Eva Solano

1. What made you choose art as a profession?
I’m not sure I’d call the art work I do a profession. I think what I do defines me in another way and in my case there’s not always an economic exchange. There’s no alternative. It’s not a choice I made; there’s nothing else I can do. It’s what creates my life and it’s what I’ve worked on the basis of, sometimes more successfully than others.

2. How would you define your work?
As a process, something under constant development, always unfinished. Something that helps me understand and carry out my small searches.

3. What subjects are you interested in?
I’m interested in playing with strange things disguised as everyday. I’m interested in what I experience, the moment – how I reinterpret and model it to turn it into something of interest to me.

4. What resources – formal or otherwise – do you use in your work?
I generally work with drawing, which is simply a medium that lets me work very directly, without any intermediaries. But I also like having fun and experimenting with other things.

5. What relationship does your work have with reality? What are your raw materials?
Everything and nothing. Apparently you can see a simple reflection of my everyday life, an engaging way of reflecting what I see, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a huge setup I like to stage and play with to create the contents I want.

6. What, according to you, is the point of art?
To create, investigate, a sphere of freedom. It’s the only area that lets me do what I really want.

7. How do you hope the public will receive your work? What audience are you aiming at?
I hope they have fun; I want to entertain. My dream would be to be as viral as a pop song, to not be contained within a special sphere or limited to a given audience. That doesn’t mean dumbing down the contents or not being committed to what I create.

8. What qualifications have you got? What do you value most from your time in education?
I studied fine art at the College of Fine Art in Madrid and had the chance to escape to Berlin for a year and a half. I recently finished a master’s in art, creation and research at the College of Fine Art in Madrid. I value lots of things from my time in education: meeting teachers who believed in my work, which is key at the start; certain fellow students who accompany you on that endless search; and teachers and subjects that, like good books, become windows that open spaces. This set of influences may lead you to embark on what for me is an adventure that never leaves you. Getting involved.

9. How would you define your current professional situation? And in the future?
Like many other artists, my professional situation is chaotic. I’m always doing a thousand and one things that most of the time have little to do with my personal work just to be able to produce things. This can make it a struggle to keep working continually and stick to a given line. I think grants and support for creation are a good idea, but if you can avoid depending on them and work with your own resources, you have tremendous freedom.

10. Many artists say it’s difficult to make a living from their work; how do economic considerations affect you when it comes to work? Do you think this has a bearing on your work?
It clearly has a bearing. You only have to look at the art world and compare the output of people who have consolidated their position and others who haven’t. Personally I don’t believe you need a major investment to produce interesting things, but you do need time and today time is money.

 

11. What do you look for or expect from your relationship with promoters and curators? What advantages and difficulties have you found with these relationships?
So far, very few difficulties. I look for dialogue, respect and understanding. No one should be subject to anyone else’s vision.

12. What do you think sets the arts scene in Madrid apart from elsewhere? What would you say are its pluses and minuses?
I think it’s getting more and more active, with spaces that are moving away from traditional models. The problem is their own survival, getting them to become powerhouses of ideas and bringing all areas on board.
On the downside, the feeling of being closed and restricted to a certain few.