Interview with Ana Gesto
Do de Peito. Photo: Jesús María Alonso. Las Bardenas, Navarra. 2019
Santiago de Compostela / ES, 15/10/2019
Q: Why / when / how did you start to work with performance, what is your background, how did you arrive at doing performance?
In 2003, while I was studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Pontevedra, I established my first contact with performance. During that period my artwork was oriented to the potential of the body in my creative process and the artistic process itself. Those ideas captured my attention and led me to performance art. Then I was awarded the Sicue-Seneca Fellowship and went to Valencia to study performance with Bartolomé Ferrando for a year. That’s where my interest in action art was strengthened, and from then on it became my main discipline for artistic creation.
Q: What is your process like when you make a performance, from idea to actual work?
I am very interested in the process itself during the performance and my actions have a strong procedural component. I am always in the process of creation, so my works are presented as the evolution of a daily process which includes action in the shape of photo-action and video-action. When I start working on a new performance, I first analyze where am I in terms of my vital process, what issues are present at the moment, what is the social and cultural enviroment and the context in which the performance is going to take place. From that place, I begin a theoretical-practical research that leads to the use and transformation of some object (often a quotidian object). Then I experience its sound and its material or materials, and I continue developing a structure which often takes the shape of a score. I document the process, producing drawings, texts, scores, etc. The sound and the matter are very important in my artwork.
Q: What role does performance art have in your life / artistic praxis? Do you also work within other fields, like installation, sculpture, drawing, and other expressions? How do they influence / inform each other?
I work with other disciplines, such as sculpture, video, photo, etc., but the starting point is always action and the body.
Q: With what kind of form / material do you express yourself and use in your work and how did you arrive at using this material?
In my performances I usually work with sculpture and sound, through experimentation and transformation. Sound is always present in my performances and it has become one of the central points of my artwork.
Q: How do you experience or consider the audience / surrounding? What space / surrounding do you find interesting to work in? How does your surrounding influence your work? Do you involve the public? If so, how?
My environment, the social and cultural identity and the social context, has influenced my process, but has also become the foundation of my work. I like non-neutral and transitional spaces that have a strong symbolic character in which I can move. Sometimes the public takes part in my actions.
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Q: Why / when / how did you start to work with performance, what is your background, how did you arrive at doing performance?
In 2003, while I was studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Pontevedra, I established my first contact with performance. During that period my artwork was oriented to the potential of the body in my creative process and the artistic process itself. Those ideas captured my attention and led me to performance art. Then I was awarded the Sicue-Seneca Fellowship and went to Valencia to study performance with Bartolomé Ferrando for a year. That’s where my interest in action art was strengthened, and from then on it became my main discipline for artistic creation.
Q: What is your process like when you make a performance, from idea to actual work?
I am very interested in the process itself during the performance and my actions have a strong procedural component. I am always in the process of creation, so my works are presented as the evolution of a daily process which includes action in the shape of photo-action and video-action. When I start working on a new performance, I first analyze where am I in terms of my vital process, what issues are present at the moment, what is the social and cultural enviroment and the context in which the performance is going to take place. From that place, I begin a theoretical-practical research that leads to the use and transformation of some object (often a quotidian object). Then I experience its sound and its material or materials, and I continue developing a structure which often takes the shape of a score. I document the process, producing drawings, texts, scores, etc. The sound and the matter are very important in my artwork.
Q: What role does performance art have in your life / artistic praxis? Do you also work within other fields, like installation, sculpture, drawing, and other expressions? How do they influence / inform each other?
I work with other disciplines, such as sculpture, video, photo, etc., but the starting point is always action and the body.
Q: With what kind of form / material do you express yourself and use in your work and how did you arrive at using this material?
In my performances I usually work with sculpture and sound, through experimentation and transformation. Sound is always present in my performances and it has become one of the central points of my artwork.
Q: How do you experience or consider the audience / surrounding? What space / surrounding do you find interesting to work in? How does your surrounding influence your work? Do you involve the public? If so, how?
My environment, the social and cultural identity and the social context, has influenced my process, but has also become the foundation of my work. I like non-neutral and transitional spaces that have a strong symbolic character in which I can move. Sometimes the public takes part in my actions.
<< Back