2023-05-18 06:30:07
The Can Trona culture and nature center, in the Vall d’en Bas, hosts until May 31 an anthological exhibition of Rosa Serra, one of the most relevant figures in contemporary sculpture, born in Vic and established since years in La Garrotxa
What did la Garrotxa miss, so far from the great artistic circles?
I have always been there, since I met Xavier [Carbonell, la seva parella, mort el 2015], who was from here. We traveled all over the world but I have had the studio here for 53 years. Sometimes someone who came there as a child tells me it’s the same. Well, I’m seventy-nine years old, I’m not into change.
She led a wild life, as is almost mandatory in an artist?
I’ve always liked doing what I wanted. At thirteen I had to leave school and start working, my biggest failure was not going to university. I couldn’t start dedicating myself to art until I was already twenty-six years old and had a four-year-old son. So my life, more than wild, has been an adventure. That’s it, thanks again. Both when Xavier lived and now that he is not there.
My biggest failure was not going to college
Where I only see a stone, do you already see a shape?
Yes, quite. And that I have done many commissioned things. And luck, because thanks to them, I was able to do what I liked. I made forty-one sculptures of Olympic sports, and I’m still with sports.
He will be an athlete, at least.
What’s up, Xavier always said we were couch potatoes.
Sculpting requires some physical effort. Where do you get your strength from?
When I was young I used to stir tons of mud. I always thought how I would do when I was old. But new techniques appeared and a machine expands what I did as a child. Creation is the small one, then I just have to supervise. In life we always suffer because of what doesn’t end up happening, and what we hadn’t thought about happens. So much suffering for when she was old, and she didn’t need to.
In life we always suffer because of what doesn’t end up happening, and what we hadn’t thought about happens
What is the human body?
The human body is everything. He alone serves us for many satisfactions, but still the feeling is added. By feeling, Xavier is here, even if he’s not there.
Well, in the United States they expelled a teacher for showing the students Michelangelo’s David.
David is wonderful, the problem is that some people have too much imagination. At my age nothing surprises me anymore.
Is nudity a sin?
Of course not. The naked person is the most natural thing in life, my sculptures are not usually clothed.
Nudity is not a sin, the naked person is the most natural thing in life
As the times go, they will still censor her.
They censor everything. Luckily, when you’re my age, you put everything into perspective. Those of us who lived through the transition were excited, we thought we would change the world. In the end, it turns out that we are back to how we were before.
Are we going forward or backward?
In some things we go backwards. Now everything from zero kilometers, now without plastic bags… So much so that I liked it when the plastic bags came out, which were great. Well, don’t pay much attention to me (laughs).
Has any classical sculpture moved you to see it?
Michelangelo is Michelangelo. But you go to Athens and you see the Greeks, who knew so much. I like classical sculpture a lot, but I looked a lot at Henry Moore, he has influenced me a lot.
What do you think of the Sagrada Família?
I would have left it with what Gaudí did. The rest is more. They offered me a collaboration and I said no.
How did it occur to him, in conservative Girona, to create that woman’s torso that from one angle is a giant penis?
What a controversy! And it was unintentional.
It was unintentional, that the woman’s torso, from another angle is a giant penis. It must have been my subconscious”
They are coming!
Really. I even called Nadal, who was the mayor, giving him permission to remove it if it harmed him. He told me no way, not to think about it anymore.
I insist: did he sculpt that piece of penis without realizing it?
It must have been my subconscious (laughs).
I don’t want to know what he must have been thinking.
Surely in Xavier.
Xavier was a wise man, he knew everything. We had a great life together
He was favored enough, Xavier…
(Laughter) It was already. For me, it was everything.
I’ve noticed that he keeps mentioning it. Do you miss him so much?
I learned everything from him. I didn’t even know music. He was a wise man, he knew everything. We had a great life together.
#left #Sagrada #Família #Gaudí