Saul Aguirre is a Chicago-based artist and performer whose work has been shown here in the U.S. and in Latin America. Recently I spoke with Aguirre about his influences, his involvement with the Chicago art scene, and his ongoing projects. 

DG: How did you first get interested in the arts?

SA: As a young boy in Mexico I always enjoyed drawing assignments. On of my favorite assignments was doing of the map drawing for friends in exchange for food or candy. I became a really agile person copying the maps of the world and Images of wild life. The arts and traditional dancing have always been part of the curriculum incorporated in the classroom. I learned to dance some of the traditional dances of several regions of Mexico. When I moved here to Chicago the education became too easy for me, it was like repeating the same fourth, fifth and six grade. I was a little bored, but I found my outlet. My English teacher, Mr. Canavan, had computers and video cameras. He encouraged me, not only to learn English, but kept my mind active within an artistic environment. We created props for the plays and also recorded the events during the school year. After Graduating from Grammar School, I attended Roberto Clemente Community Academy. This is where I really started to learn about other materials that I have never encountered like Acrylic, Oils, Pastels, it was like a puzzle to learn all these materials after just working with watercolors and crayons during my childhood. 

DG: Who are some of your influences?

SA: When I was in grammar school, my first and most memorable work of art was The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali, since then I wanted to become like him. Now my influences are the moment of being alive, understanding the life as I see it and as others want us to see it. My influence also has been part of my life childhood, the suffering of people, and my family; I grew up with all women and part of my response is to see a strong woman in some of my work. Other work is in response to the environment that I encounter everyday in life. As an Artist, I have the necessity to record it in a different manner the aspects of life, in a way that sometimes is not being recorded in other medium. One teacher that influenced me the during my High School years was Mr. Jose Antonio Aguilar, may he rest in peace. Thanks to his determination of keeping students encouraged, challenging them to be creative, and knowing how to deal with all of us that had an interest in the arts, I was able to become more dedicated to the arts.

DG: What are some aspects of who you are as a Latino that affect / influence your work / approach?

SA: Nevertheless, we are human, and just because we have different cultural habits we should not be portray into that particular background. Yes I do also have and influence of Mexican Culture, I cannot deny that, but I do not feel its necessary to be defined as if -I come from Mexico- by my background, that only divides people. I am a citizen of the world and my work reflects the environment we all share, sometimes being put on the reactionary focus of the Latino background creates a combination of social response. My work is based on the collaboration with colleagues and a reaction of society that I keep reminding them about the injustices in the community, and sometimes in the world. My responsibility as an artist is to reflect all that surrounds us.

DG: What are some things you like about the arts scene in Chicago?

SA: Chicago has a major influence in the world, although sometimes is not given the credit to the artists, until they are older or death, but that is just a general statement. Chicago is hub for artists in all the mediums, where in the history of the arts has been always evolving. Since I’ve been in Chicago, I have seen the city go thru changes in many different ways. I love Chicago because it’s diverse art scene, I have met amazing artists and continue to meet more. I enjoy Chicago for its different cultural activities throughout the city. You can find something always going on. From the south side to the north side of the city and now is expanding more to the west side. There are social and cultural activities almost every day. You can always find a good group of fiends in all the places. There have been several Cultural places opening and closing, but regardless of those inconveniences, there are many great things always happening here. From Music, Visual arts, Architecture, Literary arts, and community activities, I have seen the expansion of the arts and the different transitions thru the years.

DG: What are some things you like about the art scene in Pilsen?

SA: I only lived in Pilsen for nine months out of my 24 years in Chicago. I always been active in the artistic community, sometimes you can say a bit underground. Pilsen is a continuous growing artistic community. It has its own integrity. One of the most important things that I have seen is that many new artists come and go, and then you have those artists that have grown roots in the community that have been able to maintain the culture alive and active. A lot of the young artist have embraced the traditional roots and but looking at the new young, the community has maintained a new breed of artists. We now encounter a revival of the traditional Mexican music with Chicago roots. Here are some the names to mention, Sones de Mexico, Los Crudos, Tarima Son, Son del Viento, Fandanguero, Azul de Noche; among others. People like them have given the City of Chicago a different twist in the Cultural activities. Artists in the visual arts I want to mention Marcos Raya, Hector Duarte, Alejandro Romero, Oscar Romero, Robert Valadez, Miguel Cortez, Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa; well there are a lot to mention and I have not forgot them. Thanks to my colleagues and peers the arts have always been striving. The work that most of us give to the community in a time that budget cuts are happening in the arts is very important. Not only in Pilsen but in the whole community of Chicago.

DG: How did you get involved with Polvo?

SA: Polvo was formed as an alternative Gallery Space by co-funders Miguel Cortez, Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa, and Jesus Macarena Avila in 1996. This space allowed the exhibition and artistic outlet for the contemporary Latino artists who lacked representation or for those that did not have an opportunity to exhibit at a major museum or commercial Gallery especially of installation projects or new media. It was not until 1998 that I started collaborating with Polvo through exhibition projects and the literary magazine even before its temporary hiatus. I also opened the doors of my studio -Sol Studio- as part of collaboration with Polvo, and have provided exhibitions space from time to time. I believe that Working with Polvo was a way to maintain an open door to new art and artistic exploration in Chicago. The years that I worked with Polvo I always had been supportive about the commitment as a cultural venue to the world.

DG: What are some interesting highlights of Polvo?

SA: Working with Polvo we have maintained a very good standing with exhibiting the work of several national and international artists. Polvo is a very independent non-commercial gallery, and it has given the opportunity with an open door for under-represented artists and Installation projects. Some of the highlights of the past exhibitions were that the gallery was one of the first galleries that expressed the importance of doing an exhibition about the response about the war in Irak. We also had an exhibition called Mi Casa Tu Casa: Artists Response to Gentrification talked about the gentrification in Chicago; Polvo gained the respect of commercial galleries and several museums across the nation.

DG: How have you been involved with Antena? 

SA: I have been involved with Antena since the beginning. I collaborated with Miguel on special events. I have become the Public Relations from time to time; I became the museographer of the space. With my expertise in exhibitions and events I have maintained a good work ethic to make sure that every show I collaborate with Miguel Cortez at Antena has a good presentation.

DG: How would you describe your ongoing collaboration with Miguel?

SA: Miguel Cortez and I have had a really good collaboration we have common grounds of understanding how we work, without overpowering the work that Miguel has always done. I really appreciate the way he works, and maintains a good profile. We have invested time working at several Art Fairs, including The Art Boat 2003 Chicago; Pool Art Fair Miami 2006, Bridge Art Fair Miami 2008; NFO XPO 2009 and this year at Goffo under the Umbrella of Next Art Exhibition Art Chicago. We are the type of people that if we have something in mind we are going to achieve it at its best, we plans events without hesitation, and make sure that every event is successful.

DG: You’ve done work as a performer too. What are some things that you like about performance?

SA: My work as a performer is to make people wonder what is this person is doing? I always strive to make sure that people question my work as a performer. I also like to play with the manipulation of ideologies, and how we are supposed to be reacting in a marginalized society. I say marginalized, because our society is so comfortable that people forget that the are many other things that are happening in the world and do not stand up to speak about it.

DG: What’s an example of an early performance you did? What do you find interesting about it?

SA: It all started as a public spectacle. In 2006 in Pool Art Fair Miami, I participated with Polvo. I dressed myself as a priest and it created a quick response from people about what we see and not question about it. People really respected the idea that there was a priest exhibiting at an art fair, some of the people even asked me to bless them.

DG: You’ve worked with Guillermo Gomez-Peña. What are some things about his work that you find interesting? What’s an example of a performance with Gomez-Pena that you’ve done?

SA: That is a very interesting question; I actually was visiting a performance of Guillermo Gomez-Peña at the Glass Curtain Gallery during his performance Mexorotica. During this performance, he asked the public to interact as part of the performance; I have enjoyed the performance that I decided to join the performance. During the interaction of the performance, he asked a friend to asked me if I would undress myself and I complied, I became part of the performance without hesitation. This is how it all happened. I love the fact that his work is almost like a ritualism and questions history and current events, as part of social criticism. I found it very interesting and easy to respond to his request. A factor that I found interesting is that he moved to California in the seventies, I was born in 1974 and we are both from Mexico City. Having this in mind, it is natural that it was easy for me to work the same way that he works. Finding the humor , the understanding and the need to express a social criticism with society, and always finding a way to challenge society in a way that sometimes makes them very uncomfortable.

DG: How would you say your visual art and work as a performance artist influence each other?

SA: My work as a performer is always active with the reaction of the current events as well as some of my visual work. The only difference is that in performance is very quick and continuously changing depending on the times that I plan them. The visual work is always present with the same issues, but at times is a bit subtle to portray the social injustices. For example: Be All That You Can Be is an six panel oil on linen measuring 20”X24” is a piece that I made as a concern the army slogan, that for more than twenty years I saw on the television asking for young people to join the armed forces. This piece has a lot of meaning within it. I replaced the stars with a code bar, insinuating that as soon as we are born we are a number that with that number we are being watched, and kept counted for. As an immigrant, I could not go to school until I was registered with the armed forces. It is part of my social response to that Ideology. There are the colors of the stripes of the flag, not the actual colors but a random range of colors because it is the melting pot of cultures. I would like to invite you to have more discussion about the piece in the future.

DG: Would you describe your involvement with “Sangre, Sudor y Papeles”?

SA: The Sangre, Sudor y Papeles exhibition is a full collaboration of the artists involved in the exhibition. We had an opportunity to be able to response to current events. Miguel Cortez, Jaime Mendoza, Jenny Priego, Salvador Jimenez Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa, Adriana Baltazar, and I; we are the responsible people of making this happen. We were concerned again just like in the past we have always been concerned with issues that affect the communities and try to marginalized them. It is a response of Polvo collective just like the past with preposition 187 in California. We are members of the community and as part of our agenda is to response to the social issues, we all gathered to respond to the Arizona Law SB 1087. In this exhibition is the first time that I do digital manipulation within my work. I have manipulated images that have become part of historical events and challenged them as part of something that we all should be concerned with; as well, I created new imagery to comply with those ideologies.

DG: What do you find so important about that issue?

SA: We are living in a time here in the U.S. when the population is changing, where the immigrant society has become a major player in the politics of the country. Many people have become citizens and have changed the face of the White Anglo-Saxon portrayal of the United States. I believe in making a statement about how society is changing. The people in power are still having a hard time accepting the changes of the face of Americans that are making ridiculous laws that are not only wasting time and money of the American society, but are playing around to disguise other important factors that can make our lives easier. The most important factor that some people forget is that immigrants built this country, that the deaths of multicultural people are part of our history. We cannot let history deny that the natives are have been always here and that our lives as nomads is always going to be happening, whether we like it or not. I find it difficult to believe that we still find people still with a narrow mind stating go back were you come from to recent immigrants that do not look like them. This is part of the ignorance of the education system, always repeating itself of telling the history of the victors and not the real story.

DG: What are some examples of other artists who have done interesting work in response to the theme of immigration?

SA: Immigration has always been an issue that has been responded by many artists, we shall say that also the injustice of human smuggling done by the European in the early years of colonization. Societies sometimes disregard that because that is past history and supposedly, we have overcome that in a minor state of history to the blind eye. I say to the blind eye because we are still encountering many ignorant people that have not been able to understand that our society is just black and white. I can say that immigration art has been always portrayed in history even before the United States of America. It is hard for me to think that this is a recent issue. In response to your question, artists like Hector Duarte he created a mural at the National Mexican Museum of Art in Pilsen Chicago, that talks about the immigration issue just like the monarch butterfly that travels from North America to Mexico without any borders imposed by human. I also have in my collection a piece by artist Sebastian Alvarez, he did a created portraits of displaced people in the Middle East all because the war, not immigrants by choice but just like any other immigrant by the need of survival. We are all nomads in any part of the world. When you move from Chicago to New York per se, are you considered an immigrant? No, people just see you that you moved from a different state. Is part of nature that any living animal, plant and humans, look for a way of survival, in the case of humans we forward to better ourselves were in our communities they cannot strive so we are constantly moving.

DG: What do you think about the current immigration issue in Arizona?

SA: It is erroneous not to have an opinion about Arizona, I understand that we have to protect the country but also people have to be responsible with their own actions. As an artist, I see it in a different way, I cannot condemn people for being nomads, as I had stated before we all are nomads we are looking for places were we could strive where there are opportunities to better ourselves. The constitution states that any human has a right to be and say anything they want. The fathers of the United States of America were immigrants I believe that not being able to consider that as part of history you deny the true factor of American people. The U.S. was built by immigrants, how can the now habitants forget that their ancestors robbed and killed many of the nomads that lived in the country that is now the United States of America a term that is based on the whole continent. I remember reading a statement in grammar school America is for American people, uh is quite a statement, wait I am also and American even before I became and “American Citizen”. I am also from the United States – of Mexico-, how can people deny such statements. In addition, the authorities will try to send me south were south is still is America the continent even if I cannot provide papers that state that I am an American U.S. Citizen! What about of people that look like me and are Americans are they going to try to deport them as well just because we do not look white and we have a very indigenous background. The Proposition SB 1087 misguided people on part of history. It reminds me that history has proven that Immigrants are a focal part of the growth of this society. One film that comes to mind A Day Without a Mexicans 2004, by filmmakers Sergio Arau & Yareli Arizmendi; is a very satirical movie but at the same time explains the concept. Whom do you find doing the hard jobs in the kitchen, chefs, kitchen helpers, waiters, even some are recyclers for necessity? Immigrants; they are the ones that people always forget in politics.

DG: Have you created any work in response to the current immigration issue in Arizona?

SA: My work is often a response to social injustices. Overall, I cannot just define to just one type of work that can be viewed as just part of the immigrant issue in Arizona, because people will continue to make the same mistakes just to benefit a few, and not to think about the society as a whole. Some of my work is very political, is part of my social response to history. When one can create work used as a generalization of different issues is a good skill, I do not just believe in one part of history, history as a whole.

DG: What are you doing as part of “Religare” at Antena?

SA: I collaborated with Rakel Delgado, an artist from Catalunia, Spain. The performance based on questioning the aspects of religion, how all the religions tell you the same thing about being good to others and how politics have manipulated that into their own benefit, we manipulated several religious scriptures to describe how this is happening and talked about the injustices. As part of the text, we also included the use of the mass media to try to make people become so comfortable and forget that we are living in a society of blindness. History was written by those in power the only few people that challenge the history were persecuted because it did not conformed with what the government wanted us to believe. Now in an era of information is a lot easier to commit to make sure those voices being heard.

DG: You were in Texas earlier this month. How did that go? 

SA: It was great, thanks. We had submitted a collection of videos from Antena -- artists like Jaime Mendoza, Jenny Priego, Miguel Cortez, Amelia Winger Bearskin to The Texas Theater for an art fair called "Hot Buns and Blazing Artists" that happened last month. We are also having an exhibition at Gallery 414 in Forth Worth Texas opening in September 11 of this year. We are excited for the continued work we can achieve, and it's exciting to see how people in Texas have been responding to our work.

DG: What How did you get involved with "Mano/Mundo/Corazón: Artists Interpret La Lotería" at the Center for Book and Paper Arts?

SA: I was invited to contribute one piece to that exhibition, which is based on La Lotería. La Lotería is the traditional card game from Mexico similar to bingo where all the cards have an image, and every time that the person revealing the card will state the verse about the image. I was also invited to be part of an exhibition in the West Chicago Museum, In October I will be showing my work in several venues during the Chicago Artists Month, along with of the Pilsen Open Studios. 

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