Biography-Press
“You are the best mediocre musician I know” -Pedro Nerecán-
I think it was the time that I have been defined best. I know I’m not a genius, but I also know that I can do interesting jobs. I have always thought that ART IN GENERAL IS TO RAISE A PROBLEM AND SOLVE IT, and since I was very young it is what I have been doing. The complexity of jobs, experiences and situations that I have had and I have decided to live, and from which I have always managed to get out, has forged in me an experience and a “trade” that currently allows me to face WORKS SAFELY , if necessary, with the participation of the best professionals in each discipline.
Because that is the other issue: why haven’t I focused on a specific discipline? But isn’t a painting a graphic work? Isn’t a sculpture not a 3-dimensional graphic? Maybe a video isn’t it a sculpture in motion? Doesn’t a video contain music? Isn’t the music a graphic composition of notes and silences? I show you here episodes of my life that I consider remarkable:
Photograph by J. San Martín
WITH 5 YEARS. WOLF WITH LAMB SKIN
Is not that I had bad intentions, I simply showed irreverence to what I understood as unfair, which led to continuous struggles with authority, expulsions from schools and the university … but above all a great learning. The disastrous educational system in this country for a child with different concerns and undiagnosed dyslexia, made my school stage a real way of the cross. Let’s say I STARTED ENJOYING THE FULL LIFE when I started working.
Team photography
WITH 16 YEARS. JUNIOR CHAMPION OF SPAIN WITH C.D BIDASOA
An amazing example of problem solving… At that crazy time as a teenager, I thought that being from Irún I had to play for Bidasoa. I had no idea what handball was, but I dived into mid-season trainings and started bouncing surface-to-air missiles. THE FOLLOWING WEEK I WAS PLAYING AS STARTING GOALKEEPER in a Bilbao Sports Center looking at the shield on my shirt and thinking “WHAT A HELL I´M DOING HERE” … The referee kept calling me service fouls and things like that … I was completely unaware of the rules. The following year, a superhuman team made me also a Spanish handball champion. An example of how to surround yourself with the best to solve the problem …
Sequence of the event “Txipirón cup de Hondarribia”
WITH 19 YEARS. SKATE, TEXTILE AND SPONSOR: SANCHESKI
At that time I was studying Advertising in Madrid. Although 90% of the degree was worthless for a person with creative aspirations, the remaining 10% I took great advantage of it and began to make the first drawings and sketches. With that folder and the same reasoning as with the Bidasoa of “I’m from Irún, I love skateboarding and Sancheski, the mythical and only skateboarding company on Spain, is next to home” I stood there to present some ideas to relaunch the brand. It was a beautiful stage, we managed to get it going and I WAS FULFILLING TWO DREAMS IN ONE SHOT: working on what I liked the most and, on the rebound, having a sponsor that allowed me to skate with the latest shout in skateboards and cool clothes (since I saw “Thrashin´” it was what I wanted most in the world).
Fanzine section “Lagarto Jarto”
WITH 22 YEARS. “LAGARTO JARTO” FANZINE
Although at that time I was working as a designer in a company of handles and that allowed me some intellectual display, I had a crazy desire to communicate, whatever it was, bullshit … and that’s what I did. I have always felt a certain REJECTION TO THE PEOPLE WHO TALK ABOUT PROJECTS AND MORE PROJECTS and then they do nothing. I think that I have never had one in my life because, with greater or lesser fortune, that step I have skipped and I have gone directly to the action. This was the first example: with some very basic notions of Photoshop, lots of laughs among friends and the support of local businesses, we managed to print 3 issues of El Lagarto Jarto. No. 4 stayed on the computer because advertisers began to realize that it was not convenient for them to associate their business with such an aberration. The party was over.
Frame from the intro of -Ismo
WITH 28 YEARS. “ISMO” TV SHOW
The same thing happened with -Ismo as with the Lagarto Jarto but in audiovisual format. Surprisingly, the local television gave us A SPACE OF 15 MINUTES ON THURSDAYS WITHOUT ANY KIND OF CENSORSHIP, except that we spoke badly of their advertisers. It was a real treat, although generating content for 15 minutes per week became a lot of work for the little income I received from our unsuspecting advertisers. Still, today, I can’t understand how they allowed my teeth to come out in the foreground after the newscast, literally spitting the program’s credits onto the screen.
Autograph signing with Gabellotti and Mike
WITH 35 YEARS. REALITY OF ANTENA3 – NITRO “CRACKS DEL SURF”, AS DONNAVÓN.
I had been working for the Surfilmfestibal in San Sebastián for years and every year we made a short film related to surfing. One day a friend happened to tell me that I looked like the surfer and musician Donavon Frankenreiter. That same day, another friend told me that there was a casting for a surfers reality show. My level as a surfer is quite mediocre so I was going to go through the casting without pain or glory, so I opted to “impersonate” Donavon “and get the producer’s attention in another way … All the show team, including the main sponsor San Miguel Beer and the Channel Antena3 opposed my appearance, but, in the producer’s verbatim words: “I STAYED WITH YOU IN ZARAUTZ TO MAKE SURE THAT I WAS NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO CROSS THREE WORDS WITH YOU, when I realized that you were a normal person and I was clear that you had to enter to the reality “. And so it was, I think it was the first time that someone participated in a reality show playing someone else’s role and, although my acting skills are nil and the editing of the program left the character totally blurred, I had an unforgettable experience and I fulfilled the unexpected dream of participating and knowing television from within.
Squad of pizzaguys for the catering of the exhibition
WITH 37 YEARS. DOCUMENTARY AND EXHIBITION IN THE OIASSO MUSEUM OF IRÚN “ROBERT JULIUS TORÍO”
In 2013 a magical moment arrived and somehow allowed me to group the disciplines to which I had dedicated my time. All of this through the person of Robert. I HAVE ALWAYS NEEDED A SPACE, A DATE AND A GOOD REASON TO BE REALLY PRODUCTIVE and the Oiasso Museum and Robert gave it to me. In the museum I had some really good facilities to deploy my weapons arsenal and Robert was an amazing person to work with. Painting, sculpture, installations and a documentary. It was a very important exhibition for me because I think I managed to bring the figure of Robert closer to the city, to present his humanity and because, after all, it was a complete exhibition in a museum.
Photograph of Anonymous in a concert at Altxerri Jazz Club in San Sebastian
40 YEARS OLD AND PLAYING THE DRUMS…
Music has accompanied me by the hand throughout my life although I am still a complete layman in the matter. I don’t listen to much music and my musical culture is very poor but, on the other hand, God did give me a certain ear and ability (which does not discipline) to interpret music and I have been going through different bands and instruments from a very young age. Recently, THE TRIPLE ASTRAL CONJUNCTION HAS BEEN GIVEN AGAIN and I usually play drums at various events with a pianist from another planet, Paul San Martín, the fake cousin. Another dream come true in which I honestly feel like a third-rate soccer player playing for Real Madrid, but it is an opportunity that allows me to enjoy my favorite style and instrument from within: Blues and drums.
Scavenger Shark sculpture
WITH 43 YEARS. UNIVERSIDAD BODYWORK
In 2018 I had to leave what was my home-workshop for 16 years in Irún “The Pink House”. This fact has been decisive in my work, since in addition to now having a larger space, the fact of having a body builder near my studio and seeing how he works, is being the key for me to see the pieces that I make now as “works” and not as “sketches”, although surely in a few years I will see them as sketches and not as works because THAT IS USUALLY THE CLUE that I keep on learning…
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