GERARDO VIZMANOS
Name: Gerardo Vizmanos
Birthplace: Bilbao, Spain
Home: Berlin, Germany
Discipline: Photography
Untitled, 2020
What’s usually the starting point of your practice, and when does your work feel complete?
The starting point is research and study. Photography - when its subject matter is people - is a discipline where chance and intuition play an important role, and I feel that the more I do my research, the better I can focus on my work. Deadlines for a publication or submission are what make it complete, I guess, but the work is always an open story with no clear end. I can always revisit older works and use them for the future. It’s better to ask questions and keep the works open than to give answers and complete them.
What are you obsessed with?
I’m obsessed with the self - how we form the idea of ourselves, and what things we feel, experience and believe in during the process of becoming ourselves. My photography works like a self-portrait in the sense that the circumstances, characteristics and emotions involved in my works are related to me, and how I can understand the self behind the images is what moves me to do my work.
What are the interactions that you seek between your work and the viewer?
I don’t know if I’m seeking any particular type of interactions. I think the connection with the viewers, or with some of them, is very important. In some way, that’s the reason for making my work public. Some viewers have different perspectives on my work to how I see it, but it’s still interesting to have a connection with them. I especially like when there is an emotional connection, and I can link aspects of my work with other related aspects, establishing with the viewer a meaningful conversation.
What is your commitment, both artistically and personally?
Staying curious. I think curiosity is what keeps us alive, and both artistically and personally, curiosity is something essential to stay tuned with life.
Who are some of the artists that have been the biggest influence on you?
I remember that the works of Michaël Borremans, Francis Bacon and Egon Schiele, or the photography of Will McBride, Herbert List and Collier Schor, had a great impact on me when I was starting my photography work. Since then, many artists have had an influence in different aspects.
Where is the beauty for you today?
Thomas Mann said that beauty is the only form of the spiritual that we receive with our body that our senses can withstand. Beauty is the way to achieve something spiritual. It can be found in many things, either in academic art or transgressive art, but in all cases, beauty is for the artist the path that leads to the spirit.
Untitled, 2018