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The symbolist

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He's Portuguese, although at first glance it doesn't seem like that, either in the language or in the name, Hernando Urrutia has an artistic journey that is connected to the principle of the origins of human communication, the symbols. A regression to the origins that he constantly renews in his conceptual work and which emerges as a new visual concept that depends on the interpretation of each one of us.

How you became an artist?
Hernando Urrutia: It comes from an intellectual demand. I was a college professor and was invited by some anthropologists, sociologists and geologists to do a field research in the Amazon. They wanted someone with knowledge of design, wanted an artist to draw objects and elements that were part of this research. I went and I was in love with this investigation, for this different world, away from our Western concept, which made me reflect on the signs, as how they did the pictographs, as how they echoed these voices and why write it all.


The exhibition is a regress to the 26-year career? Why you wanted to do this now and how it all began?
HU: Yes, it is a setback of twenty-six years. This was an idea I had already at the 20-year career anniversary, was preparing an exhibition in the fortress of St. James, the project could not move on by lack of funds. Except however, on the anniversary of twenty-five year there was the possibility of a large format book with a publisher on the mainland, but due to the restrictions of the current situation of the country decided to make a more modest and simple one, without passing by the opportunity. Sometimes, we wait too long to do certain things and we shouldn't. It was a debt that I had with the gallery Mouraria, because since I arrived, after two months, I was exposing here thanks to Ricardo. After I was sick and had many problems and this made everything delayed. Now I'm better, I decided to do it, a modest display. This exhibition has a double meaning, is a setback for the career and the language of our ancestors. The symbols were important, were in the woods, the walls were later converted to a language. Signs emerge of experiences and studies done with ethnic groups in South America and also of African origin. I have two different aspects of language perception of the symbol. Although we have two cultures in the same continent, they report two different approaches within the theme of the sign. There were different times and different cultures of mankind that have always had this symbol to represent the same, even the Nordic, South American and African structures. What happens? Man has the same concerns on life, of the ordinary, what is natural and the sky. All are equal in all parts, as times differ in centuries. These signs are studied why? The man is the same. What makes me think it is as a man of a specific culture follow the same theme.


You also speak of the indivisible. This approach meets your conceptualist art?
HU: Yes, the symbols say certain things and the only way to represent them is that way. There is no other way, the indivisible is that you cannot put into words, but in a sign that speaks of many things at once, identifying symbols and significances. The indivisible is pretty much the way a very important critic found very important to define my work. It represents what we cannot speak, what cannot be said. This is one facet of the human being, an emergency, the desire to say what we cannot translate in words.


These works represent a setback, but at the same time symbolize a breakthrough in one direction.
HU: Yes, it is a work of the present moment, looking at the past and the future. The work is timeless. Today may be contemporary, but depends on the context. If you see this work say in a cave is ancient. But if you look at another position, say that is different and the work assert that the future is very contemporary. The situation depends on temporality.

So how do you define your work?
HU: It depends on the beholder. My pieces have no title. I leave that interpretation to each. The foundation is the conceptual level of my work, so I never put titles, because may accentuate its symbolism. When we looked at the signs of these different cultures we tend to suit it to us, to our studies, the visual memory of each one of us. The way we live. There is a different interpretation for each person.


You want to be universal?
HU: Yes, that's what I want. The work is universal. The man is the same everywhere. The moment I fell in love with symbols, the African cultures, the research I did of the ethnic groups in the Amazon, I studied this issue for years and in university development projects, by writing so much on the subject, my artistic work became different, altered by the signs and the passion was stronger. It is time to develop this idea, and try to retrace those steps. After a while a group of friends asked me what I wanted to do with it and gave the idea of ​​an exhibition. At first I was not prepared, but some art critics showed up in my studio and gallery owners who convinced me to show it.


That's when you noticed you were a true artist?
HU: No, I'm making my way from the year of 1986. Except that my work was different, did not appear the symbols, they only emerge in the nineties. Even then I knew that I was an artist, only I was more focused on the most intellectual side of the arts. The symbols dragged me and I am always finding different ways to reach them. The works then no longer belong to the artist after been sold or gone to a museum. I am the author, but the work is not mine, people do what they want with it. From that I think every artist has to be aware that from the moment on he creates the work no longer is his, is part of the culture, the people and everyone.


www.artistasdomundo.com/hernandomejia

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