a great scenographic value, and even relational and conceptual, as in the case of the last works, which does not exist outside the museum scope because they are determined by their spatial location.
A.P. Let us go to your creation consisting of multiple mirrors, there it is possible to trace history, psychoanalysis, the various levels of language, the monumentality of forms, the poem-image ...
A.P. In Latin America there is effervescence for engraving in its various manifestations. I have observed in exhibits I have seen in various cities that most engravers work small and medium formats (...). In your case, your engraving comprises gigantic formats and careful tiny pieces that transmute into urban metaphors and ideological ruptures.
S. Ch. The image you build is fortunate, you made me think of the entrance to the hall of mirrors of the fairs, which lets you view the image from all sides while gets you closer to the impossibility of recognizing the primary reflection of reality, that which finally goes through for being the object of our fictions. I think that the need for the installation comes from perceiving a more active spectator who goes through the entire work and defines a path that somehow reproduces that sense of space control, processes, and identities. I move between one thing and another, and surely that has given a somehow hybrid nuance to my production, where one area permeates another. I hope, nonetheless, not to repeat myself; each project implies some sort of step in a rather mental process, in which I am working now; dissociate myself from certain material things and lighten the weight a little. You can find common issues throughout the entire work, but also an evolution that even implies restating the place that my own production has for me, within the immediate context, and in a wider dimension that can do without the mafias of art and justify itself.
S. Ch. The size and materials depend a lot on the concept; usually, it is not random. The monumental format is as valuable as the miniature; I have some series that are almost microscopic, worked with the patience and attitude of a watchmaker, and others, the most visible ones, have in contrast expanded into monumental sizes, like Muro (The Wall), even with possibilities of infinite continuity, as is the case of La Guarda decorativa, (The Decorative Guard) or serial continuity, like Noches Blancas (White Nights). I am interested in integrating supports within the semantic process. The conventional engraving is subscribed to the need of a space that controlled modern production: the workshop, and another space for its location and legitimation, usually the museum or gallery. It is also ascribed to certain materials that can be acquired if they are imported only, as in the case of Central American countries. But not only materials are imported, the same happens with codes and contents. In contrast, contemporary engraving does not necessarily need such materials and uses whatever is available. The city itself may be understood as a matrix and a location site, as we can see in Inversión Histórica (Historic investment). I really think that I move more within the engraving limits, stretching them; I walk away and go back to conventionalism to understand and sometimes subvert the same.
* This work is available in the magazine Agulha de Fortaleza, Brazil (www.jornaldepoesia.jor.br/ BHAH04chanto.htm). Alfonso Peña (Costa Rica). Narrator, essayist, and editor. He directed the magazine of art and literature Andromeda from 1980 to1990. Among his published titles we can mention: Noches de celofán (Nights of cellophane), La novena generación (The ninth generation), Labios pintados de azul (Blue lips), Cartografía de la imaginación (A cartography of Imagination). He regularly publishes in several continental magazines.
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