Conversation between Mariana Castillo Deball and Tobias Ostrander

 TO The cave you have made for this project is a loose structure of open and closed spaces, made from a rectilinear metal frame, over which you have placed a faux-rock covering, made of paper-maché. Within the paper-maché appear numerous images. Could you describe your use of paper-maché in this work, as well as reveal some of the sources of the images you have imbedded within this material? If you could also touch on the development of the geometric frame, its form and the relation it sets up with the faux-rock covering.

 MCD In his essay “The marble and the myrtle: on the inconstancy of the savage soul”, anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros d e Castro starts with a quote by the portuguese missionary Antonio Vieria:

 “Those who wandered through the world can see in those gardens two kinds of very different statues, ones made out of marble, others of myrtle. The marble statues are very difficult to make, because of the hardness and resistance of matter; but once finished, it is not necessary to work on it any more: always preserves the same figure; the myrtle statue is easier to form, because of the docility of the branches and the leaves, but it is necessary to work on it constantly. If the gardener stops working, in four days there is a branch going through the eyes, another one that deforms the ears, instead of five fingers seven appear, what it was before a human shape, becomes a confusion of green and myrtles.”

 Through this image, Vieira compares European and “savage” civilizations. For him, European culture is similar to marble, difficult to mold, but once the shape is done, it is a guaranty that it will last over the centuries. On the contrary, the “savage” civilizations, like the Brazilian in this case, are more malleable, at first sight it seems that they accept the doctrine, and adapt themselves to the imposed habits, nevertheless it is just necessary to be distracted for a second and they return
to their old rituals.

 The piece I developed for El Eco follows the behavior of a myrtle sculpture, which climbs over a geometric shape. The pattern is similar to an epiphyte plant, such as bromelias or orchids that grows upon another plant or sometimes upon some other object, without a parasite behavior. They are also called air plants. I use papier-mâché, a technique that I have been interested for a long time, because of its flexibility and simplicity and also the link it has with Mexican crafts. The images that cover the structure are based on my experience in Brazil during the last two years. They include people, places and travels where I followed “the inconstancy of the savage soul”, discovering its generosity, flexibility and playfulness.

 The Museum of the images of the unconscious, where I discovered their amazing archive and the paintings of Artur Amora, the National Museum, where I learned about Amerindian perspectivism, the house of Lina Bo Bardi in Sao Paulo, her exhibitions of popular art, the botanical garden in Rio de Janerio, the wastelands  of paper-maché sculptures after the carnival, Glauber Rocha, mathematical models of non-linear figures, and many more. (read more)

The exhibition was curated by Tobias Ostrander

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