BARCELONA GALLERY WEEKEND

A BRIEF CONVERSATION WITH ALEJANDRO MONGE

When did you first feel the need to express yourself through the visual arts?

I think I’ve always felt the need to make things with my hands and to try to understand the world in my own way. During my training at the School of Art in Zaragoza, I discovered that I could turn that obsession into my profession. Since then, basically, I haven’t stopped making life difficult for myself.

You like to say that you are a narrator of your time. How do you reflect some of the most pressing issues of today, such as climate change, immigration, diversity, political turmoil, social media or artificial intelligence, in your work?

I’m not interested in making sculptures that look like yesterday’s newspaper. I don’t want to represent climate change or artificial intelligence in an obvious way, but rather to talk about what all of this is doing to us. We live in a pretty crazy time: we have the technology to do incredible things and, at the same time, we still don’t really know what we’re doing with ourselves.

In your work, people are always alone. Do you think loneliness is still a pressing issue, despite all the “digital noise”?

Absolutely. We have a thousand friends on Instagram, WhatsApp groups for absolutely everything and, even so, we’re still alone. We’ve even managed to turn loneliness into content. My characters are alone because I think it’s one of the few things we still haven’t managed to solve with technology. Not yet…

Where do you think contemporary art is heading? Do you think it is freer now than it was in the past?

I think it’s freer, but also considerably more confusing. Today you can do practically anything and call it art, which is fantastic… and sometimes also a problem. I’m interested in that freedom, but I think that, ultimately, a work has to stand on its own once the discourse surrounding it disappears.

Do you think art has to be both ethical and aesthetic? In other words, is a concept necessary for a work of art to be considered valid?

No. And I don’t think a work has to ask permission to exist either. Some works are beautiful, others uncomfortable, others absurd, and others simply make you wonder who decided that was a good idea. For me, what matters is that they provoke something. The concept helps, but a brilliant idea behind a mediocre work is still a mediocre work.

Do you think it is acceptable for a work of art to need to be explained, or do you believe that works should speak for themselves to the viewer?

I think a work should be able to defend itself. If I need to stand next to the viewer for twenty minutes explaining what they’re supposed to feel, I’ll probably end up wondering: have I made a sculpture or a press conference? I’d rather make sculptures. After that, you can say whatever you like about it, but the initial impact should work without an instruction manual.

Your work is always immaculate; you seem to like having everything under control, leaving no room for “accidents”. Is achieving that perfection difficult for you, or is it something innate?

I’m pretty obsessive, yes. I like to control every last detail, and that’s probably both a virtue and a minor psychological problem in equal measure. Perfection doesn’t exist, but you can chase it until you drive yourself crazy. And I’m pretty good at that. Although I’ve also learned that some accidents are better than many hours of planning.

Where and how do you see yourself twenty years from now?

Expectations about the future don’t age well… I used to speculate about these things all the time, but this year I realised they’re not much use…

If I could know exactly where I’m going to be twenty years from now, I’d probably be bored… And if, twenty years from now, I still think I have something to say, I’ll consider myself lucky.