a guide for me in the studio. It\u2019s not essential for an audience to read all the reference points upon their first encounter with a work. If their curiosity is piqued, then they can dig deeper and make further connections.<\/p>\n

CM: <\/strong>Your filmic style has been compared to that of Bu\u00f1uel and Antonioni. You\u2019ve also mentioned inspiration for recent sculptures coming from a Dave Chappelle skit. What are you currently reading or watching that you feel has influenced your work?<\/em><\/p>\n

LG: <\/strong>Ren\u00e9 has lent me his very extensive bootleg collection of Cuban films and television from the 60s through the 90s, none of which have been subtitled or released in the US. It\u2019s been fascinating to see how these filmmakers achieve artistic statements through a state-sanctioned cinema. Some are blatant propaganda but others exist in a nebulous zone that subtly questions the state’s lack of artist freedom.\u00a0 I was recently re-reading Allen Kaprow’s \u201cEssays on the Blurring of Art and Life\u201d and was reminded how little artists’ intents have changed in the last 45 years. The \u201cart world\u201d or \u201cart market\u201d has changed, but artists’ tactics in the studio have not. Art has become very conservative.<\/p>\n

CM: <\/strong>You\u2019ve spoken of making a feature film. What can you reveal?<\/em><\/p>\n

LG: <\/strong>It\u2019s a long-term project and I\u2019m at the stage of writing a story.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gone through several stories but think I\u2019ve found one I\u2019m satisfied with. It will fit within the structure of a noir genre film and follow a three-act structure. All I can say at the moment is that it\u2019s the story of a character overwhelmingly moved by his\/her heredity and environment. It\u2019ll end up being a tragedy of someone\u2019s irresistible will.<\/p>\n

CM: <\/strong>How do you feel about working within a more conventional structure?<\/em><\/p>\n

LG: <\/strong>For a feature film project, it\u2019s important that it also function in a cinematic context.\u00a0 It poses a new challenge for me to work within the conventions and structure of a genre. To paraphrase Igor Stravinsky, \u201conce the structure is set, experimentation within it is infinite.\u201d I\u2019ve found it\u2019s been a bigger challenge to experiment within a set three-act structure than it is with free-formed experimental non-linear forms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Marra spoke with artist Luis Gispert in advance of his October 21 appearance at Conversations at the Edge. Charlotte Marra: In the video Ren\u00e9 (2008), you create a portrait of a family friend. There is a marked difference in style and subject matter from your previous work (Stereomongrel, 2005, or Smother, 2008) and elements […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Interview with Luis Gispert<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":3604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[287,423,516,615],"class_list":["post-3603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-15","tag-interviews","tag-monographic-shows","tag-saic-alumni","tag-usa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9990,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603\/revisions\/9990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}