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INTERVIEW Art Space Talk: Kika Nicolela |
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Written by Kika Nicolela
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Friday, 09 January 2009 |
http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2007/10/art-space-talk-kika-nicolela.html
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Art Space Talk: Kika Nicolela
Kika Nicolela is a new media artist from Campinas, Brazil. Kika's works
include single-channel videos, video installations, performances,
experimental documentaries and photography. Kika graduated with a
degree in Cinema and Video from the University of Sao Paulo in 2000. In
2002, she completed film courses at the University of California. Since
then, she has developed her personal works-- which have been exhibited
internationally.
Brian Sherwin: Kika, where did you study? Who were your mentors?
Kika Nicolela: I graduated in Film and Video at São Paulo University. I
started very young, when I was 17, and studied there for seven years.
I’m not sure if I have mentors, but there were some exceptional
professors at this course, and they all had some influence on me.
People like Jean-Claude Bernardet, Arlindo Machado and Ismail Xavier,
who are very respected film and video scholars in Brazil and abroad.
In the last years of my studies, I started an internship at a film
production company in São Paulo and there I met and worked with some
great Brazilian filmmakers, and that experience was also very
gratifying. I was very much impressed with Tata Amaral, for example,
who was one of the few Brazilian female feature film directors at that
time (and still today we have no more than five).
In 2002 I went to live in Los Angeles for almost a year, and I did some
continuing education courses at UCLA, which was extremely important to
me, because the classes were very much hands-on and the students worked
very hard, so I was able to complete about 8 short films in only 7
months. That was the beginning of developing my own voice and finding
the themes that interested me.
I also met amazing film professionals in seminars, such as: Sophia
Coppola, Mike Figgis, Paul Mazursky, Conrad Hall, Janusz Kaminski, Sam
Raimi, Curtis Hanson and Callie Khouri, among others. It was so
inspiring to talk to them and learn from these people. But it was right
after I came back to Brazil that I really started working with
contemporary artists and that led me to video art. I found that it
could be a much more personal rewarding and free art form than
classical filmmaking.
BS: How did your studies help to shape the work you create today?
KN: I think it’s very hard to say how much of this or that helped to
get me where I am today. We’re made of so many different experiences,
and sometimes something seemingly not important has actually a profound
effect on us, and only later we realize that. I believe I’m very much
concerned with using elements of film language in new ways; I also have
a strong sense of narrative and structure that are somehow present in
all my works.
BS: Kika, tell us about your installations, films, and photographs. What are the themes you deal with in your work?
KN: Examination of the relationships between the camera, subject,
author and the spectator. I always seek new ways of exploring this
complex bonding between the audience and the audiovisual, mediated by
the point of view of a 3rd person – the artist. Another theme that has
been very present in my latest pieces is the connection between man and
his environment, between the body and its surroundings, being those
urban or natural.
I perceive these two lines of work as different ways of approaching the
same theme: (un)communication in the contemporary relationships and
art. Another relevant question is: how to use art to produce unique
perceptive experiences?
BS: What about influences... who has influenced you?
KN: Ingmar Bergman, David Lynch, Jean Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci,
Alain Resnais, P.T. Anderson, Pedro Almodovar, David Cronemberg, Peter
Greenaway, Bill Viola, Mathew Barney, Chris Cunningham and Michel
Gondry. Those are some names that just came to my mind right now.
BS: Can you tell us more about your artistic process... your philosophy, so to speak? How do your ideas become a reality?
KN: In general, I could say that my artistic process include having an
idea, finding out the essence of it, researching about the themes
and/or techniques involved, then writing a shooting script - not a
screenplay per se, but a script of the things I want to shoot, a kind
of blue print to guide me, but at the shooting itself I always keep an
open mind and improvise a lot.
I either work by myself or with other partners, it depends on the
project, but I love to have other people’s creative inputs to my ideas.
One of the people that has contributed many times with me is my
husband, who is a great director of photography. Sometimes, I worked
with other artists from scratch, so the concepts are both theirs and
mine. And then comes what I consider the most important and delightful
moment: the editing.
The editing is actually the most creative part, in which the film
really takes form. I experiment a lot, but always having in mind the
essence of what I want to convey or express with the work. I do my best
not to get impressed by easy effects, because there are so many
available. I also avoid following stylistic tricks and trends. I try to
find the right tone, rhythm and look for that particular piece I’m
working on. And then comes the difficult task of knowing when it’s
ready, when to stop and say: "that’s it, that’s the best I can do right
now".
Concerning how my ideas become a reality… this is a tricky question,
because there are many ways this can take place. I mean, I always have
many ideas floating in my head at the same time. Then something
triggers the process of starting the project itself. It could be the
invitation for a specific exhibition, a grant that fits the profile of
one of my ideas, a partner who invites me to do something together, or
just an event that happens in front of me and I record with my camera,
later transforming it into a new piece. I try to be always open to new
opportunities and inspirations. And I always keep a camera nearby.
Working with video can be really simple and cheap, or incredibly
expensive and complex. I’ve done both kind of works, and everything in
between!
BS: Kika, can you go into further detail about FLUX(2005)? Tell our
readers about the meaning behind this piece. What inspired you?
KN: FLUX is a project that started with an invitation. The visual
artist Suzy Okamoto had this beautiful exhibition space called Capela
do Morumbi - which is a very old chapel in São Paulo that was
transformed to receive contemporary art installations - available for
her to make an exhibition. She wanted to make a video work, but she had
never made one before. She had seen another video of mine and invited
me to work with her on this one.
The first thing we decided was that we wanted to shoot part of the
video in the chapel itself, and the sensation that we had inside that
place was the foundation. The building was made of a kind of mixture
with earth, very rough, and very sensual in a bizarre way. And we
wanted to express this feeling and this exchange between our skin and
the "skin" of the building, its walls, the grass outside, its stairs
etc.
This was my fourth video in which I tried to translate a very abstract
feeling, emotion or memory into audiovisual experience. It’s painful to
explain its meanings, because the work is supposed to lead the audience
to an abstract state of mind, and I hope that each experience is
unique. But I can talk about my inspirations: the feelings that I had
in that place were related to something animal, something primitive and
untamed inside of me. The video speaks of the relation between our body
and the environment; our ever lasting whish to return to a more
primitive state. The performer we invited for this video is Leticia
Sekito, a great dancer with whom I have collaborated many times in the
past 4 years.
FLUX was primarily a video installation, composed of 4 different
projections in the chapel itself. Then I edited this single-channel
version that has been shown in many festivals and is now available on
You Tube.
BS: What type of equipment do you use? Also, in regards to working with others... how do you choose who to work with?
KN: I have used many types of equipment in my videos; from snapshot
still cameras that also shoot MP4 videos, to high tech High Definition
cameras. I’m very keen of technology and I try to be always in synch
with what’s happening in terms of new equipment, codecs and softwares.
Right now, I have two different cameras: they’re both High Definition,
but one is a Panasonic Handycam, which shoots in SD memory cards, and
the other is the Panasonic HVX200, which is a wonderful bigger camera
with a more complicated workflow.
My last video, WINDMAKER, was shot with the latest, and it’s amazing
how beautiful the images are. I sometimes still use the Panasonic
DVX100, which was the camera I used in FLUX for example, because I
consider it the best standard definition camera out there. And now I’m
looking forward to work with RED, which is a new digital cinema camera,
just released in the US. I believe it will definitely change the way
both filmmakers and video makers work – it will blur even more the
lines between these two arts.
Concerning the softwares, I’ve used Sony Vegas for many years for
editing, but I switched to Final Cut Pro recently (yes, I’m a Mac now).
And I’ve used both Resolume and Arkaos as Vjiing softwares. In regards
to working with others, I balance two things: their work and their
personality, that is, first of all I have to admire their work, but I
also need to feel an empathy for them. With some collaborators I’ve
worked for months or years with, and it can become a traumatic
experience if we don’t get along. Well, unfortunately, sometimes we
only find out that some person is terrible to work with during the
process…
BS: Kika, I've read that your work has been exhibited in more than 30
countries. Tell our readers about a few of those exhibitions. Which
have been the most exciting for you?
KN: One of the things that I love the most about video art is that I
can exhibit it in many different ways, and each way influences how the
work will be perceived. I can show the same video in a small LCD screen
on the wall of a gallery; I can show it on the web; I can make a site
specific installation with it; or it can be projected on a large screen
during a festival.
I’m a big fan of film and video festivals. The experience of sharing
the dark room with hundreds of people, and watching films on the big
screen, still fascinates me. Besides, festivals, especially video art
ones, always bring together a variety of works from all over the world
- some good, some bad, others spectacular - and usually I find the
screenings inspiring and rewarding.
I’ve been fortunate to be selected to some great festivals, like
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin De Nouveau Cinéma Et Art
Contemporain (France and Germany), Kunst Film Biennale (Germany), ACA
Media Arts Festival (Japan), VAD Festival Internacional de Vídeo i Arts
Digitals (Spain), Exis Experimental Film & Video Festival (Korea),
Videolab (Portugal), International Short Film Festival Hamburg
(Germany), just to name a few.
Not always I’ve been able to attend the festivals; rarely they have
enough budget to invite and cover the directors expenses. My favorite
ones were AluCine Toronto Latin@ Media Festival (Canada), which I
attended in 2006 and 2007, because I love their selection (all genres,
but more experimental), the organizers are great, they welcome the
guests in a very warm way and Toronto is a fabulous city; Videoformes
New Media & Video Art Festival (France), which I participated in
2004 and 2007 but only attended this year, because they select only
experimental videos and very good ones, I met great artists there, I
got the main award (which is always a nice experience), and I just love
France; and International Electronic Art Festival Videobrasil (Brazil),
which I participated in 2003 and 2005, because they take place in São
Paulo, where I live, it’s one of the biggest video art festivals in the
world, and they have an important role in promoting video art in Brazil
for the past 20 years. All of these 3 festivals also organize great
exhibitions and seminars beside their screenings.
BS: What do you like most about exhibiting?
KN: I adore watching people watching my works. It is so rewarding to
see a spontaneous strong reaction to something I did. To me, art is all
about communication; it’s the most complete communication there is,
because I try to put my heart and soul in my works. I also believe in
the power of the audiovisual experience and the possibilities it offers
us, that is, we (artists) can change the world, or at least try to do
it.
BS: Kika, in your opinion, what are some of the main issues facing video artists today?
KN: In my opinion, a great deal of video artists tend to get seduced by
new technologies and medias and just loose themselves. I’ve seen so
many bad Vjiing events that proclaims themselves art, so many
interactive works that seem like a game for kids to press buttons, or
horrible videos using game or second life excerpts like they were doing
something revolutionary. I just think that we have to try to reflect
about all these new tools, and remain true to ourselves.
BS: As a video artist, do you ever have any concerns about censorship?
KN: I have faced some problems regarding this. I have a project that
deals with porn actors and it’s really hard to get a grant or funding
to do it, mainly because of its subject. And I made a video called
TROPIC OF CAPRICORN which is one of my favorite works, and despite the
fact that it was my most exhibited and awarded work, it just got
censored in You Tube, after months of being shown there. I sent them a
letter complaining, but they never answered me. It was made with
transvestites, and it displays a little bit of nudity and a lot of
dirty talk. Still, it’s a touching video and it shouldn’t be censored.
BS: Kika, what are you working on at this time? Can you give our readers any details about your future projects?
KN: I’m finishing a single-channel version of my video installation
WINDMAKER; I have about 4 projects in the process of getting funding;
and I’m writing my first experimental fiction feature film.
BS: Do you have any exhibitions lined up? Also, where can our readers view more of your art?
KN: Yes. From October 10th to December 2nd, my video "Ecstasy Poem"
will be part of a big contemporary art exhibition in São Paulo, called
Cut and Paste CRTL_C + CRTL_V; I was just invited to be part of
Supermarket of Art International Biennial, in Warsow (Poland), which
will start end of October; and a retrospective of most of my works is
being organized to take place in São Paulo on the first week of
November.
BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?
KN: Making art and showing it are the most rewarding things in my life.
And I love to have feedback and exchange ideas – so please, whoever is
reading this, just watch some of my stuff at
www.youtube.com/kikanicolela and leave your comments!
You can learn more about Kika Nicolela by visiting her website--
www.dilemastudio.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting
the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.
Take care, Stay true,
Brian Sherwin
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