INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST MONIKA RÜHLE

by time news

2023-05-30 18:34:33

Monika Rühle with her work “Scream”.

INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST MONIKA RÜHLE
Mary Good

Maria Good. Give us a few brief brushstrokes of who you are and what you do. How did you get into the world of art?

Monica Rühle. I was born in Stuttgart to a German father and an Andalusian mother who emigrated there at the age of eighteen. At sixteen, it was clear to her that she wanted to be a painter. She did a Bachelor of Art and later I studied Fine Arts in Granada and Barcelona. She then came to her passion for the theater; first as an interpreter in the theater group of the University of Granada and then as a set designer and costume designer: for this I trained at the RESAD in Madrid. At that time I also started with video-creation, video-scene for shows and documentaries.

«The sensorial room», 2022
«Sybila», 2018. Performance

Maria Good. You are a professional who combines cultures and experiences, and who transfers both to the field of creation (plastic arts and performing arts). Can you tell us about your interests and how you link them to your professional and artistic practice?

Monica Rühle. From the stage I am attracted to collective creation, the shared creative process and the excitement of presenting it to an audience with everything that accompanies the theatrical event, so ritual and experiential. The potential for transformation of a plastic proposal through movement, interaction with the performers, lights and the changes that take place throughout a work is fascinating. From solo plastic research I am interested in the possibility of going deeper and searching without limitations, of not having set times. I inhabit both worlds in parallel, which feed each other and complement each other.

Maria Good. Among the projects and exhibitions you have carried out, which have been important and decisive? What kind of projects or proposals would you say yes to without blinking?

Monica Rühle. I am interested in scenic and exhibition projects where I am offered freedom and where all my abilities and even knowledge that I do not yet have is required: I like to feel that I am always starting and learning. The exhibitions were important to me Rock Hostel at the Centro de Arte Joven Madrid and nest syndrome at the Juana Francés Gallery in Zaragoza, both were excellently curated and highly sophisticated. And all the scenic proposals for the inclusive theater group Contando Hormigas for their demand in everything artistic, always giving me confidence and freedom.

«K.Ä.T.H.E.», 2021. Performance

Maria Good. Can you tell us about your return to engraving, how do art, feminine care and memory converge, all of them linked to this artistic technique?

Monica Rühle. With a strong impulse from the desire to create a personal genealogy and value my ancestors, I started my project Mitochondria_Attempt of a feminine genealogy. It is a project that is made up of several layers and brings together different supports and techniques. The idea is to gather and intertwine seven lives, with them tracing a complex and intricate journey with videos, audio recordings and large-format linocuts. There are biographies that make me shudder, like that of my mother’s great-grandmother, whose name was Loreto. Her father married her off when she was sixteen or seventeen, just before committing suicide to avoid leaving her children in ruins. She was left alone in the care of her four little brothers and her own son, when a year after they were married she kicked her husband out of her house. She was never afraid of the living, but terrified of the dead. The life paths of my German grandmother Maria, who survived two world wars with her blind husband, my mother Ely, who emigrated to Germany at the age of eighteen (I did the reverse and went to Granada from Stuttgart at that age), from my daughter Lu, her environmental activism and her trans experience, my daughter Elisa, who is now studying Fine Arts, just like I did. There are coincidences and points that connect us and there are elements that cross all of us and are also present in the series (such as the sewing machine, our cellular essence, the garden and death, etc.). When I print, I superimpose these connecting elements on the portraits or I put two portraits to talk at the same time. I am interested in observing the mysterious symbiosis that is created.

Maria Good. Does your line of work establish a connection to who you are? If so, do you think that art and culture are transformative?

Monica Rühle. My work always has an autobiographical beginning or part of something that worries me. I try to be more and more aware of what I do, what I want to say, what I think I have to express or make visible. The fact of creating transforms me, teaches me and places me in life in an attentive and open way. Therefore, I am totally convinced that art and culture are a powerful engine of transformation and very necessary to create other ways of relating and living collectively.

«Confinement 02», 2021

Maria Good. References… 2 artists.

Monica Rühle. Pippilotti Rist, for being so naughty and excessive, my favorite video-creator, and Esther Ferrer, for being a teacher in every way and an endearing person.

Maria Good. A collective.

Monica Rühle. The Theses and The Guerrilla Girls.

Maria Good. An event that has marked you.

Monica Rühle. My recent trip to Guinea with my batucada group has undoubtedly marked me. A trip with a clear purpose, to know and learn the rhythms of percussion and different dances of the area. Two weeks of total immersion: we live and share with our teachers and teachers and we do not stop playing and dancing.

Maria Good. Commissioners.

Monica Rühle. As a professional in the Spanish curatorship, I highlight Susi Blas, for her open-mindedness, her sensitivity and her great intelligence.

Maria Good. An inspiring movie, book, song and recipe.

Monica Rühle. There are many films that I like, difficult to choose, I am recently revisiting female references like Agnès Varda. I really liked to see One sings, the other doesn’t. y Cleo from 5 to 7. I feel that violence in the cinema is really harmful, it hurts, it affects me a lot and I avoid it.

I always have a tower of books on my bedside table, including the complete works of Clarice Lispector, “A Braid of Sacred Grass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which my daughter Lu and Flavita Banana gave me.

Music like Joe Crepúsculo’s “My Dance Factory” and Florence and the Machine always get me out of my chair. I love African music, I study dance and percussion and I play in a batucada. The music goes through me with great intensity.

I am vegan and I love to make a chickpea salad with lots of mint, tomato and cucumber from the garden.

«Mitochondria. Maria 5 versions», 2022-2023
“Mitochondria. Ely and Monika”, 2022-2023.

Maria Good. What clichés, idealizations and stereotypes do you think we fall into when we advocate for diversity and inclusion, in the Spanish artistic scene, that does not materialize?

Monica Rühle. Festivals and specific inclusion events continue to be held on specific dates that often do not reach the general public, but remain celebrations for associations and groups with diversity. Although fortunately some inclusive productions enter national theaters or alternative venues. hits like “Champions” or “Easy Reading” they bring diversity to the general public, which is certainly a positive thing, but it is not without the danger of being a “fad” and not a real inclusive movement.

Maria Good. What strategies do you think allow us to alleviate the needs and difficulties in this current context?

Monica Rühle. Inclusion will be real when you don’t have to talk about it, when in all the casts there are people with some diversity and that is totally normalized. Until then, these mixed and diverse teams will have to be promoted, through festivals, subsidies and all kinds of strategies to make them visible and normalize them.

Maria Good. Can you tell us something about your upcoming projects?

Monica Rühle. Now I am embarked with three Valencian creators (Anna Albaladejo, Vicky Trillo and Maribel Bayona) in a live arts project entitled Laboratorio Calaca. We want to create a scenic ritual that helps us learn about dying through music, plastic arts, and dramaturgy. We will have several creative meetings in Granada, Madrid and Valencia and the premiere will be in October at the Sala Círculo in Valencia.

For more information:
https://monikaruhle.blogspot.com/
www.lacasacolorada.org

#INTERVIEW #ARTIST #MONIKA #RÜHLE

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