Helena Basagañas, Stain a lanscape 2017, work in progress
Helena Basagañas, Stain a lanscape 2017, work in progress

“If you consider yourself an artist, you have something in you to respond to.”

Name

Helena Basagañas

Profession

Visual artist

Website

helenabasaganas.com

Helena Basagañas, Summer Evening, 2016
Helena Basagañas, Summer Evening, 2016

Who are you? What do you do?

I am an artist, with the strangeness and contradictions that this term generates. I’m interested in everything related to visual language. I combine artistic work in my studio and teaching, as well as some illustration assignments from time to time. They are fantastic challenges because the client know my work and understand that it changes according to the project. That trust has a lot of value.

Where are you from?

I’m from Barcelona.

Your style in 3 words?  

Deep, fierce and organic.

Helena Basagañas, no title, 2017
Helena Basagañas, no title, 2017

Your weakness? Your strength?

Thinking too much. Taking action.

What makes you different?

Good question, and how difficult it is to answer without being pretentious…

What I do is always born from an inner impulse, which I channel and materialize from a very rigorous vision of what my interests in art are, which is the vibration produced by a work, and how its expansive wave affects us. That intimate and inexplicable communication that is created, that truth and mystery. How far their roots go in the past.

When did you decide to become an artist?

A year before I started Fine Arts. I was also interested in sports, but suddenly art became something important to me, discarding any other option. Once I finished the degree, I wanted to continue training in the visual field, and I graduated in graphic design at EINA.

Helena Basagañas, Physis IV, 2018
Helena Basagañas, Physis IV, 2018

What do you find most fascinating about your work?

I almost never know how my works are going to be. I do not have a plan and I do not have sketches. If I knew clearly how the work is going to be … then why do it? It never made much sense to me… Space, be it canvas, paper or wall, demands something. And if you consider yourself an artist, you have something in you to respond to. A need. Something to say.

A few words about your favourite creation?

The chapel’s mural painting project. I moved to the chapel for 2 or 3 weeks, and the work was born. How I said, there was never a sketch. I knew what feeling, what atmosphere, my references… but nothing concrete. That work only existed for 1 month. To be creating it knowing that it would disappear very soon… It was all very intense. I will always thank Pilar Bonet, the curator of this ephemeral mural project, who thought of me to do it.

Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you…

Marisa Merz, Cy Twombly, Louise Bourgeois, Maria Zambrano, Cézanne, Goya, Antoni Llena, Gilles Deleuze, Hélène Cixous, Lawrence Durrell, Mark Strand, Vivian Maier, Ansel Adams…

Helena Basagañas, no title, 2017
Helena Basagañas, no title, 2017

A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?

In exhibition until June 22 you can see 6 of my works at the gallery Esther Montoriol (Barcelona).

I usually have three or four unfinished projects running through the studio. They range from pure abstraction on the edge with figuration; on canvas or paper. I also work with photography from a very pictorial approach, outside the studio and with my usual interests.

Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“

To be honest. And all that life that exists beyond work, which is a lot, and more complex, and hard and fascinating.

2018: Where are we going?

I don’t I don’t know how to manage all that information that comes to us about the world. We are overwhelmed and thirsty for images. Use and throw, use and throw. Be information, images or citizens.
In Catalonia, for instance, we have been living under a very serious situation for months. It is intervened by the central government. The Spanish state is mistreating human rights such as freedom of expression and right to demonstrate, abuse of preventive detention with elected politicians and justifies or denies violent police actions that are recorded. The impotence and indignation that we citizens feel, that we have always asked for respect, democracy and dialogue in a peaceful way, is immense.

When the going gets tough…

It basically makes you angry and you feel empty. Over time you learn and overcome these moments more quickly. The process is the same, but condensed, in a few days you fight again. I do not know if by pride, stubbornness, or conviction. My family and friends are basic, they help me and value my work. My mother especially has an unusual emotional intelligence, she supports me without feeling sorry for me.

Your city’s favourite spots?

I have not found it yet … I like to walk around the city. Altaïr Travel Library is a good place.

Do you have a vision?

Mmmm… no.

Helena Basagañas, no title, 2016
Helena Basagañas, no title, 2016

What would you do if you could change the World?

Women could organize the world from scratch according to their criteria.

Tell us about your future plans…

My professional goal is to establish a fair and serious professional relationship with a gallery to trust the work I do. On the other hand, they have offered me work in a very interesting online project that will be released in a few months, I can not give details yet, it is based on bringing art to the people, I am very excited.

Last but not least: what is your favourite Song?

I have many favourite songs! One of them: En la pulpería de Lucita”, by Bunbury.

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