By: Azad Karimi
I am very happy and very grateful for having the opportunity to do what I do, Art for me is my instrument of expression, it is my voice, through it I express what I want to say. I can't imagine my life without it.
Interview
Ecuadorian Art Critic Ulbio Sotomayor Morán
By Azad Karimi
My dear Ulbio is a blessing. The art critic of man is eminent. Ulbio is eminent.
Why?
: Because he looks at and critiques the work of art from all possible angles. He must introduce real art so that real artists are not oppressed.
Because many come and take copies from others and present them to ordinary people. There must be someone to expose them. And the art critic does this human duty.
In the absence of an art critic, everyone dares to claim to be an artist. So the critic is like the awakened conscience of society and does its job.
Of course, I saw people calling themselves critics
But in the midst of personal and political relationships like a parrot repeat a number of clichéd words. No content...
Or, for example, like government censors, they hit the film.
I prefer to deliver our interview to my readers.
I wish Ulbio success and lucky.
Thank you!
Vestland-Norway
1-Please present yourself (Name, education, Civil status and...)
My name is: Ulbio Sotomayor Morán, living and working in Quito-Ecuador; I am a Curator, Art Critic and multidisciplinary independent Artist , with academic training of Bachelor of Art from the Espiritu Santo University of Guayaquil – Ecuador, I have an International Certificate in: Project Planning, Administration, Evaluation and Control granted by the Technologicalof Monterrey campus-Toluca-Mexico, Certificate in: Evaluation in Education granted by the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar campus-Ecuador, and, studying a Master Degree in: Humanities: Arts, Literature and Contemporary Culture at the Open University of Catalonia. In addition, I have some specific training that complement and strengthen what has beendescribedabove.
2- What is your artistic specialize?
Throughout my career (I have been making art since the end of the nineties)I used to use more traditional techniques, like drawingtraditional painting, traditional engraving, ecological engraving, etc ..., until reaching to my current practice: DIGITAL ART; the one that I have been developing since 2014.
3- When and how did you become interested in this field of art?
Although I come from a family in which what I do is not well understood (contemporary art), I always knew that I wanted ART as my profession and my lifestyle; so my beginnings in this area were not very easy for me, access to formal education, in the city where I use to lived at that time (Guayaquil-Ecuador) there was no university academic offer for some manifestations of the specific field of art. It is so, my training process (which in the first instance was purely technical) came from non-formal education. Later I had the opportunity to access university training, which I was complementing with what I had already learned, which I steal continue to complement because I am studying a master degree in order to strengthen my academic training, in order to be able to be a more complete professional in my ambit.
4- Who was your motivator?
As a cultural actor who lives in a postmodern society, loaded with activism components (which I really like by the way); It motivates me to explore issues related to the heterogeneities of culture, such as: the defense of social ethics, constructive criticism to consumerism, helping in causes about AIDS, sexual equality, the LGBTIQ + community and its specificities, feminism, among Other topics; I am also interested in exploring topics related to the respect and conservation of nature and the environment. It is so… I am actually motivated and inspired by the work of any artist who explores any of the topics previously described. Just to name a few; I like what they do from their field: Ai Weiwei, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gilbert and George, Iris Apfel, Kat Von D, Deborah LuLu Chapman, Le Pustra, Mark Ryden, Andy Warhol, Marilyn Manson, Sasha Waltz, among others.
5- What was your parent’s reaction?
I did not have the opportunity for my parents to know about my work, they both passed away before I started in the art world.
6- When started you such as a professional artist-painter?
After being pre-selected in an engraving biennial (which is now a triennial) in Puerto Rico, in 2000; I began my adventure in the art world, which was accompanied by aimprovement search process, both in the academic and technical fields, it is steal continues until this day; it is important to manifest that this process has been in constant resilience. It is soo.. that in 2014 I took the big step: I introduced changes in my processes of artistic creation, conceptualization and execution of my art projects, which became more contemporary, that is; I incorporated the concept of cultural and creative industries into my work philosophy, which is nothing more than having a vision of articulation between economy and culture.
In that sense, my current practice is part of a research process on a specific topic that I want to explore. Once I have the academic information, I decide what shapes to use to express my different points of view about the subject that I am addressing; and thus give it the form that I want the proposal to take ...
Continuing what has been said, I made changes to some of my work production dynamics; that is, I stopped using traditional techniques and started using technology, on the other hand, the issue of single work production was not my only way of working, I am trying to put my own E-commerce project into production in order to anchor my art designs to some products that will be reproduced and sold in series. Among other…
7- Are you thankful and happy because of your activities as an artist?
Of course, I am very happy and very grateful for having the opportunity to do what I do, Art for me is my instrument of expression, it is my voice, through it I express what I want to say. I can't imagine my life without it.
8- How you see the view for art, painting and future of culture?
I see an ever-emerging postmodern culture, with many hatches and irruptions, which imply the generation of new reconceptualizations, ideological reconfigurations and new praxis. This obviously affects all areas of science, including Art and all it´s manifestations (I do not want to focus on painting, since today we know that in the dynamics of contemporary art, painting can be one of the components of an artistic creation process, not necessarily its main protagonist; currently in the art world the object is no longer the main protagonist of artistic processes, this could be a concept, a happening, a performance, etc., it depends what the artist wants to say and the medium that want to use to express their thought). There are no societies without cultures, and cultures without societies.
9- Can you become one part of the artistic-cultural movement for motivation in youth or new generation in your country and so than?
I have all the predisposition, I hope this will possible at some moment….
10- How can you help our world become a better place to live?
Art as an educationinstrument, combined with the artistsvoice, is a great opportunity to make constructive criticisms to the world that generate resistance to everything that is wrong, and is unfair for societies.
11- Have you more word to say or suggestion for our readers?
Just three things:
1: Describe my art project that I am currently working, it is called: NEW FORMS OF FAMILY, through which I am approached the mixtures (hybridizations, mutations and transformations) that have been taking place within the structure of the western family. The notion of hybridizing is understood as a position that combines: cultural praxis-differences-media. Model that actually has generated many meanings, whether in the fields: social, cultural and political; which are totally globalized.
This globalizing model has had an impact above all the process of shaping new forms of life, some of them -such as diversities-, developing and unfoldingin different spheres of society and do not have due recognition and acceptance within it. In the framework of Western culture in which we operate today, the fact is that we live in a time of hybridizations, which are present in our lives; with respect to the issue of gender diversities, there are many phenomena that are fostering the generation of new forms of families, therefore, now we can speak about new structures or forms, new subjectivities-identities, and new markets for these social groups.
2: Invite readers to find out a little more about what has already been stated through my different spaces that I have on the web:
https://www.ulbiosotomayor.com
https://www.instagram.com/ulbiosotomayor/
https://www.facebook.com/ulbiosotomayorarte
