"The angel that each sculpture can have has to come from within," says artist Rafael San Juan, who was recognized on Sunday, November 7, with the Success Award in Mexico, where he has been living for 21 years.
When we talked to him via WhatsApp about this dialogue, San Juan repeats one word constantly: experience. From there we can understand his impetus to renew himself, to look for multiple ways, resources, materials, bodies and faces in order to assume sculpture from the sublime, the uncertain and the adventure.
A few minutes of interview with Rafael San Juan are enough for the incentive and the conviction that his creation carries great beauty because he decided to do so, but behind each work, whether monumental or medium format, we find the human and existential condition regarding the reasons for each of his intentions.
We can speak of art as a human response since time immemorial. In the particular case of Rafael, his vocation is aimed at reflecting the evolution of humanity and its system of things, among other issues. That is why he prefers to work monumental sculpture with concrete and steel, two more "contemporary" elements used for great endeavors and with a palpable and decorous result, as long as the hands, the ideas and the mind know how to give it the elegance that corresponds.
Before you, Rafael San Juan in interview.
The Success Award is a recognition to people who have adopted success as a way of life. In that case, what is success for Rafael San Juan, and how has he channeled it into his sculptures?
For me, success as a way of life is very complex to define, because I see success very punctually in an object, that is to say, I did such and such a project and its realization or location was successful.
Now, cataloging success as a lifestyle for me is very difficult, because my lifestyle is perseverance, dedication, daily constancy, is to want to give the best of oneself in each piece and give the best of oneself in everyday life and try to be a good person with the environment that surrounds you.
All this can frame whether your way of life is successful or not, in quotation marks, because it is not a word I use in my daily life, not even in my conscious or unconscious. For me, achievements are an accumulation of factors with an aesthetic result for you and others. My lifestyle is very simple and I like it that way.
The degree of realism in your sculptures with respect to the human figure is surprising, how observant have you had to be to achieve such results?
Yes, I am very observant, I have a very good visual memory, but not a very good memory of names and so on. I am always in a constant anatomical review of everyone. I like to observe eyes, noses, bodies of all kinds.
All this started when I began to study or maybe since I was a child. I saw the animals at the zoo and then I reproduced them in plasticine and I really liked to observe the nails. It's something you are born with or you have it incorporated, because it was not something I was taught.
When I studied art and human anatomy, for me it was a necessity to study anatomy, what was behind the skin, how it coexists or how the muscles, cartilage, bones work to later understand the shell, what we really see.
The angel that each sculpture may have has to come from within; then it is something that started naturally and has been developing. It is a challenge to express that, perhaps with materials that are not the traditional ones, and that is what has caught my attention the most. To go for other materials that can be carried out on large scales and maintain the aesthetics.
Why choose sculpture and not another creative manifestation?
Within the plastic arts I have explored many of the branches. I like painting, there are even stages in which I paint a lot or experiment on canvas. They are very pleasing to me because I have an intimacy with the work, which you don't really achieve in a sculpture of a more considerable format, or in a sculpture where the foundry can intervene, etc.
In my work, sculpture is known more for the scale or for the constancy of using that technique more. I have also delved into engraving since I started studying. I have made several pieces in engraving, which I also like.
Sculpture, in the sense of fascination, is a little bit the material or perhaps the concern since I was a child for volume. I think that volume was easier to incorporate than color. In fact, when I use color and so on, I always find surprises, although there are times when I don't like it, I cover it up and do it again.
In sculpture, in very few cases, I have not been clear about experimentation, almost every time I have experimented I have reached a specific result.
In general I like everything. If I am invited to experiment in engraving I do it or in painting. I did a lot of scenography and worked with papier-mâché, relief. Now I'm doing some pieces that have painting and sculpture at the same time. In general I like everything, what has been sculpture has predominated because of its character or monumentality.
The most used materials in his creations and why.
The material provides a very important content in the work. I have made exhibitions and continue to do so with fragments of human bodies and organs. It is something that interests me a lot, one because of the material.
We need to live, to be born, that is, the body, the flesh, nature. By manipulating these elements you are bringing someone's content to the work, of an individual who lived, grew up, and the meaning we give to the piece is stronger because of the same drama. We are contributing something more to the aesthetic.
The material is very important, when I did the installation "The death of a project", there were 99 human bones taken from medical schools and the cemetery. The material was important and that each one of those pieces had its own character and, at the same time, I was surprised by the expression of the skulls, the position of the bones, something that went beyond what I wanted to say or do.
In the monumental pieces what I have used most is steel and concrete. They are more contemporary, they are becoming more and more transformed and are symbols of human development. There is more and more technology, in the case of concrete, which allows me to make a contemporary piece based, perhaps, on a more preset or classical figuration. What most attracts my attention is the material and the form.
For me it is very important not to throw things away, to reuse things and to be aware of elements or pieces that already have a history in themselves. The ultimate goal is to raise awareness, is to create a thought to the new generations that the disposable world is not so viable.
Could you tell us about your time as a scenic designer in Cuba?
I keep my time as a scenic designer with great affection in my heart, because it fascinated me. When I studied art and at the same time began to do my scenic design projects, it started with friends and acquaintances in the world of the performing arts.
In fact, those years I worked more as a scenic designer than as a plastic artist and sculptor. The relationship with theater directors, choreographers, dancers, actors, lighting designers was a big family, a big team, a desire to do things for a common good, the project in general.
I got a lot of nourishment from that stage. The scenic design professors at that time were my friends, mentors and teachers. I designed pieces for Teatro La Luna, Danza Contemporánea, I collaborated with the ballet, I did set designs with Conjunto Folclórico, also for children's plays with El Sótano. I think that if I were in Cuba longer or in a more linear way I would do it again with great affection.
What have you found in Mexico to make it your permanent destination?
My relationship with Mexico is now 21 years old, it has been a country that has welcomed me since I arrived and has opened its doors to many projects, but the truth is that I am not there for as long as I seem to be. I go out a lot, in fact, one of the requirements to be Mexican is to stay in the country for more than 180 days a year and I never meet that requirement.
In Mexico I have the studio that allows me to do most of my work, but I also have another studio in Havana. Almost all the models, the projects, the sketches come from there and many are executed here, due to transportation and materials issues, which is more feasible. We have had long stays in Italy, in the United States for projects that sometimes need to be done locally.
Due to the global situation of the pandemic, we had to be here. In 2019 I spent almost the whole year in Cuba and we came to start a project of about three months and the plan was to return in April 2020, but this issue of the pandemic began, which has kept us very anchored, and that has awakened relationships with old friends. We are looking forward to the smooth establishment of commercial flights to Havana and we will be back.
Published 11/14/2021