INTERVIEW

How do you define the project you undertook for TruckArtProject?
I came to TruckArtProject with a casual, rhythmic and fast project.
Colors and shapes organized to create expressions or words, faces, or simply planes of color.

In your case, how does one side of the truck interact with the other?
My offering is a sequence of shapes / faces that “surround” the vehicle.
The two sides of the vehicle are two parts of a single work, although only one side will be visible at any time. For that reason I tried to make them complementary but not essential.

What challenges does this project offer you?
Painting a truck isn’t like painting a canvas: it moves. Usually, we visit a work. This one could pass under right your nose when you least expect it. I think the challenge of this project is to create a permanent moving exhibition, for an audience unfamiliar with art. To me, its circulation is in itself a challenge and a motivation.

How does this project fit into your trajectory and your discourse?
This project is part of my series of urban forms, where the color and shape sometimes enclose written messages. It’s a reflection on the purest graffiti.

Some artists admit that they came in with a pre-existing idea that they had to modify, or that grew in other directions when faced with a canvas like this one. Was that the case for you?
I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do, and although you always have to improvise when faced with a new type of canvas, I didn’t veer too far from my original idea. I usually paint on different types of canvases and spaces… You don’t always have the perfect canvas, or really any canvas is perfect.

How did you approach the reception of a work like this, in which the spectator comes across it instead of seeking it out, and which doesn’t circulate through the usual art channels?
Well, first of all I think it will be a ray of light among the gray mass of the highway, the tiring and portera advertising, the lights, traffic lights, more cars… I think it will be a refreshing change for public roads… In fact, it will be very entertaining in traffic jams….hahaha. I don’t know, I hope it inspires and comes across.

What about the fleeting nature with which it’s received?
This work is received very fleetingly. In that sense I’ve tried to be concise in the message, impactful and not very jumbled. It should be an image that’s quickly digestible, because it’s taken in fleetingly.

How did you approach the scale? Were you used to it?
The scale wasn’t a problem for me. I’m used to painting murals. In that sense, it wasn’t the biggest wall I’ve used in my life.

What does this type of project offer you, and what do you think you bring to the project?
A project like this teaches you a lot. I learned from everybody I worked with, I learned from other artists I met, I learned from the experience itself. Apart from giving my work exposure, I’ll take away fond memories and lessons learned!
In return I think I bring my own vision to the project, between graffiti and art, two ways of approaching the act of painting a truck. Art that can be crap or crap that can be art.

• Why is a project like TruckArtProject interesting?
TruckArtProject is a very interesting and innovative idea. Good for art, for exposure. Good for people, for visual education. And good for the company, advertising. Everyone wins. Also, a patronage project with private capital in Spain? It’s an initiative that shouldn’t be limited to this one alone, and I hope it encourages many others.

Javier Díaz-Guardiola