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My dear,
Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain from you your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you, and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it's much better to be killed by a lover.
Falsely yours,
If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.
We first featured Nieto’s work back in August 2012 (look at his work here and here). It is easier to forget a four-headed manatee than Nieto’s unique style and technique. We thought his BMW – Zhang Yu represented his skills best at the time, but with an enigmatic artist like Nieto, creative evolution takes a new meaning. He hates being labeled an artist, an avant-gardist, or even a director. His real passion lies in baking. And his main influences are as diverse as Jean-Pierre Brisset, Raymond Roussel, Francisco Flores, and Luis Buñuel. Do you see the pattern there? (we don’t)
Click on Read More below for the exclusive full interview.
Here at eyefeast, we believe that the measure of a great artist is through their ability to continuously grow creatively. If you don’t attempt to outdo yourself with every artistic endeavor, then what’s the point?
Nieto not only has outdone himself every time, he invented his own original visual technique and literally made it jump off the screen. Also, his work is consistent in pushing the boundaries. And that is why he is our director of the year for 2012.
Below is eyefeast’s exclusive interview with Nieto.
Nieto! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, there’s a lot that we would like to talk to you about. But first, let’s get a little personal. What is your background and where are you based?
I’m based in Paris. I’m half Colombian and half French. But I was born and raised in Cali, Colombia, the most violent Latin American city in the 80’s. Phonetically speaking, Cali sounds like Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction.
Did you witness much of that violence growing up?
Yes quite a lot.
So I guess we should look forward to a tribute in your work for being an 80's kid in Cali.
Haha, not at all, but I guess you can always sense a bit of this background in my films.
Yes we do sense the darkness in your work and we love it.
Thanks.
So you have a master’s degree in Psycholinguistics? What’s up with that!
I do, and I think it’s the most useful thing for my work as a director today.
No way! Elaborate!
I think psycholinguistics allows you to see cinema as a language: frames as letters, scenes as sentences, editing as syntax, and mood as rhetoric. It’s a lot easier to lie that way.
Nicely put. So being a psycholinguist, what are your thoughts on McKenna's stoned ape theory?
I think it’s bullshit. I believe human language evolved from frogs. I'm an unconditional fan of Jean-Pierre Brisset's theories. He is one of my biggest influences.
That's probably one of the most interesting things we could hear a filmmaker say. That psycholinguistics has been a great tool for you as a filmmaker.
Tell us a little about the El Perversionismo artistic movement that you started in your home country, Colombia.
Actually, I didn’t start the movement. It started in Uruguay in the 80’s after the publication of a book called “El Perversionismo”. It was written by the philosopher Francisco Flores and published in 1979. A group of artists were influenced by his theories about the “total control of sphincters” and they created a whole artistic dogma from this. I joined the movement In the 90’s as an artist, and now I’m the official curator of the movement in France. The story of the movement is very long and complicated, but quite interesting. I actually I shot a documentary about it that you can watch, and you can find more info here: www.perversionisme.com
Wanna talk about getting expelled from ENSB-A? If there’s a rock-n-roll story behind that we feel we should hear it.
I’m sorry but this is something I’m not allowed to speak about. But let’s just say that it was quite “rock-n-roll” as you say.
We love it already...
Right. ENSAD is a great school. What made you think you needed to go to art school to begin with? In other words, what did art school teach you that you couldn’t have picked up on your own as an artist?
I wanted to learn exactly what not to do in art.
But is there such a thing as right or wrong when it comes to making art?
Yes. All is known is wrong, all we ignore is right.
Interesting. Are you referring to one's artistic intuition? Are you saying it would be good for an artist to go against their gut feelings sometimes in their work?
No, it's more about Nietzsche's "eternal recurrence". And at school you learn to work for a goal. I think you just have to work and keep working without sense.
Lets talk about one of your first projects, Carlitopolis. It attracted the attention of Hare Krishnas? WTF?
I really don’t know the reason, but every time I release a film I get attacked by a Hare Krishna. My story with Hare Krishnas is kind of weird. But let’s just say I’m a very pacific and tolerant person except when I meet a Hare Krhisna. It’s like two dogs that hate each other very much and then they meet in the street. We just go crazy at one another.
What seems to tick you off about Hare Krishnas?
I don’t know. It’s instinctive and mutual. There is no particular reason.
The funniest part of Carlitopolis, and the part that really makes you look like a mad creative scientist we would say, is right at the end, when no one seems to laugh or clap for your project. Did that really happen or was there no sound in the video?
It really happened, and it was very strange because it wasn’t a regular audience. I was in front of a jury who were there to judge my project, so they were in a kind of institutional and serious position. They were only 4 people. And I when I said “now I’m going to slice this mouse in half” I remember one of them being shocked and saying something but we don’t hear him in the video. And at the end of the presentation there was a big silence before we started discussing about the project.
That’s just too funny... we knew it. Did you get a lot of weird reactions to your work in the beginning? Do you think because it crossed the audience barrier in a gruesome way sometimes?
Yes I guess so.
What inspired you to come up with the idea for Carlitopolis and Mineapolis?
For Carlitopolis it was the context I guess. I didn’t want to give to the jury what they were expecting to see, I just wanted to make them a joke. For Mineapolis, I had that utopical idea one day in my mind, a software being able to do SFX in real time. But I'm very bad with math, so I asked a Japanese engineer friend to help with this thing. So he developed the software and I just acted like a clown in front of a camera. But again, it was more about Meta-cinema. And right now we are developing the full software for release soon.
I think it is filmmaking at its best when a filmmaker has a vision for a particular shot or style, and he realizes that no technology exists in the real world yet to help him achieve that. So he goes on and invents the technology himself. That says a lot about you as an avant-gardist. Where would you say your meta-cinematic influences come from? Kubelka… Godard?
No, I think they come more from Jean-Pierre Brisset, Raymond Roussel, and Francisco Flores of course.
Ok we are really going to do some reading on Brisset now. He sounds like our kinda guy. And while we're at it, which filmmakers would you say have had a great influence on you as a director?
I'm not very influenced by directors. I'm more influenced by writers but I like the works of directors like Roy Anderson, Carlos Reygadas, and Luis Buñuel.
Of course! We see so much of Buñuel in your work. And as a visual artist, being inspired by writers sounds interesting in a synesthetic kind of way.
Yes I think there are a lot of crazy stuff in literature that I find very inspiring.
Ok. Capucine. How did the whole project come together?
I started shooting a documentary about monkeys in general. And one of the primatologists I interviewed told me about Capucine and professor Shibuya’s project. So I immediately flew to Japan to shoot a documentary about that experiment: a monkey making a movie. I thought it was very interesting. And by the way, Capucine became the first monkey director in the world.
That’s just too weird, funny and interesting at the same time. So you were shooting a documentary about monkeys in general? WTF?
Yes I became interested in monkeys after shooting with a bonobo for the Professor Nieto series.
Ok. Let’s jump subjects. How did you break into the advertising arena? How did it all start and what was the first commercial you shot?
Actually I’ve always worked in advertisement, even before becoming a director. I started very young, I was hired by an advertisement agency when I was 18. I used to be a creative then became an art-director. And when I released my first film, Carlitopolis, a producer contacted me and that’s how I became a commercial director. The first commercial I shot was for Coca-Cola, it was an animated piece about a square world and the famous curves of the coke’s bottle.
Interesting. I guess coming from an advertising background gives you an advantage as a director. Some of the best directors out there are ones who started as creatives in agencies.
Yes I think it helps a lot. It especially teaches you how to become conscious that you are doing a commercial film and not a personal short film.
Are you currently represented by a production company?
Yes, I'm basically with Stink for Europe, UK, Russia, China, Brazil. And Paranoid for USA.
That's very good representation we would say. Those are some of the best companies in Europe and the US.
So we spoke earlier about some of your non-artistic interests. Here at eyefeast, one of our creative ethos is that being interested in everything makes for a great artist. For example, we find that expanding one’s interests and maintaining a child-like sense of awe for subjects as diverse as the cosmos, neuroscience and altered states of consciousness among many others could be a great source of material/inspiration. We believe that what interests you outside of the art world could define your work as an artist. Do you subscribe to that notion? What are some of the non-artistic subjects that interest you the most besides psycholinguistics (and monkeys)?
Yes probably. And actually, I don’t like being a director or an artist that much to be honest. My real dream and passion is in bakery. I’m not sure how to link between baking and my artistic job yet, but I will try to find out.
Haha! Fair enough.
Nieto, besides being a very talented filmmaker, you're a very interesting person and we can talk to you for hours. But you have a new year's eve party to go to and so do we. So allow us to wrap this up by asking a final question:
What advice would you give to upcoming directors? What’s the one advice that you wish someone gave you when you were just starting out?
The one advice I would have loved to hear before starting out would be: STOP! Don't do it!
Come on that's not real advice for someone who wants to become a director...
I think if you really want to become a director, you should have a spirit of contradiction and go against the advice that other directors give you.
That's more like it.
Nieto, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
Thank you eyefeast. By the way, are you a woman, a man, or a program?
I AM CAPUCINE!
Haha! I knew it!
Professor Shibuya sent me here.
Alright. If you’re ever in Paris, get in touch. I would love to hang around with a monkey director in the Parisian bars.
Sounds good!
Thanks and have a nice new years eve, all the best for your projects in 2013.
annaxmalina