Sito Mújica, On Copies considered as Fine Art
By Christian Obregón
Art doesn’t reproduce the visible; it makes visible.
Paul KleeThe night I met Sito Mújica we were at an opening. We’d already exchanged a few pleasantries, talked a bit about what we liked and shared a few secrets; and when the conversation came round to roles on the art scene, he leaned over with the air of a bohemian aristocrat and told me he was a thief. And I believed him.
He also said that his work was a never-ending tribute; that he was fascinated by contemporary mythology and its iconoclastic character; that he did what he did because quite simply he couldn’t do anything else; that he loved simple things… Keen to reach some sort of grand justification, we came to the conclusion that if it were going to be anyone’s, the 21st century would be the appropriator’s century.
Well, we appear to have been proved right. Or at least when talking about his work.
Highly acclaimed on the scene for his unique production platform ‘Copiadas’, Sito’s work has never ceased to surprise the public with its apparently simple purpose and exquisite technique.
Almost chameleon-like, his work could be said to be that of an experienced voyeur who records everything he sees through the keyhole of photographs by the likes of Paul Sepuya, David Youngs, Paco and Manolo, and Hedi Slimane, to name but a few.
But this is just the start, the tip of an iceberg whose hidden depths reveal uneasy pairings like ‘fascination/attraction’, ‘plain/simple’ and ‘reason/intuition’.
Let’s be quite clear about this, Sito Mújica’s work isn’t your typical system of reinterpretation; it’s a system of ‘excretion’ that gives rise to intensely personal passions by an author who is deeply moved by the beauty of the work of others, someone who renounces his own ego as an artist to redo whatever excites him. And in the process, the original image changes language, mutates, becomes the raw material for art.
Christian Obregón is an independent curator and cultural journalist
Interview By Nicola Guiducci
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