UNDER THE SKIN WITH EDUARDO CASANOVA
UNDER THE SKIN WITH EDUARDO CASANOVA
Award winning short film director and artist Eduardo Casanova’s body of work blends the kitsch with the grotesque, resulting in mesmerizing work that you both can’t stop looking at, and can’t help but want to look away from. Indulge in the Barbie fantasy gone wrong you never knew you wanted.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOURSELF AS AN ARTIST?
I would only define myself as just another artist, with all the complexity that the word artist entails. Complex, creative, boring and pedantic.
ACCORDING TO YOUR BIO, YOUR CAREER TOOK OFF AS A SHORT FILM DIRECTOR. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT MEDIUM THAT INSPIRES YOU TO CREATE?
I was directing films because I was self-produced and I couldn't bear the budget for a feature film. Something that I value a lot about short films and any product made with your own money with the sole purpose of developing your aesthetic proposal, is that you can do whatever you want on a creative level. Something that does not usually happen in large productions.
DOES YOUR PROCESS DIFFER WHEN CREATING SHORT FILMS OR ADVERTISEMENTS?
My creative process is always the same. I work from a gimmicky image and from there I develop the idea, the story. For this reason, my work usually has a central image that is iconic, like the character of Samantha, the woman with the anus in her mouth, or Jackie Kennedy being penetrated by an alien, or the image of the unicorn. First I create an image that seems recognizable or iconic and then I build the rest of it.
WHAT’S IT LIKE MAKING A LIVING AS AN ARTIST NOWADAYS?
It is tough, but I need to admit that my position is not the hardest.
There are many other artists trying desperately to make a living out of their art. It would not be fair for me to complain. But I need to say that, at home, in front of my computer, I also struggle.
HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACTED YOUR WORK?
I don’t care about Social Media but I do care about the audience. It may sound as a contradiction, but I think that social media is not a pure space to show your art, it censors and restricts artists’ freedom of expression. On Instagram, for example, nudity is not allowed, which is something that is always very explicit in my work.
I continuously observe reality and translate it into my language.
YOU DIRECT SHORT FILMS, SHOOT PRINTS, AND PUBLISH BOOKS. DO THEY ALL COME HAND IN HAND, OR DOES YOUR MINDSET CHANGE ACCORDING TO THE MEDIUM?
An artist's career is made of different and disparate works that, in their entirety, build the artist's work. You cannot define an artist with a single work. An artist should be defined by his entire body of work. Artists are defined by their mistakes and their successes. Their commercial failures and their commercial successes. Cronenberg would not be Cronenberg without his humble beginnings such as "Rabid" or "Videodrome". Almodovar would not be Almodovar without “Pepi Lucy Boom” and “Pain and glory”.
YOUR WORK HAS A “GROTESQUE PRINCESS DREAM” AESTHETIC. WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
All my work comes from reality. I continuously observe reality and translate it into my language. I have always been fascinated by the bums on the street, the malformed people that people look at with fear and Spanish costumbrismo. At the same time I have always been fascinated by the Kistch and the camp, which I consider the base of my aesthetic. When I look at all of this, all I do is mix it, as a contrast, and then my imaginary appears.
YOU OFTEN USE DISMEMBERMENT AND MALFORMATIONS AS A CONVERSATION STARTERS. CONCORDANTLY, THE NOTION OF BEAUTY IS CURRENTLY BEING CHALLENGED AS MANY BRANDS TRY TO BE MORE INCLUSIVE AND DIVERSE. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON BEAUTY?
I detest beauty canons and at the same time, I’m obsessed, like everyone else, with the struggle to become an ideal of beauty. I am fascinated to see how everyone becomes Kim Kardashian and at the same time how Kim Kardashian herself takes her aesthetic proposal to an increasingly inaccessible and exaggerated place, making everyone become a monstrous wannabe of their referents. I do not have a clear opinion on beauty, I would not know how to define it. I only express the movement and the current obsession that people have for being something that they are not. What really fascinates me is the behavior.
“I don’t care about Social Media but I do care about the audience. It may sound as a contradiction, but I think that social media is not a pure space to show your art, it censors and restricts artists’ freedom of expression. ”
YOUR VISUAL CAN BE SHOCKING AND/OR OBSCENE. IN ONE OF YOUR SHORT FILMS, YOUR SUBJECT HAS AN ANUS FOR A MOUTH. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?
I believe in the power of aesthetics as a language and not only of "something aesthetic just because." I think an image is sometimes worth a thousand words. My aesthetic always works as one more character that tells or contributes something in the story. The character of a woman with an anus in her mouth talks about the amount of shit we expel through the mouth when talking. It also talks about the shit we have to swallow to be ourselves.
WHEN IT COMES TO SKIN, YOU EXPOSE IT IN WAYS I’VE RARELY SEEN, TAKING IMPERFECTIONS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL. WHAT IS IT ABOUT SKIN THAT MAKES THINGS SO RAW?
The skin is the covering that hides a complex human mechanism full of mysteries. We make up and transform our skin to hide what really worries us, what we really are. I think my obsession with skin is born from there, it is born from what it hides.
HOW’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH BODY IMAGE? WHY?
My relationship with body image is a continuous search for imperfection
WHAT MAKES YOUR SKIN CRAWL?
Not being able to express my creativity. Not being able to film.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR EDUARDO CASANOVA?
My next movie, La Piedad, for which I have been fighting for almost three years to get produced. I am also preparing a television series that is in development. All this combined with advertising work and video clips. I consider the video clip to be the most interesting format today after cinema.
Interviewed by Ralph Arida