Lara Ruiz: “I consider myself an open artist, an inciter to which things happen”

Full name: Raquel Lara Ruiz (Lara Ruiz). Place and date of birth: Luxembourg, March 4, 1986. Current residence: Salamanca. Training: Degree in Fine Arts and Master in Artistic Production. Current occupation: Artist.

What interests you. My interests often surprise me, since they are unexpected. I consider that they adapt and transform with the change. As a person, before artist, I am sensitive to what surrounds me, and this, in some way, opens new questions and possibilities. However, when looking back, certain common features can be identified. For example, at aesthetic level, there is a connection between projects through color and shape, characteristics that I consider fundamental to connect in a ‘very direct’ way with other people or the public. I am interested that culture is accessible and tangible, so I turn to these elements and establish a relationship with a playful language.

My current investigations focus on collaborative and participatory practices, not only through proposals and actions through workshops, exhibitions and other events, but also trying to go beyond the photo, the summary, of the ‘likes’ or of the visits to an exhibition. I would like to understand if the artists, as producers of culture, can justify the impact that we generate socially, something that I do not see from a quantitative parameter. I wonder, how do you know the cultural policies that are managing appropriate or necessary proposals? I am working on this and valuing how we could measure it with parameters typical of the artistic and social environment. I have found models in other countries, but, for the moment, I have not seen them in our environment, nor have they asked for or offered them as an artist. All this to be able to make a social defense of art.

Where does it come from. I have exposed in galleries, art rooms, fairs, art centers and museums. Some places that I would highlight are Liquid space (Gijón), Drawing cabinet (Valencia), and recently I have made a residence with Chiquita Room (Barcelona). I have participated in exhibitions at the Domus Artium DA2 (Salamanca) Art Center, Tobacacalera Promotion of Art (Madrid), Alicante University Museum (Alicante), in the El Brocense Art Room (Cáceres), and the Forum d’Art Contemporain de Luxembourg (Luxembourg) casino. I have also participated in fairs such as Artesantander, Estampa, Taipei Art Fair, Luxembourg Art Week and, this week, in Urvanity.

Among the projects that would highlight are those that were carried out in the public space, such as the intervention in Genalguacil Pueblo Museo (Málaga) in 2010, which was recently restored. It was a project that arose from a residence and is an experience that I remember with love, since it was one of my first job opportunities after finishing my training. I would also highlight the participation in Bienals, such as the Havana Biennial (Cuba) in 2022 and Cáceres opened in 2023, since it was the projects that gave me the most feedback in terms of citizen participation.

He knew that he would dedicate himself to art … I think there were two revealing moments. The first, perhaps the most idealized, was in my childhood. My father had the habit of getting a box of watercolors when it rained; We couldn’t leave home and we spent the day painting. I discovered an activity that did not exhaust me, but on the contrary, it energized me, and that idea was feeding over time.

The second was harder: after a productive break in which I had difficulty developing projects, I was left without workshop because the space was too small to produce. After a while, I broke that inertia and reactivated in such a conscious way that I knew that my vital trajectory would be deeply linked to art. Since then I have not stopped, although I recognize that this pause was part of the process.

What is the strangest thing that has had to do in art to “survive”? Once I had to do a ‘z control’ in a work. During the summers between Fine Arts courses, a lady commissioned me to intervene in a canvas she had at home. It was a hunting scene that he did not like and wanted to eliminate the entire violent part. It was an oil, and I had to make deer, dogs and blood disappear, turning the work into a landscape with a rock as the protagonist and a sunset in the background.

His “virtual” self. I was not born for digital life, I must admit it. I try to use networks to segment the information. I do not have everything online because I think that, in some way, they exhaust us the possibility of a slow or leisurely look and take away the ability to surprise us. I have profile in Instagram (@laruiz_art)a Web page and a newsletter. But I do not follow the rhythm that seems to be adequate, since daily or personal life often catches me. Therefore, little digital consumption. I prefer to be a physical being, ask questions and break the ice.

Where is when it does not make art. I am a teacher. I work in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Salamanca, And I am very motivated to be close to future artists. It is a very moving activity because it gives you the opportunity to work with people focused on artistic interests. It also drives you to look for answers to the questions that already have the following generations in our sector. In general, it makes me think a lot about the transfer of knowledge and how to project it from the workplace to the educational and vice versa.

I do not belong to any collective, although I have participated in some. But in a very organic way, I am linked to many classmates. I think it is essential that among artists we take care and support.

You will like if you know … I admire the work of many colleagues by profession. I would highlight a Miguel Ángel Cardenal and Ana H. del Master, with whom I share interests in recreational and color language. However, I also admire the work of other artists such as Paula Anta, Inma Femenía or Isabel Carralero, who are more linked to the scope of the image, as well as the most logical-reflective approach to Mario Santamaría.

What is brought now in hands. I am completely immersed in ‘Common Scenery’, a project that I am developing with the Casino Forum d’Art Contemporain de Luxembourg Museum. It is a participatory project with the communities of migrant descent from the city, since it is estimated that more than 70 % of the population has migratory origins within the European Union, especially of France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Portugal, as well as from Africa, Asia, the United States and Latin America. We begin this month (September 2024) on the occasion of the European Heritage Days, and so far it has been an opportunity to reflect on common spaces from the idea of ​​the soil.

Prior to this, I have been working together with drawings and molecor cabinet in an intervention project within the Urvanity Public Art Program, which begins today March 3 and will coincide with the Week of Art in Madrid. It is a Site-specific intervention that will occupy the Plaza de Matadero with a filiform form made with purple tube, which manifests itself as an entrail of the city impossible to hide and, at the same time, emerges as a structure that invites the game.

What is your favorite project to date? I consider that ‘Time and Matter’ is the work that is proud. It is an installation that began as a small seed, arising from a reflexive idea, and has materialized in many ways in other projects, such as public interventions through ‘modular land’, where I perform soil exchanges between cities in the world, or from where I summon workshops and elaborate facilities. It is a project with chameleonic capacity to adapt to different contexts and that addresses a problem that touches us all: the use of land, its value, its limits and its relationship with cultural roots.

Why do we have to trust you? I think you have to trust in general. I do not know if I am the right person to give this answer, but, since you insist, I will give an idea. I consider myself an open artist, an inciter to which things happen, both for other artists and for the public. I like to work as a team with other cultural managers, make pineapple and enjoy the process. Our individual work should be more social, and this does not always happen, since it depends on the willingness to share, on establishing a common common space for all parties and putting some energy.

Where do you see from here to a year? Next year I already have it quite committed. As I mentioned before, ‘Common Scenery’ is a project that will run until next year and will take place in different phases. Production will require a lot of attention. From now on April 2025 we will be creating a database with soil images from different parts of the world. In May 2025 we will carry out the first workshops with the public at the Forum d’Art Contemporain de Luxembourg Museum, and in September 2025 we will create an intervention for the museum space, with the intention of intervening later in the public space. Meanwhile, there will be other workshops and exhibitions to confirm.

Define in a stroke.

Who would you give up the witness of this interview? I have mentioned before a companion artist who has moved me for his language and practice: Isabel Carralero. Therefore, the witness gave him.