Pandarosa

It’s always flattering when artists from other cities and countries notice Subaquatica and send an e-mail letting us know they exist and showing their work. To tell you the truth we don’t always like what they do (it’s a question of taste after all). But sometimes you wonder: How come I didn’t hear about these guys before and they found us about our little underground project going on in a backstreet of downtown Madrid? That’s exactly what happened with Pandarosa (www.pandarosa.net) so first one of the first things we thought was: Next available month, we have to feature these people in our monthly interview so here it is:

First, one thing we want to ask everybody for this interviews: When?, Where?, How? and Why? you started to consider yourselves artists or at least when did you first started to see that you wanted to draw, paint… for a living?

Our earliest memories of creativity are flooded with images of Lego blocks, doodling on cigarette cartons & chalk drawings on concrete sidewalks. Once our childhood left us behind our wish to express & play, which you are encouraged to explore as a child but never as an adult, remained. With these thoughts we unconsciously continued to express ourselves through image & imagination, never considering ourselves ‘artist’ along the way or thinking it would became our ‘career’. During high school our knowledge of various creative profession became more clearer, eventually leading us study graphic design at university where we initially met. Shortly after graduating from University we decided to start our own practice, & after a few years later, here we are.

You do work as an illustration and design team but also personal work when doing exhibitions in galleries: how different is your commercial work to your personal purely artistic work?

Our thought process behind commercial work doesn’t differ from personal work, the main difference is that by engaging in personal projects we can experiment with concepts and techniques outside of the client’s needs. These investigations can then be implemented into appropriate commercial projects, which expands our diversity & helps us from being pigeon holed into a certain style, thus personal exhibition projects have became an important part of our practice.

I read an interview with you where you mentioned how you wanted clients from the cultural industry because you felt that it’s the kind of clients that would give you more freedom. So, do you feel liberated when you do personal work, without a client’s restrictions or when you do commercial work do these restrictions precisely feel more like a challenge than a limitation?

We initially contacted clients within the cultural industry because we knew they weren’t going to offer huge budgets as their funding is provided by government grants & sponsors. This gave us an opportunity to concentrate on our creative approach rather than financial benefits & over time has transpired into clients expecting our creative approach regardless of their industry background. Both commercial & personal work presents their own sets of boundaries, but neither of them feel more limiting to us than the other. If anything personal work can be much more frustrating & challenging as U R no longer answering a brief but are simply expressing a personal idea, thought or theme which is entirely on you.

Your work is very heterogeneous in terms of the way you do graphic design, web design, interior design, illustration, motion graphics, personal work and at the same time all of it has a distinctive Pandarosa style. Would you agree? Do you feel all your work part of a same creative discourse?

Although all our work comes from the same creative tree, we’ve never aspired to develop one specific style, but rather create a loose thread that ties all our diverse approaches together. The reason for this, is that we get sick of our work quite quickly & therefore try to keep thing interesting by investigating something new & unexplored. This choice at times can be tough when dealing with particular agencies & clients as they are more at ease with a singular style rather than diversity.

Precisely many other artists and collectives from your generation tend to make the line between design, illustration, art… very blurry. No matter how different the graphic style I would say there’s a connection, a similar attitude… What would you have in common with other artists from your generation?

Perhaps the willingness to try new things & not stick to a singular aspect within their work. In these modern times adaptation is key for survival & one has to be willing to try new things, personally, professionally & creatively.

One of the aspects that I can see in the artists we work with is how, similarly to the way the lines between disciplines are not important, borders between countries are not either. You seem to be a good example of it with personal origins in Chile and Hungary but developing a career in Melbourne and currently living in Berlin. How come you moved to Berlin and how is this restless approach to where you live important to your work?

Berlin is a melting pot of dreams, experimentation, disappointments, joys & frustrations. This restlessness & flux creates a constant energy that many people from all walks of life come to this city to experience, including us. Constant change is key for evolving ideas & though been away from familiar surroundings can be tough it makes you learn, adapt & react differently to situations, creating a wider view of all things around you. These constant alterations accentuate the differences & similarities found among different walks of life necessary to widen not only the view of your ideas, but the ideas of others.

I would like you to let us know about the importance you put in the creative process. Maybe it’s more complex than it appears or maybe is very intuitive. Perhaps you focus more on the final result and use different processes as long as they take you there… Is it fast and wild and not rational at all, is it meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… can you elaborate on this, please?

Concept development is definitely the most important aspect as it initiates everything towards the final result, from imagery, colour & technique to the mood & message trying to be conveyed. Along the way we try to be as lateral as possible & allow for happy accidents to occur, letting things ‘flow’ rather than meticulously plan them, which often creates the most surprising results.

How is a day in your life?

The first thing is coffee followed by emails & music on the record player. Remembering to write our ‘to-do’ list, which hopefully will be crossed out by the end of the day & have a wonder about how the freedom to set our own schedule can sometimes turn into long hours & routine?!

I imagine you have a more or less steady flow of commissioned work as designers and illustrators and every few months you also have been working, with different galleries. How do you feel in that environment? Would you see yourselves completely immersed in the proper art business and not doing design work anymore?

We don’t see ourselves totally stepping away from design or illustration work, as we appreciate the challenges & diversity these type of projects bring, but we’d definitely like to be even more active within the art world. Becoming increasingly involved in the presentation of our work within the commercial fine art world is a clear aim for us & one we’d like to concentrate on throughout the creative existence of Pandarosa.

What have you been working recently?, any interesting project coming up?

We’ve recently completed a publication for Platform Artists Group Inc. back in Melbourne, began to create a large scale mural for a restaurant in the beach resort town of Lorne in Australia as well as finalising an installation & works on paper for a show at California State University in Los Angeles entitled ‘Redefining the Line: Art Nouveau & The Female Figure’. Apart from that we are keenly preparing for our solo show at Subaquatica.

Something you want to do that it hasn’t been proposed to you yet?

Creating more 3-dimensional sculptural spaces within a public forum that everyone can interact with & be a part of.

February 28th, 2009 09:08am Administrador