Catártica: February '21

February

No. 2

Vol. 2

κάθαρσις -Kathársis-Kathársis-

Catharsis can be understood as a process of purificación and emotional, mental, and spiritual freedom. Its origins are attributed to Greece, where Aristotle made use of the word to explain the sensation of the souls being cleaned after watching the Greek tragedies. The cathartic method is the one used to elevate the emotion and beyond that, the liberation of it. It is curious to think about artworks as part of the cathartic method. Who hasn't cried, shivered, been angry at an artwork? Catártica is born as a project to explore, experiment, discover at the maximum, our capacity to feel through art.

Chagall, Marc, (1915) The Birthday [Oil] MoMA, New York.

Cover: Zao Wou-Ki (1954) EMBRACEMENT (CONFLAGRATION). 136 / 200.

Who Who are are we? we?

What What do do we we want? want?

We are a group of students of different disciplines with the ambition of carrying art to anyone who needs it. With the desperation of making us understand and heard in this world with so much noise, Catártica allows us to have a voice behind tinted letters, having speeches that although they are monologues, open the dialogue in the student’s community and field professionals, and especially reach everyone who ignores, wants to know and feels ready to read voices with contrasting opinions. In a nutshell, Catártica is our tool to make us understand and communicate our sensible and affective relationship with our world.

The The Assistant: Assistant:

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how how to to make make intelligible intelligible what what seems seems to to

make make no no sense sense out out loud? loud?

Kisses Kisses and and ridges ridges

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Explain Explain to to me me the the law law of of attraction attraction

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Mud Mud as as dirt dirt

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Of Of curve curve and and color color

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Time Time Machine Machine

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2 2 a.m a.m

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Mental Mental Note Note

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Kisses Kisses & & art art

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Internet Internet Killed Killed the the Rockstar Rockstar

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Interviewing Interviewing Funnes Funnes

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THE THE ASSISTANT ASSISTANT :: How How to to make make intelligible intelligible what what seems seems to to

make make no no sense sense out out loud? loud?

The first narrative film by Australian director, producer, screenwriter, and editor Kitty Green, The Assistant (2019), portrays Jane's (Julia Garner) everyday life and the systematic abuse that is perpetrated in the film industry.

With a pale color palette, we are immersed in the monotony of Jane, who is the first to arrive and one of the last to leave the office.

Throughout the day we are made aware that Jane's duties are not only paperwork and administrative procedures but also other activities that have historically been assigned to women, such as keeping spaces tidy, feeding her colleagues, and taking care of her boss's children.

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Lucero S.T. The film lacks of explicit scenes that make the viewer jolt, and even the sound design can become tedious for being plagued by noises of wrappers, rings, office machinery, however, it is the sum of the small gestures that point out how normalized the presence of sexual predators is in the workplace. Even the anonymity of the director may be interpreted as a space waiting to be filled with the name of any man who takes advantage of his social, political, or professional position to commit abusive acts.

In The Assistant, Kitty Green masterfully shows the process in which a young woman's accusation is minimized and twisted to the point where her silence makes her

an accomplice, but the paradoxes of gender issues are not new to Green's agenda.

In her first documentary, Ukraine Is Not a Brothel (2013), the director closely follows members of the feminist collective Femen, led by patriarch Victor, who is the mind behind the orchestration of attractive young women protesting half-naked in public squares.

The Assistant debuted in 2019 in some festivals such as Telluride, Sundance, and Berlinale, it was released in theaters in 2020 but it was in January 2021 that it became available on the Amazon Prime platform.

This fact becomes relevant in the Mexican context as it coincides with the public denunciation of content creator Nath Campos, who in a forty-minute video explains her experience of abuse and how she was absorbed by an environment that protected her aggressor.

The visibility of these events, accompanied by explanations such as the one by Nath Campos, points to the depth and prevalence of the systematic abuse that corrodes our society and shows that it is not a problem of good guys versus bad guys, the dilemma is more complicated than that.

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R. Magritte, (1928) Les Amants, [oil on canvas] Museum of Modern Art, NY.

KISSES KISSES AND AND

RIDGES RIDGES

M. I. Flores Nachón We idealize love. We romanticize with the idea that love doesn’t hurt, doesn’t burn, it slips softly and without scratches, we think about wet kisses, the ones that make you get goosebumps. We don’t think about the aftertaste, the kiss that scars, and a lot less we think about the void that fills us in and the deafening silence. It is not until we feel it, that tears us apart. René Magritte got torn by love and one that should never hurt. Régine’s body, René’s mother was found three weeks after she jumped into Sambre River, with her head covered by a wet cloth. I think if Magritte knew how many times I've wished someone would kiss me as Les Amants (1928) do, he would think I’ve gone mad. I’m sorry Magritte, I didn’t know until 2016.

LOVE HURTS. TELL ME ABOUT IT, MAGRITTE WOULD SAY. THERE’S A MOMENT IN WHICH LOVE HURTS. R. Magritte, (1928) Les Amants, [oil on canvas] Museum of modern art, NY.

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Les Amants is a series of oil paintings that reproduce scenes of a couple with their heads covered by a white veil. As usual in Magritte’s artwork, he plays with our perception, he directs our stare not only into the couple but into the vanishing point conducted by the red wall lined by the cornice. Is it a wall or the sky that we’re seeing? I don’t know. Are we locked up with you, Magritte?

Or are we locked up with them? I guess it all depends on how we relate to the painting. It is a postcard, in which two bodies stand out, out of everything else, not that there's something more attractive to sight than those two bodies.

Regarding the details and the shadow work, I applaud Magritte, how fantastic; with my eyes I can almost feel the heavy and soaked creases, preventing me from breathing. René Magritte covered the two anonymous lovers' faces that kiss but don’t touch each other, a kiss that is not near to being a kiss. The exhaling of the longing that percolates through the wet veils, suppressing the desire of the love that was not anymore, the kiss that will never be again.

Les Amants is the proof that there are loves that want to feel each other without having the contact, that exist without seeing each other, that kiss without touching. So eternally frustrating to be recognized as one of the most famous kisses in Art History, even being lips that never tasted each other, even telling us something that goes beyond a kiss.

René Magritte saw the face of his mother covered by a wet cloth when her body was found, a wet cloth that took him away from love. A heavy line, damp creases that mark the end of a love that will never be again, the warmth that he never found again, a kiss he never felt again.

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EXPLAIN EXPLAIN ME ME THE THE

LAW LAW OF OF ATTRACTION. ATTRACTION. Dear, I still don't understand how attraction works. I don’t understand how, without having you here, my hands look desperately for yours at night. I crave your kiss even knowing your lips are far from mine. I dream about your silhouette and the way the light reflects on your shoulder blade. I dream about kissing it, kissing behind your neck, and making your little hairs stand up. I dream about tracing your back with my cold fingertips, tracing your freckles and constellations, making your warm skin get goosebumps from it.

Is it possible that I dream, needing something you haven’t give to me?

What kind of addiction is this?

Why do I feel like I need to hear your voice every half an hour to continue with my day?

Why do you make me feel so frustrated, confused, angry, sad yet… amused?

How is that possible?

I have never felt your touch, yet I shiver when I picture your fingers stroking my cheek. Please tell me this feeling goes both ways. Let me know I am not going crazy. Tell me you have a bunch of unsent letters all written for me. Tell me you dream about your fingers getting tangled in my hair and pulling softly as we kiss. Tell me that you want to feel my eyelashes flickering on your chest as I hear your heartbeat. Tell me how you crave not only my body but you crave breakfast with me while the sun rays creep through the blinds. Let me know that you want the boring, the day-to-day, the tedious with me.

Explain to me how attraction works.

Confused, but yours.

M. I. Flores Nachón 10

MUD MUD AS AS DIRT DIRT I’ll say that words slip away from me, but they really come out from the ground, as the puddle remains after watering a non-thirsty plant. I think a lot about people who are looking for luck somewhere else. I think a lot about abroad, the foreigners, in what is another’s.

Sometimes, I think I'm not capable of finding my life here, I don't know what I would do that far either. I found people here. It took me long. It took me years to be who I am, to get there, to forget that good days are more a coincidence than a divine caress.

I could fall again. It’s in the budget. It’s part of a life committed to ending when the time comes, as many others. There are lives that evade their destiny. I undress and hug it. I could fall into the arms of another woman to whom I have to promise the world. I could, and my life would bear her life and bear mine. I could, and although I don't want to, I would.

I explained to Eugenia the other day about Fadanelli. I prefer metaphor to logic / even rhetoric / good rhetoric, not the one we are used to. And now I can’t stop thinking about it. Buddha says there is no duality, but I still live deluded, and for me there are two worlds: the logical and the metaphorical. In the logical, possible things happen. In the metaphorical, the ones that are not. There is logic and metaphoric literature, logic and metaphoric love, logic jobs that turn metaphoric and vice versa. They are two lovers; one wants to love forever and the other says there is no tomorrow. One wants to swim in the river and the other to burn in lava. The loneliness of the lovers who by leaving / are fighting each one not to meet.

What terrifies me is a world without love and without being loved. Love is, in the end, that, hidden under the skirt and the zipper. It is that flirtation that is not said but of which one finds out. Love is the dream in which we all sleep and from which no one wants to wake up. But you have to wake up and live the other dream, play the other game, swim the other sea.

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Do you already understand why the metaphor and the logic? To talk about logical love we would need a representative sample of people between 18 and 45 years of age, who have had a relationship of at least six months of duration or are in one, and we must ask their level of agreement with the following statements : (there are no following statements)

There is no other way. Fernanda understood it well. I can't recall a single conversation I had with her, but I do remember that she understood well. She knew I liked to lie and encouraged me to do so.

What more could you ask for in life? I know that we change, today we are and tomorrow no longer; conviction is a value that the less we practice the better. I know we change; the only thing I hope is not to mutate into a son of a bitch or a boring one. I would hope to be Buddha, but in the end, isn't it also a bit pretentious?

I'm glad I haven't had a misspelling in years. I look from the pedestal; I won I don't know how many contests of that and the most I received were three textbooks and a 16 GB USB. I love Mexico, this magical, ceremonial, muddy, noisy and perfect place. I love this land where you acclimatize or acclima-die; Octavio Paz would have said it in different words but I was not able to be his protégé.

A shame.

Transcending is not the meaning of life. It is living. Transcending is for always hungry spirits. I tell you something: that hunger is not satisfied with anything. There is no steak so juicy to fill the stomach of the one who wants his name in the stars. There is nothing after this life, at least nothing quite like it. So let your guard down and crack another cold one in my honor. See you soon.

Fernando Salas 12

OF OF CURVE CURVE AND AND COLOR COLOR OF OF CURVE CURVE AND AND COLOR COLOR

Fernanda Torres Color, in the first instance was the main interest in my artistic production. From how it generates organic forms through compositions that integrate both warm and cold tones, as well as experimentation with other materials in a two-dimensional representation such as cotton, paper, waste, or dried plants; it consisted in using painting as a mean to represent what I wanted to express. However, as time went by, I decided to leave the painting to enter into other genres such as installation, video, and text, where I approached personal themes and interests, which I sublimated in my production. Such as intimate misunderstandings, my constant existential problems as a human being, as well as the development of western society ever since the rise of modernity.

These themes led me to the constant question about how to solve these problems through my artistic production since it is not

enough just to produce visual representations of any subject, after all, everything goes beyond what an external one. Not only are the color palettes reflecting a feeling, or the use of certain materials, but every part of the painting is thought to display to whom and how my message is directed.

Art, beyond communicating an idea, is the result of a thought that results in knowledge, which then spreads so that those thoughts are assimilated and understood.

Because despite being born with the sense of sight, we have not received the same training to observe; as a result of the determinism that permeate the reality of each human being and generate both limitations and privileges that lead to cultural and socioeconomic gaps, which are reflected in the different productions that exist and will exist. That is why today sociology of art has served as a reference to my production to be able to replace an inclusive reading:

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“Among the revolutionary currents of Western Europe, Marxist ideas formed the bases of the debates on the role that they should use art in social change” (Clark, p.15, 2001). Like the psychoanalysis of art and philosophy, throughout my career, I have been able to focus on critical and pertinent questions that support both my production and my interests.

Now, after experimenting with installations, video, and text, there was a theme that I was interested in addressing in-depth, all thanks to a photographic series on how to carry out a pictorial problem without resorting to painting.

Photography was the medium I used to capture architectural spaces that when digitally intervened the composition and analysis of the images ended up being similar to a contemporary painting. The record of this experimentation is archived in a video where I not only retake the the exploration of color, which was my main interest at the beginning, but it became a new approach to my artistic production: using architecture to rethink how space is intervened in an ephemeral way, using vernacular techniques that carry an ideological discourse that has not been employed by the exclusion "of the other" —call it anyone who does not fit into the Western heteropatriarchal standards — by the need to belong to what the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu exposed in his text Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, regarding the legitimate taste that exists in art, to eventually distinguish oneself from the rest:

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Knowing that 'manner' is a symbolic manifestation whose meaning and value depends as much on those who perceive it as on the one who produces it, one can see how it is that the manner of using symbolic goods, especially those regarded as the attributes of excellence, constitutes one of the key markers of 'class' and also the ideal weapon in strategies of distinction, that is, as Proust put it, 'the infinitely varied art of marking distances'. The ideology of natural taste contrasts two modes of acquisition of culture: Total, early and imperceptible learning, performed within the family from the earliest days of life and extended by scholastic learning which presupposes and completes it, is distinguished from the late, methodical learning not so much in the depth and durability of its effects as the ideology of cultural 'veneer' wants, as by the modality of the relationship between language and culture which it tends to inculcate (Bourdieu, p.63, 1979)

It not only characterizes the decision of the color palette that is used, as well as the selection of materials, but is based on determinism that the Hungarian art historian Arnold Hauser exposed in his text “Introduction to Art History”, which encompass beyond an iconographic field but specific codes that have been used by a single sector of the population that is a minority: "art, that is, the qualitatively valuable art is directed to members of a cultural community, and not Rousseau's "natural man"; its understanding is linked to certain presuppositions formation and its popularity is therefore limited from the beginning” (Hauser, p.30, 1961).

Besides, the superstructure that exposed the German sociologist Karl Marx that not only controlled the means of production but also circulation of information: "Marx was, however, the first to formulate the thought that spiritual values are political weapons. According to him, all work of the spirit, all scientific thought, and all representation of

reality have their origin in a certain aspect of truth determined by their interests and disfigured by perspective, and as long as society continues divided into classes, it will only be possible this one-sided view and perspective of truth." (Hauser, p.

26, 1961). The French philosopher Michel Foucault in his text The order of Things spoke about how that information is controlled and manipulated to select which may be disclosed and what is not: "In every society the production of discourse is organized once, controlled, selected and redistributed by a certain number of procedures whose function is to ward off its powers and dangers, to dominate the random event and avoid its heavy and terrible materiality ”(Foucault, 1971, p.14) In this sense, in my current research, my artistic practice focuses equally on using techniques used in vernacular architecture for installations that gives viewers another way to read the

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space that has been dominantly enforced to think one way and not another. In addition to implementing in my discourse certain methodologies that includes voices that have been made invisible by the official discourse of art history, when choosing materials that go beyond the decision of whether they are relevant or not: "In the coexistence of places and not places, the greatest obstacle will always be political ”(Augé, p. 118, 1992).

That said, in 2019 I had an exhibition titled Ambivalence, where I intervened the space with architectural structures that would dialogue with the viewer through senses. To carry out the installation I used brick, concrete and sand, but this year I made the decision to experiment with organic materials in order to carry out a sociological analysis about industrialized materials that exclude "primitive" techniques such as adobe, for example, for not being sufficiently "resistant" and "pleasing", when in reality it is for not providing that distinction that is so much sought after in "novelty".

CONTACT: https://torrescofernanda.wixsite.com/arte torrescof@gmail.com @torrescof.arte

REFERENCES: Augé, Marc. (1992). Los no lugares. Barcelona, España: Gedisa.

Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinción. Criterios y bases sociales del gusto.

España: Taurus Clark, T. (2001). Arte y propaganda en el siglo XX. México: Akal.

Foucault, M. , González, T. A. (1971). El orden del discurso. México: Tusquets Editores Hauser, A. (1961). Introducción a la Historia del Arte. Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama.

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Time machine I dreamed I was a superhero, Now that I'm awake, I can’t but to think, Everything I would do; I would invent a time machine I would help people, Maybe I would save the infinite stones, Or maybe use them to save us from COVID

Santiago Flores Mendoza

8 years old

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Antonella Guagnelli Cuspinera Note to self

Outstanding who speaks in the face of adversity, who comments without hurting and who does not drown his intelligence in ego.

Outstanding the morning star and the shoes that do not fit in the shoe rack.

Outstanding the idea I have of you, in every sense, in the bad and in the good.

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2 p.m I told Mom about the attacks About the hurricanes, and the thousand hells and about the dead room.

I explained in detail the tremors and the black fluids that collapse in me the lungs as long as I don’t hug my knees.

The ropes broke before I got there to tell you about the most atrocious lapses; in which time breaks down and sinks into the living cracks of my palms.

I didn’t say anything about the scream I hear all the time for fear that I might ask Who is that screaming?

How to tell her it’s me who’s screaming, It’s my voice I’m sure that cement strangles me when the city crosses over me, that the footsteps no longer hurt so much because months ago that I have every nerve numb and every hit, non the less an insufficient sign of life.

How do I tell her that I need to take this pharisee bandage off my chest, because the air hasn’t been in for months.

How do I tell her, that only by being reborn I´ll stop feeling like I'm dying, that I’m dying right now and don’t know how to stop it.

Sandra Sofía Smithers Garciaruíz 21

Kisses & art

Emma Zamudio Kissing is an action commonly associated with affection. The next pages will show a little selection of meanings of a kiss in the art.

1. Social acts, customs, and habits:

The devotion of the slaves as a sign of submission:

B. Picart 1727 Uses of Guineans residents (fragment). Engraved.

Ancient Greece was part of the men’s education system.

Attic Calyx, Greece, V century B.C.

An act of treason:

Passion Chapel or Judas's Kiss.

Cloister of Pamplona Cathedral c.a.

1130 -1140.

The so-called communist kiss o fraternal kiss an extended custom in the Soviet Union as a salute.

D. Vrubel 1990 My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love (Leonid Brézhnev y Erich Honecker), Mural. Inspire by a photograph from 1979.

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2. A sexual/erotic act:

In Japan, the genre shunga from Ukiyo-e is erotic art.

The rococo style often shows gallant scenes in other words flirtations and love affairs.

I. Kôryûsai, (1770-1775) Couple's Love at Tea Service, Twelve Faces of Sophisticated Edo series (Furyu Edo junikei), ukiyo-e [engraving].

J.H. Fragonard (1790) The stolen kiss, oil, and canvas.

M. Miksche 1950 Sailors kissing, paint on paper.

Based on a photograph from 1942.

3. Filial act:

W.A. Bouguereau. (1890) A Little coaxing, [oil and canvas].

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E. Carucci, (2015) Kiss Trace, series Midlife, [photography]

4. A Celebration:

A scene between Anna and Joaquin, Virgin Mary’s parents.

The kiss is a celebration because she gets pregnant.

Giotto (1305) Legend of St Joachim, Meeting at the Golden Gate, [fresco]

A. Eisenstaedt (1945) V-J Day Times Square, [photography]

5. Intimate gesture:

B. Nitke, (2003) Bathroom Kiss, [photography].

M. Chagall, (1915) The Birthday, [oil and canvas].

6. Mockery :

During the first and second world wars, women have to do the usual “men’s work”.

D. Tempest (1914 -1918) series “Men Jobs” Girls are doing all the fellows jobs now!, [print].

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7. Expression of romantic love.

Traditionally thought of as heterosexual:

The myth of Eros (sexuality/ body) by Psiche (mind), is an analogy of romantic love.

A. Canova (1793) Eros and Psique/ Psique reanimated by the kiss of love, [marble].

C. Brancusi, (1913) The kiss, [gesso].

7. The extra; Pandemic Kiss

G. Klimt (1908) The kiss, [oil on canvas and gold].

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I. Olenik (2020) First kiss with mask on, [needlework].

D DE EL LL LIIK K

INTERNET INTERNET

THE THE ROCKSTAR ROCKSTAR

Rossanna Huerta ¿Aún recuerdas la última vez que cantaste alguna canción de Avril Lavigne o My Chemical Romance a todo pulmón? Pues es momento de que saques del closet tu delineador y ropa emo porque ha llegado el esperado regreso del rock y del pop-punk.

Y aunque no lo creas, le tenemos que agradecer a los raperos... veamos el porqué:

A quick history class… Since the birth of the American counterculture, Rock music is the keystone of rebellion, generational opposition, and your granny’s nightmares. Not because of the music, but rather of what the music itself represents and speaks about; let's remember that rock sought to challenge the establishment, i.e. the established social norms. It has mutated every time so it could adapt to the social environment in which it developed, in order to not fall into the mainstream and the norms.

Several authors define it as: "[...] An alternative movement, complementary to the predominant culture that rejects the established social values and ways of life, proposing alternatives of existence". (Vázquez, 2019, p.1)

This rebellious spirit of youth traveled around the world accompanying great worldwide social movements such as The Mexican Student Movement of 1968, The Sexual Revolution of the ‘60s, the protests against the Vietnam War (1963-1975), among others (Carbonell, 2020). But that was in the ‘60s and ‘70s, what has happened since then?

How did the internet kill rock?

Do you still remember those great times of adolescence with our emo haircuts and listening to the great representatives of the teen culture of the mid-2000s and early 2010s like My Chemical Romance, Pierce the Veil, Fall Out Boy, The Killers, or Paramore. Clearly, these bands are not "pure rock" but a combination of several musical genres, however, they appeal to the same audience that is understood in rock: teenagers.

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Remember, every teen generation has its own counterculture. Like any artistic movement, the rock of each era is the response to the previous movement, in this case, the rock of the ’90s, what we now know as grunge, alternative, punk, and more. And what catapulted these genres into the new teen market of the mid-2000s and beyond was nothing more than mainstream culture: "Poppunk and pop-rock became a blessing to the youth culture: here was this sound that was just angsty enough to get kids to listen to it, but safe enough that their parents won't mind. Neat!" (The Skull and The Sword, 2020). With a wider sound world, the inspirations for the new artist came not only from rock but from other genres that "softened" the very metallic and dirty sound that characterized rock —something that made many purists angry— and faded into the background with the rise of the alternative pop artist that appealed to the emotions of teenagers. The Buggles warned us back in the 80s: "Video killed the radio star", and MOD SUN re-appropriated it: "Internet killed the (video) rockstar".

And now? what's happening? haven't you noticed a subtle return of rock? And from the least expected place of all, Rap music. Poprock fans are rising from the ashes and finding new glory in the music of Machine Gun Kelly, Blackbear, YUNGBLUD, Halsey, Post Malone, and MOD SUN thanks to new apps and social media challenges. It's quite curious since most of these artists came from very different genres, from pop, blues, and rap. But they all have something in common: their great inspirations come from the soft-rock culture of the 2000s; moreover, together with the musical background of each of them, they created a refreshing and nostalgic sound to the rock that many already considered dead.

LET'S ADMIT IT, 2000'S POP CULTURE IS BACK IN FASHION.

REFERENCES: Vázquez, A. (2019). La contracultura: El rock como protesta política.

Is Rock music really dead? (2020) The Skull and the Sword.

Carbonell, J. (2020) ¿Sigue viva la contracultura?.

Richardson, J. (2021) Is pop-punk really dead?

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Interviewing Interviewing

FUNNES FUNNES Carolina G. Funnes is an emerging band from Mexico City, through their road music they’re taking us on melancholic trips… wanna join us on the road?

Ollin: Thank you so much for inviting us, we’re truly really grateful and happy to be here.

On the contrary, guys, thank you for allowing us to interview you! To begin with, can you tell us a little bit about the beginning of Funnes, how did you decided to start the band?

Ollin: Well, the idea of the project goes back to 20162017. I had a couple of years living in Mexico City, I was studying civil engineering at the time, and there was a friend here who was from Zamora, where I am from.

He and I had a history working in other bands but he was the only person I knew, later on, I started making friends because of the music. I gathered with my friend and started showing him some songs and those started to developed little by little and that was when we thought we should include new people in the band.

The first one to join was Efrén.

He plays the bass, tho he had never touched one before. One day I told him: Hey would you like to join the band? He said he didn’t know how to play any instrument, but I said I would teach him how to play bass.

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He bought one and to this day he is still our bass player. Then, Pepe joined… I think he can tell the story from now on.

Pepe: Yeah, well, I entered the band through my brother. He knew Efrén because they were together in a college course, a short time later I heard they were looking for a drummer. At that point in my life, I was at a parting point, I had just entered school and I was having some mental health issues and many doubts. My brother told me “ Hey, Efrén is looking for a drummer for his band” and that was when I said I would join. Later on, Ollin and his friend, Mike talked to me and asked about my music taste, you know. I incorporated myself easily, I liked the band and I felt safe.

Ollin: That's the story of how we started, we’re just three members: Pepe, Efrén, and me. We’d like to have a more entertaining story, but we hope that when the fourth member joins, we’ll have a better story… like him dropping his books and our hands meeting each other as we help him pick them up, something like that. But I’m not sure that will happen.

Did you find any difficulty when you started the band?

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Pepe: I think the start of everything was one of the best things, when we first started the rehearsals, we clashed a lot between us, very interesting stuff happening.

Ollin: Yes, at first it was complicated, Mike and I had a really fast rhythm while playing, we had played before and we played a lot, so trying to fit everyone else in was a little rough, taking the instruments for the first time wasn’t easy.

Sometimes I thought Pepe was going to leave the band because rehearsals were intense, a lot of tension going on, but now everything is fine. We are close and comunicate way better than before.

Pepe: We were always friends, but the problem was during the rehearsals, as he said, a lot of tension. Out of that everything was cool, we partied together, we had a lot of great experiences, and even more, because we saw each other a lot, when we started playing, we saw each other daily. We took our time to play, but once we did we saw each other like 4 times a week or more.

Just out of curiosity, where does the name “Funnes” come from?

Ollin: There’s a tale by Jorge Luis Borges called, Funnes El Memorioso (Funnes, The Memorable). Talks about a person who can’t forget things, he remembers everything, every single detail. Actually, the name has nothing to do with us as a band, but I was Reading that tale and when someone asked what name should we use, I said out of nowhere “Funnes” and it stayed.

And your songs, where do they come from? Do you have any creative process?

Ollin: Well, it is variable, there’s no formula. Every song is born from different forms; lately, Pepe has been helping me with writing the lyrics, because I usually do that. But then there are songs that in a couple of minutes they’re ready, without overthinking, I just take the guitar and pum!, there it is, like waiting. Lately what we’ve been practicing a lot is I give them a very general idea of the song, or how the song is going to be, and then Pepe adds something and polishes what was before, I think he has worked a lot as that bounce in the lyrical ideas.

Pepe: Yeah, it is something really interesting. At first, the lyrics of the songs were already done, but now you can find a little piece of everyone, we always contribute something. Before we said “We have this rhythm, do it exactly the same”, now we say “we have this… what do we do?” and we all help.

Ollin: I don’t like the Word inspiration, I don't believe a lot in it. I think it is a mixture of a lot of things that make you write something you like, or maybe don’t like, I think it is a matter of persistence. For me creativity, and I believe I’ve created that idea over time, is not moments of lucidity we have now and then, I think it is like a muscle you have to work on, if you continue working with your creativity, it’ll be better each time. I believe I don’t get inspiration from things or places, it's more like forcing it to come out. There are times I don’t want to sit down and write things with the guitar, but I have to do it. I don't believe in “inspiration, I think that anything, no matter how rough it may be, if you work it if you give the love and care needed, can turn into a soft and pretty Stone. I’d rather think of that idea.

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Pepe: And, everyone inspires themselves in different ways, I sometimes listen to the songs and can think about the mood of the person who wrote it. Ollin doesn’t notice it, but we do, for example, in this one last song I know he was inspired by certain stuff. When the idea of “Cobre” cameo ut, we were rehearsing and talking about different things when out of nowhere Ollin said “look what I just wrote”, and our first thought was “wow, it is long”, it lasted like 5 or 6 minutes… that’s the inspiration, but he denies it. And this song is the one we contributed the most, from this song on we did much more of what was needed, it gives a plus to the songs.

This song you mention, “Cobre” is your newest single recently released into the streaming platforms.

Congratulations! Could you tell us more about it?

Ollin: Well, I wrote the lyrics during a vacation in Michoacán, and the day I arrived in Mexico City, I took the guitar and the first verse just slipped out. “No puedes ver que ya no hay más para ti, todo este pueblo se olvidó de ti” “Can’t you see there’s no more for you here, all this town has forgotten about you”. Looking back now, it is a personal song but at that moment I wasn’t thinking of anything in particular. It was like the main idea was to write a song about someone who was exiled and that someone was proposing someone else to run away together, like an invitation.

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Later the idea developed more and it ended up being something completely different, I was writing about the people who were close to me, dealing with life. I had a friend who had just decided to drop out of school and change into music. I knew people who were suffering hard times, people moving, others ending things, starting things. I was trying to be that voice of someone trying to escape the comfort zone. In the end, I realized I was talking a lot about myself, about how I felt with my life in that instant, about the fear of doing what I wanted to do, but that stayed like a secondary idea, the main intention was to write a tale about exile.

The day the song was released, Pepe said on Instagram that this song meant the beginning and end of cycles, can we ask what you were referring to with that?

Pepe: I think it is hard to explain, yet simple. When we started working on the three singles we have, we were living a period, years went by, artists released new songs and we continued in that period.

There was a moment that our songs sounded old. So we had to re-make the songs, make them better so they could sound like 2019, 2020, 2021. But, right after making those songs, we entered an inspirational moment, like a moment to give something new to the people who listen to our music, so the new songs are going to be different.

Being home 24/7 gives you time to rethink many things, to rethink some plans.

We had the opportunity to record our music.

After the pandemic like Pepe said, we had the opportunity to record 100% of our music. The singles that are on the platforms are sounds of the three of us recording in a studio, and during the pandemic, we understood that playing live is not really the band, but it is part of the band. In reality, the band is the music we make the three of us together regardless of whether we are together at that moment or in distance.

This leads us to ask you: how have the recording processes of your singles been?

In what way has the pandemic affected you?

Ollin: It has affected us positively and negatively, the negative I think is very clear. Not being able to play is very sad, most of those who make music what we enjoy the most is being able to go out and play, play in front of a lot of people, create an experience, the people who are there and we are part of the experience. When we play songs live, even if they are the same as those we play in another place, they are never the same because the same thing that happened in the previous concert is not repeated. That's the sad part, but I think we have more positive things, before the pandemic we hadn't done anything, we hadn't done any singles, we had played but we hadn't formalized the band or the project.

Ollin: “Fractal” we recorded in Topetitud Estudio, which is the studio of Molotov, it is a beautiful place to make music. They make you feel like you're going to make a record that's going to win a Grammy.

Pepe: Yes, it was the first time we recorded in a studio like this. They give you the guitars you want, there are many toys as if we were going to KidZania.

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But that was with the first single, we already recorded the second and third at Estudios Noviembre, but we were already more experienced, because the first time if there were failures, it took us to record “Fractal” all day. In November Studios we recorded “Canción de huida” and “Cobre” in one day, and it was already heard more that we were experimenting, we rehearsed a lot before going to record them. Our producer friend helped us, but already in these last songs, Ollin is the one in charge of the mixes.

Ollin: It is the first time that I do the mixing as such because if the recording process changes a lot, with “Cobre” and the songs that come, we already work by areas, each one is dedicated to something and we refine it by listening, listening and hearing.

Since you told us that they were in these studios, where they surely had contact with artists, we would like to know: what bands or artists would you like to collaborate with in the future?

Ollin: Who else I would have liked to collaborate with or know is no longer there, but my dream is to be able to be in a room full of instruments with Gustavo Cerati. What do you think, Pepe?

Pepe: I think, from the Mexican bands I know, I would like to collaborate with Café Tacvba, or DLD, which is one of my favorite bands; Maná is also a very interesting band because, despite the criticism the musicians get, we cannot deny that they are succeeding, like Little Jesus.

Ollin: I love what Little Jesus does, without exception, I'm a fan.

Pepe: Also with Ximena Sariñana or Mon Laferte.

Ollin: And my other dream is that Kevin Parker from Tame Impala produces an album for us, I hope that when we are recording our tenth album that is possible, we only ask for a little.

Are you planning to release any EPs or albums in the future?

Ollin: Eventually, when we see that it's time to release an EP we will release it, but I still don't see the date clear. I would like it to be this year, but it is complicated ... pandemic.

Pepe: Today it is not so easy to release many songs at the same time, much less promote an album.

Right now only the great artists are the ones who release albums, and not even records anymore, sometimes they only release them to sign and give them away, but now more as a premium package that few have because the album is already on digital platforms.

Ollin: Maybe the best thing would be to release it when we know that there are already people willing to listen to a complete album by us, a group of people who are already waiting for it and are going to take the time to listen to 8 or 9 songs in a row. Sure it will happen, but we are paving the way for that.

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Lastly, where do you see Funnes in 10 years?

Ollin: I see the three of us dedicated 100% to Funnes, dedicating all our time, work, and effort to transform Funnes. I wish that by that time we could think that we already made the best music that we could have done in those 10 years.

Pepe: I still see us dedicated 100% to music, having concerts anywhere, festivals anywhere, and at least already recognized in Latin America.

Ollin: Maybe a Grammy wouldn't be bad, or maybe two ...

Pepe: This is a beautiful question a because it makes me think about what awaits us and what we must do to have those results, it is something very beautiful to think about.

We thank Funnes for this interview.Don't forget to follow them on your favorite social media and streaming platform.

@funnesfunnes Funnes Funnes Funnes

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