“A space to question, dream, and seek new possibilities…”
Paul Zimmerman in conversation with Pablo Diaz Carballo
Paul Zimmerman: How did you get interested in art?
Pablo Diaz Carballo: My interest in art began at a very young age, inspired by the need to understand myself and the world around me. I frequently visited and enjoyed walking through the spaces of U.C.V. (Architectural Heritage of Humanity by Architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva). I remember that, as a child, the contemplation of the architecture and moving through these spaces, along with the experiences they offered me through the integration of the arts via architecture, made art a natural way to explore ideas and emotions that I didn’t know how to express with words. Painting and abstraction provided me with a safe space to build and deconstruct images of my identity, like a kind of architecture of thoughts. I studied for three years at this university. Over time, this exploration became my way of life and the best means to delve into issues of conciseness, spirituality, and memory.
PZ: What is the most challenging part of your work?
PDC: The most challenging aspect of my work is, without a doubt, maintaining the connection between concept, painting, and execution. My art is a constant search for the abstract and the intangible, an exploration of profound themes like identity and spirituality. Translating these complex ideas into visual forms requires a balance between creative freedom and technical precision, something that can be exhausting both mentally and physically. Furthermore, each piece has its own process and rhythm, and sometimes the greatest challenge is knowing when a piece has reached the level of conceptual clarity that I seek.
PZ: Do you have any particular goal in mind when you start a new piece?
PDC: When I start a new piece, I need to have a previous conflict, a challenge, a conceptual element that triggers the entire process. In this way, technique becomes something complementary. I define the style of the painting based on the prior concept that activates the process, the catalog, or the project. My main objective is to create a visual space, works, and other proposals where ideas of identity and consciousness can inhabit and dialogue. Each work is like building a room in that ‘house of the mind’ that I continuously explore. I seek for the viewer to pause and reflect, to find a connection with those abstract elements, paintings, installations, and video art that I represent, even if it’s in a subtle or intuitive way. I don’t always know what the final result will look like, but I keep in mind that balance between concept and visual expression that will make the work come to life.
PZ: How do you know when the painting is finished?
PDC: Knowing when a painting is finished is a matter of intuition and feeling that I have achieved the clarity I was seeking. It’s as if the work itself indicates that I have reached the point where each line, shape, and color have found their place. There is a balance, a moment when the image ceases to be just paint and becomes a door to something deeper. It’s not always easy to stop, but there is a moment when I feel that any change would break that harmony and the meaning that the work has attained.
PZ: Has your practice changed over time?
PDC: Definitely, my practice has evolved over the years, and each phase brings new perspectives and challenges. At first, I focused on more direct geometric forms of representation, but over time, I delved deeper into abstraction and symbolism. As my personal experiences intertwined with my art, especially after my exile, the exploration of identity and memory became central to my work. My process has also changed; there is now more openness to other catalogs, with different styles, which can be more classical, lyrical, abstract, graphic, pop, or kitsch, depending on the concept I am interested in exploring. I also take more time to allow each piece to develop at its own pace, and I feel freer to explore different media and techniques to express the complexity of the ideas I seek to convey.
PZ: Which artists are you most influenced by?
PDC: My influences come from artists who have transformed how we understand art. For example, Giotto and Da Vinci. On contemporary art, Marcel Duchamp, with his ability to question meanings and offer new options in art, showed me that art can be a conceptual and challenging experience. Joseph Beuys inspired me with his vision of art as a means of social change and healing. Andy Warhol’s exploration of enterprise, the production line, and mass culture, as well as symbolism in everyday life, has also been important to my work. Additionally, Joseph Kosuth’s approach to art as a form of language and thought, especially from the work ‘One and Three Chairs,’ has influenced me. Each of them has helped me see art as a tool to explore the mind and the layers of our identity concerning the question: ‘What is art?’
PZ: How would you define yourself as an artist?
PDC: I would define myself as a conceptual artist and painter, reflective, committed to exploring identity and consciousness through various forms of expression. My work aims to be a bridge between the personal and the universal, using abstraction, realism, and conceptual art, as a means to invite viewers to a deep reflection on their own psyche. I am a cultural and thought activist, firmly believing that art has the power to open dialogues about the human experience. Through painting, photography, and video, I try to build a space where one can question, feel, and understand the complexity of the human condition and the importance of education in art and creative thinking as it develops throughout life, the ‘House of the Mind.
PZ: What are you working on now?
PDC: Right now, I am working on the graphic archaeology of my expanded work, which was Ideo Arte. A work that started from the metaphor of the house of the mind and transformed into a cultural work that directly impacted 4,620 students and indirectly more than 20,000 people. This current project allows me to bring back to the painting studio the conceptual, expanded artwork from twenty years of operations. It was a huge, organic, and living piece, conceived to develop the responses that art elicits, especially during school education. This process of revisiting and documenting the entire creative process behind my pieces brings back the record and experience to the medium of painting. Through this research, I seek to understand and explore how each stage of my work influenced the final piece and how the different forms of expression I used are interconnected. This process is not only a return to my roots in painting but also a way to reflect on the evolution of my artistic practice and its relationship with time and memory.
PZ: What is the role of art in our society?
PDC: Art plays a fundamental role in our society, acting as a mirror that reflects our realities, challenges, and aspirations. Creative thinking is essential for every human being and for any profession. It is a means of communication that goes beyond words, allowing us to explore and express the complexities of the human experience. Through art, we can address social, political, and cultural issues, inviting reflection and dialogue. Furthermore, art has the capacity to foster creative intelligence and empathy, connecting people through shared emotions and universal intellectual experiences. In a constantly changing world, art offers us a space to question, dream, and seek new possibilities, thus contributing to the transformation and evolution of our society.