In 2018 Jean Carlos Puerto is invited to the cycle “Dialogues with Gaya” organized by the Ramón Gaya Museum in Murcia. In this cycle, the invited artist seeks to “dialogue” artistically with some work by the great Ramón Gaya. It is undoubtedly an important event in your artistic journey.
Puerto chose an atypical work within what is the Museum’s collection, focusing on an intimate scene. Puerto wants to enter the inner world of Gaya, to know that less visible part and for that he presents a scene inspired by that work. The artist thus composes an image that is out of the ordinary for him, a night scene in which the only light is provided by a night lamp, as in Gaya’s work.
Jean Carlos Puerto, was part of this cycle along with other artists.
The artist, Jean Carlos Puerto, refers to the creative process during the round table “Dialogues with Gaya” held at the opening of the exhibition:
“To confront her, I wanted to do like when she goes to therapy and you receive a client, without knowing anything beforehand, you start to wonder and ask what is happening or happening to Gaya at that moment.
I couldn’t help filling myself with feelings of loneliness and a lot of intimacy. So I decided I would do an interpretation of what I thought Gaya felt, how psychologists sometimes do with clients. In a way, this work is like a mirror to Gaya’s feelings, an analysis of what he lived and what he had to do from my world, from my closest self.
This does not mean that Gaya really felt that, that we cannot know, however it is my point of view of the moment he was when she painted this work. And I wanted to play with the same elements, my room, a lamp, the darkness,… I just added myself as a model. It is not a self-portrait, it is an interpretation, a staging. I wanted it to be like a mirror. (That is why they are facing each other in the room) In order to do this I also had to be true to myself.
Shortly after starting my work, Isabela called me to tell me that they had found a poem referring to the Lamp and it seemed almost magical to me. I read it:
TO THE LAMP
Here on my cold shoulders
near and far just like the stars,
here next to a past only traces,
next to the bed where they dream together
living and dying, over the nests
of the memory, here you are as beautiful
and light warm hands with which you seal
tired and aching eyelids,
here you are as a being, as a thing
that I already had a soul almost mine
also yellow and also withered,
here on my silent brow,
here as a vague company
reaching with your light to my anguish
Because reading it confirmed that what I had interpreted could be close to the point of view of what Gaya felt. It has been a special work for me in several ways:
- ‘Cause I’ve approached Gaya like she never had For the challenge of painting a reflected body with artificial light.
- Normally when I paint nudes I do it with these illuminated with sunlight or natural light.
- Because I wanted to do it slowly and calmly, measuring each brushstroke and working it with care, even with glazes. “