I remember we were conflicted – 90×160 cm – Acrylic – 2019
INT. AFTERNOON – OFFICE
FADE IN FROM BLACK
Donna and Jorge sit in an office located in Alto-Maé, Maputo. From the window they can see the monumental STATUE of a major political figure raising his fist up in the air. The man is looking into the horizon over the avenue that carries his name. They are having a conversation.
DONNA
Did it work?
JORGE
I don’t know what to tell you.
DONNA
Let’s start at the beginning. What can you tell me about his intentions?
JORGE
To avoid escalation of ethnical frictions that would turn into a civil war.
DONNA
Okay, I didn’t realize this was such an issue.
JORGE
There are much more ethnicities on this continent than is generally realized within the global narrative. Just look at the state of South Africa right now. He wanted to avoid such violent societal patterns.
DONNA
Did he?
JORGE
He was assassinated.
DONNA
Yes, well, that settles it then I suppose. You chose his iconic message as the basis of your painting, can I say that?
JORGE
Sort of yes, but also not really.
DONNA
Don’t be cryptic.
JORGE
Okay, let me just explain the process to you .
It was the summer of 2015 I believe. In that time I was roaming in the streets of Maputo trying to snap a photograph I could indeed use as basis for a painting.
DONNA
Is it appropriate to reference Guy Debórd?
JORGE
Yes, very.
I was drawn to the monuments of the national historical figures firstly because of the obvious societal relevance to them. This also related to me being in a phase of discovery. After living 22 years in Holland I had little knowledge and experience in my country of birth. This was also because of the young age in which I left, 8. So the physical act of collecting images through photography helped me process my new environment; the social imaginary we call being Mozambican. Though it was not new for me at all, it felt like that because I now have the perspective of an adult.
DONNA
Does this mean that the original photo contains the sleeping boy?
JORGE
Yes. There were others posing in front the statue’s plinth and taking pictures with their phones. I have a photo of that. As a painting this was more interesting. This reflects a specific perspective in relation to the state of society of our time. At the same time it only refers to the viewer as a Mozambican if they recognize the monument.
DONNA
That perspective being that an unreadable history hovers over the poor citizens that are asleep? Are you saying that this historical figure, whatever his name, stands over the people through the formation of a nation state?
JORGE
That’s an interesting interpretation, thank you. All of that is present in the piece potentially. Most of the painting shows the plinth, the unreadable history. It became that because of negligence in relation to the materially destructive teeth of time. Obviously this is related to the general lack of resources and resulting corruption. Even so, the figure still stands on it, proudly, as if time did not pass. The power-structure that is represented by the monument has a major contemporary relevance. The one citizen is sleeping, dreaming on the stairs of the monument itself. I chose to visually suggest that the plinth is slightly tipping over, as if to exaggerate the negligence towards the material state of the monument at that time.
DONNA
Is it better now?
JORGE
I don’t know. I haven’t been there for a while.
DONNA
So the boy is dreaming the unreadable history?
JORGE
That’s a nice one. I’m not sure how to respond to that. Can you elaborate on that?
DONNA
I was trying to summarize you for the interview.
JORGE
Is summarizing necessary?
DONNA
Don’t worry, you’ll get the final edit.
JORGE
Thank you.
DONNA
What does Marxist-Leninist discourse mean to you?
JORGE
That’s funny, again, I don’t know how to respond to that.
DONNA
Am I asking the wrong questions?
JORGE
I don’t know. What I can say is that there is more to the story of history and the powers that be than we generally know, much more. On a global scale the nation-state system works perfectly as a mental divide and conquer tool.
DONNA
I see.
JORGE
This separation is policed by our ideologies and industrial war apparatus. This is all quite abstract, as abstract as a plinth.
DONNA
There is a sense of allegory in all of this.
JORGE
Yes, necessarily and naturally. That’s why I used this image and not, for example, the proud dudes imitating the statue’s pose.
DONNA
That’s a very clear statement.
JORGE
Yes. But the nature of my work is that the statement is wonky, if you will. The meaning or the juxtaposition of the elements is unstable or not sharply defined. I tend to see it as a sort of thought-architecture instead of a statement. This is the nature of art I believe. It is always open for an alternative interpretation, just like life and architecture too. It is open ended and different for everybody even though we can agree on things. That’s the magic of art I try to exploit.
DONNA
What is the title about?
JORGE
At the time I took the photo there was a political-social conflict going on between the major forces of the political agendas. It’s funny really, polarity between forces that are two sides of one coin is the major theme of Mozambique’s archetype in cosmological terms.
DONNA
This is that article you wrote but never published.
JORGE
Yes, ‘The Archetypal Cosmology of Mozambique’, 2017.
DONNA
It was based on the work of Richard Tarnas, right?
JORGE
Yes, but the method is heavily influenced by others.
DONNA
Do you really believe that the stars have influence on us tiny humans?
JORGE
Cynicism, interesting. Professor Tarnas deals with these questions appropriately, but yes I do, though not in the manner you may be thinking. In the article I address this issue in depth.
DONNA
Understood. Do you use this method or something in that field for your work as a painter?
JORGE
No. It is interesting in anthropological terms. The influence of the heliosphere on terrestrial events has been proven scientifically many times. The sun has obviously a major influence on all we do. It is a star. The circadian rhythm dictates the rhythm of the ecosystem. It is so that the number of sunspots is indicative for a range of health issues. Our immune system is heavily influenced by the solar-geomagnetic activity. This in turn is influenced by the gravitational waves of the heliosphere that have local real-time influences. Heavy planets like Jupiter and Saturn have an influence on the sun through their sling-shot like movements in relation to each other. This is not classical astrology but is related to it. I go in depth within the article.
DONNA
You spoke about polarity in the political arena, is this related?
JORGE
Well, astronomically speaking Mozambique’s sun-sign is just next to the star Tejat in Gemini, which is classically the archetype of polarity and the mental faculties. It is within tropical astrology related to the Roman myth of Castor and Pollux, the twins. Again, the article goes in depth. But yeah, there’s a brother that is part of the elite and the other that is the plebian. At least, that’s how I choose to read it. I figure this is fitting because of the relation this nation has to Rome. Also, society operates under roman numeral time, the names of the planets are Roman so astrologically speaking it all fits. But this is not tropical astrology nor archetypal cosmology, it goes beyond.
DONNA
I’m not sure I follow you.
JORGE
I’m sure you don’t. There is a painting I made entitled ‘Castor and Pollux’, 2017 I believe.
DONNA
Let’s just keep the interview about this one.
JORGE
Agreed. There’s someone else I’m gonna talk to about that one.
DONNA
How does this all relate to this piece?
JORGE
This piece, my work, art in general, is about creating a relation towards the collective consciousness. An artist is for a society what a dream is to the individual. So, one has to dream with it. Just like me in a waking-dreamlike manner playing around with my camera and the city. Some of these dreams we remember. Just like I choose a specific photo to turn into a painting to show the public something that is about them. This is the law of correspondence at work; what is expressed in the outer worlds is expressed in the inner worlds. There is no separation of things, all is one gigantic reality.
DONNA
As above so below?
JORGE
Yeah, sure.
DONNA
You don’t sound convinced.
JORGE
I would say: as within so without. I don’t like the above and below suggestion of hierarchy.
DONNA
This is evident in the piece.
JORGE
I suppose. To me this piece is about the projection of power toward the citizen and its reaction to it. I chose a specific angle, or perspective that reveals some of my intentions indeed. But most of all I believe it reveals what I perceived the state of the collective mind to be. I don’t mean that the sleeping boy stands for the Mozambican people but that the painting as a whole is a vision of the state of affairs.
DONNA
It’s how you feel about being Mozambican.
JORGE
Nah. It’s a dialogue with the city and its implications. It’s also a dialogue between photography, painting and yeah, citizenship I think.
DONNA
Indeed, why not just print the original photograph?
JORGE
Many reasons. But the one I’ll mention is this: it’s much more fun and challenging to make a painting. It is much more intimate. To me there is a weird spiritual dimension to it. Also a painting feels more monumental, more emotional and intuitive than a photo. And it’s not like I reproduce the photo, on the contrary, I try to improve it. It’s a painting not a photo, so, I do things with it that can only be done painting. In the same way that I use the camera in a way that painting alone would not permit me. You see? The photo is a step in the process of which the painting is the end, the final step in the birth of the piece.
DONNA
So, you just use the photo as a sketch?
JORGE
Yes. Eventually it’s about the eye. Film, literature, painting and even sculpture are all based on the eye. Does it matter how this is produced? In terms of relational aesthetics yes, there are ethical considerations to any business of course, but that’s it right?
DONNA
I feel an irritation.
JORGE
Yes. It’s about the ‘death of painting’ thing.
DONNA
What about it?
JORGE
It’s silly, it even seems lazy to me. Not everything has been said and done. This is impossible. Life is infinite, we are infinite, in art we are free, what do you really want?
DONNA
Yes Jorge, what do you really want? Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
JORGE
I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want: Love is the Law.
FADE TO BLACK