Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

I don´t have a standard methodology for producing my work. It really is project by project and it
follows the requirements of each project. So, certain things I do on my own. For example a
computer animation – the few computer animations I have done on my own – that`s something that
started from my idea and it’s carried completely through to the end by me. That is something like
the video that you are looking at behind. There is really no other hand in it but mine. But, that`s what
this work called for. There are other instances in which, of course, you need certain technical help.
Where you need to go to the printer and someone needs to actually output the file or put a 35mm
negative into photo paper or printing paper and sometimes, if I am doing something even more
precise, of course I need someone who is very familiar with the camera who will come and, like you
know, help me do the lighting. Each project is calling for its own set of… for some production style
Every now and then I have made machines as well and for that I actually work with a producer
straight up because that is not something… I don`t have any engineering skills. So for that I actually
need someone that is able to build a machine according to a certain idea and these are the
instances in which I work with regular art producers, like these kind of companies that manufacture.
They take care, I will make you wishes come true, kind of thing like that. There is something like,
there is a studio there are things that are done. Like if I am manufacturing something that is very
large that get`s done at a workshop elsewhere. Sometimes, if I am doing a show in Mexico where
things cannot be shipped, where shipping would become insanely expensive, then I work on
location. It is really….like, each work called for its own location as well.
A work will find way to let you know that it is done. There is also no recipe for that, right? At some
point you look at it and you say: Okay that`s done. Something can be done in 5 minutes because it
can just be this very precise stroke, yeah!? Like this idea that is completely in a second and some
things take ages to gel and crystalize into something that makes sense. I think I am a harsh judge of
myself. I do not tend to think that something is good when it`s not. Like, I tend to have standards for
my work. So, when something is working fine then it is just working fine and when it`s not working I
tend to just push and push. I am not someone who gives up in a certain idea. If I decide to bring
something into the world, let`s say, it is usually because I already went to that idea for a while and
it`s worth to be translated into either an object or a video or something. So, I may have to massage
it for a long time until it gives results. When I´m producing, this sounds very much like a cliché, but
when I´m producing I am a bit possessed. I am just going with an idea and following an idea. Finding
as I go along. I mean, normally when I`m working it is impossible for me to talk about the work that I
am making. When I know that a work is done is the moment that it becomes available to me to
language. There is a moment when I can explain what it is and why I made it. And why the
references that I´m using and putting together, why they belong together. And at that moment I
know a work is done. Before that, is just making of the thing.

Julieta Aranda / Production

Bio

* 1975 in Mexico City/MX, lives and works in Berlin and New York. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts (2001), and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University School of the Arts (2006), both in New York. Her explorations span installation, video, and print media, with a special interest in the creation and manipulation of artistic exchange and the subversion of traditional notions of commerce through art making. Central to Aranda’s practice are her involvement with circulation mechanisms and the idea of a “poetics of circulation”; her interest in science fiction, space travel and zones of friction; the possibility of a politicized subjectivity through the perception and use of time, and the notion of power over the imaginary. As a co-director of the online platform e-flux together with Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda has developed the projects Time/Bank, Pawnshop, and e-flux video rental, all of which started in the e-flux storefront in New York. In addition to the Guggenheim Museum, Aranda’s work has been exhibited internationally, in venues such as the 8th Berlin Biennale (2014), Witte de With (2013 and 2010), Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genova (2013), ArtPostions, Miami Basel (2012), MACRO Roma (2012) Documenta 13 (2012), N.B.K. (2012), Gwangju Biennial (2012), Venice Biennial (2011), Istanbul Biennial (2011), Portikus, Frankfurt (2011), New Museum NY (2010), Kunstverein Arnsberg (2010), MOCA Miami (2009), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007), 2nd Moscow Biennial (2007) MUSAC, Spain (2010 and 2006), and VII Havanna Biennial; amongst many others. Aranda’s work has been selected for several international biennials including the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and is included in important museum collections such as: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, New York, USA; MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain; Fundación/Colección Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico; CIFO – Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA.

http://www.e-flux.com

Credits

The interview was conducted on Januar 8 2015 at the artist’s studio in Berlin.

Interviewed by: Johannes M. Hedinger

Filmed and recorded by: Paul Barsch

Edited by: Paul Barsch

Transcript by: Lea Hoßbach, Ella Tetrault

Produced by: University of Cologne (Cologne), Institut für Kunst&Kunsttheorie