Interview in the radio programme "Tu arte nos ha dado vida" of the radio station "Murcia Economía" in Cartagena, presented by Chelo Cánovas on Monday 1st April 2024.
Listen here the complete interview and you can listen to the interview here and this is the full transcript:

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- Well, life is beautiful, that`s the tune that we have, that we also give to this space, which we call your art, it gives me life every Monday,
we talk about painting, sculpture, in short, we talk about art in short, and this morning we are going to greet José Carmona,
Pepe Carmona, he cannot be with us in the studios of Murcia Economía Radio, but we are going to have him on the phone.
There is an exhibition entitled Encounters in the gallery from the 8th of March until the 12th of April, in the Bisel art gallery, and one of those painters is José Carmona.
Let`s see if we can get him on the phone, and say hello José Carmona, good morning.
How are we doing?
- Fine, very well.
- I said that you are exhibiting until the 12th of April, in this case, right Pepe?
- Yes, the exhibition will be on until 12 April.
- Until 12 April José Carmona invites us in this exhibition to analyse another landscape of the digital universe,
that we can contemplate without leaving our homes, right? Yes, my imagery, my work.
- Yes, my imagery, my work, all my work revolves around the digital universe and our relationship with social networks, with the internet and this curious world that traps us all.
- Well, Pepe and so far we are already one April, I think we said the exhibition would open on the 8th March, right? How is it going? How is it going?
- Very well, the truth is that there is a lot of interest, people ask Nuchi about my work and about me, and the truth is that my work is quite peculiar. It`s a bit different from what you can find in a gallery and it attracts attention.
- How many paintings have you hung, Pepe?
- I have three paintings and also three prints, from different series, from the Malla series and from the series simply you.
- Well, you have a degree in fine arts, don`t you?
- Yes, I have a degree in fine arts.
- And you`re from Cartagena, we hadn`t said that, Pepe Carmona was born in Cartagena and he also works here, right?
- Yes, I develop my work here, I work between Murcia, Cartagena, I was also at one time in a gallery in Barcelona, what we artists try to do is that our work is seen in all places, as many places as possible and that`s why we move around a lot and now I also exhibit in Cartagena.
- Well, we have said that you are in the Bisel gallery with three other painters, I think I remember.
Yes.
- Well, let`s get to know Pepe y Carmona a little bit, how did he get started in this world?
- Well, as you just said, I have a degree in fine arts, what happens is that my career, as an artist, is a bit atypical, I don`t know if it`s atypical or perhaps conventional, because many of us who have studied fine arts leave the degree and don`t work as artists, we do something else, because the truth is that it`s quite difficult to make a living from art, there are few artists who make a living from what they do. So I left it for a while and now for reasons of, I don`t know, of communication and expression, expressive reasons, I needed to communicate and well, philosophy led me to art again, I came back to art a few years ago because I was working on this type of work related to the internet, above all with human psychology and it has ended up leading to this exhibition.
The exhibition we have now at the Bisel gallery. Yes, you have to encourage people to go and see your work, don`t you?.
Yes, I encourage people to go to the gallery, above all because what the gallery is not going to show, they can also go to the museums, but the museums are going to see already established artists and in the gallery they are going to find other kinds of artists who are trying to make a niche for themselves, who are trying to be known, and they are going to find different narratives, they are going to find other stories that don`t normally appear in books, that is, in conventional places. And that is very interesting.
- When do you start to feel the painting bug? Everyone, of course, doesn`t have these skills, painting is not so easy. As I say, doing this, I put here this or that, everybody can do it, but painting is not everybody`s job, that`s clear.
- Well, of course, I understand that what you mean by painting is something professional, something that is very aesthetic, of course, as you said, everyone can paint, in fact I encourage everyone to paint and to express themselves through painting, for me art is not really a technique in itself, but it`s a way of expression, a place where we can express ourselves and tell other things that can`t be communicated normally,
but it is a way of expression, a place where we can express ourselves and tell other things that cannot be communicated normally, that is to say, cannot be expressed in any other medium. For example, literature is very limited for me, it is limited by expressive issues, but art allows me to express things that are not so easy in other media. So, in this sense, it`s very interesting that people look at art from another point of view.
- How many hours do you spend painting?
- Well, I work as a freelance, I work in a company as a graphic designer, but when I leave here I spend as much time as I can. Above all I think, I dedicate myself to research and, I don`t know, I write and I also design and create my work, it`s a lot of hours, I would practically say my whole life, I`m not working, I`m designing.
- Let`s give our listeners a little background, what is your painting like? Pepe.
- Well, my work is entirely made with computers, it`s digital. I draw by hand, I draw a series of images that interest me, of figures, characters, and then with the applications I have created, I multiply them, I create multitudes, that multitude is mixed and the different collections of my work appear.
There`s a work I`m looking at of yours, I don`t know if that`s the title, or if it belongs to the multitude collection, digital printing, Hola Elvira, isn`t it? Very nice, it`s very pretty, you know.
- Yes, I suppose it`s the one with the boy walking.
- That`s right.
- Yes, it`s from a new collection called Píxel, which also belongs to the same family as the multitud and mallas collection, they are figures that I replicate,
thousands of times and I combine them with each other. So, different types of concepts appear, with the chaotic mixture a chaos appears, a kind of jumble, very curious. Yes, the chaos, for example, insinuates the internet, social networks, the chaotic relationships that the internet creates, that kind of thing. The mesh collection is more ordered, and the Pixel collection is also more ordered.
- And a lot of colour, isn`t it? Because here we see a lot of colour, strong colours, right?
- Yes, that colour is very interesting, because that colour emerges from mathematical sequences. Sometimes they are random combinations, sometimes they are extracted from mathematical formulae, but they are normally chaotic. What I do is study random combinations of colour and shapes, I try to interpret what emerges and relate it to a concept, to my thinking.
- Well, as you said, you have been exhibiting in other places, not only in Cartagena, haven`t you? Tell us about other exhibitions, Pepe.
- Well, I`ve had work exhibited in the 3-Punts gallery in Barcelona, and lately I`ve been working a lot with the Babel gallery in Murcia. I really like Javier Cerezo, the director of the Babel gallery, because he`s very in tune with the concepts behind my work and it`s very easy to communicate, which is very important for an artist, because we artists tend to, I don`t know, isolate ourselves in our work and disconnect from the world sometimes, this connection with Nuchi helps me a lot to express myself and to develop my work.
- Hey, how do you see art in Cartagena, are we making progress, how is everything?
- Well, I think it`s very interesting what Bisel is doing, your radio programme. It helps us a lot to be known, because it`s complicated, not only in Cartagena but at a national level, with the issue of social networks that seem to connect us but in reality they often disconnect us more, because social networks, both Google and the big media, tend to stereotype everything that passes through their hands and that makes it very difficult for emerging artists to get into these media.
- Well, of course, right now you`re exhibiting in Bisel, it`s a private art gallery, I mean, but there aren`t really many places in this city to exhibit, don`t you think?
- No, there aren`t, but that`s also logical because artists who try to make a living from their work look for the places where they are most accepted, where there are more people, where their work is most widely known. Of course, if there are few places, as you say, and there isn`t much artistic movement, artists need their work to be seen, to be paid attention to, so if they don`t get it, they end up leaving or looking for another solution.
- Well, it`s a question of all of us starting to build this up a little more, don`t you think?
- Well, yes, yes, I think so, to do everything we can, on the part of the media and those who are interested, because not everyone is really interested in art, it is quite a minority thing, let`s say, and it is complicated.
- But for example, when it comes to decorating our houses, our homes, it will always be better to, hey, put these works by people, I have always said that in Cartagena there is a lot of material that we have not been able to help as we should and provide more facilities, because these were other issues that we will have to get to that point and see what is going wrong. But I think that little by little, right? We are a little more demanding and we want to know what we put in our homes, right?
- Yes, of course, the subject of art and the subject of, let`s say, decoration go hand in hand, we also see the aesthetic part of the work first. We see a decorative object, often, we don`t see the artistic part so much, but of course, the artist`s trajectory also has a lot of weight, and it`s true the artist`s trajectory, then there is a concept, everything goes in that order. In other words, first the aesthetic part catches our attention, then the artist`s name catches our attention, and then, if we are interested, we look behind the work to see what the concept is, what the artist`s history is, what his past is, what his work is about. I`m interested in the last part, but of course, you have to get there, but you have to go all that way, and that way, and I`m realising that it`s very long.
- Exactly, it`s hard to get there, isn`t it? I imagine.
- Yes, it`s hard to get there.
- Hey, Pepe, are you a prophet in your own land, in Cartagena, I mean?
- Well, I don`t know, time will tell, I don`t know if in months or years, but it`s very difficult to be a prophet of anything, it`s complicated and even more so now with the way things are, with Google, the Internet, social networks, and I`m a bit reluctant to social networks, because as I told you, they stereotype a lot of what they look for, and there, it`s very difficult for me to enter, because my work is quite atypical, it`s very peculiar, so it`s complicated for me, yes.
- Well, apart from this exhibition you`re doing in Bisel, are there other works you`re preparing, are there other places where you`re going to exhibit soon?
- Well yes, I`m planning an exhibition on the world of the Internet and all this subject, but I don`t know yet if we`re going to do it in Bisel or what we`re going to do,
because we have presented it as a proposal for Mucho más Mayo, with Nuchi, so let`s see if we like the proposal, there is a concept behind it, the concept is the world of the Internet and social networks, our relationship with the digital world and we`ll see.
- Well, in this exhibition that is taking place in the Bisel Gallery, apart from your José Carmona, there is Alberto Márquez, Antonio Sánchez, José Luis Angulo, I think, and Manuel Pérez, do you know each other?
- No, I personally don`t know them yet, but well, I`m sure we`ll have the chance to get to know each other, I know their work, and come on, I find this type of figuration very interesting and all these collections that the Bisell Gallery is showing now, they are very contemporary and very interesting, I encourage everyone to get interested or at least visit the Gallery and ask if they have any doubts.
- Well, you have spoken about Mucho Más Ayo, how is your relationship, I mean, we have said that it is difficult to get to, that Cartagena does not have many galleries, but that relationship that there must be, we are talking about art, we are talking about painting or sculpture, which, at the end of the day, is that all this is also culture. How are the relations with the Department of Culture? By this I mean, Pepe, do you artists need more help?
- Okay, this issue of grants, I don`t have much of a relationship with Cultura de Cartagena at the moment, perhaps I haven`t had the opportunity yet, nor has there been the opportunity for this relationship to be established,
for example, for a relationship of this type to be established, there has to be an initiative, such as Mucho Más Mayo, but also competitions, for example, are very interesting for public institutions and artists to get to know each other. Now, for example, I was selected for a work in the painting competition of the University of Murcia, and now they are exhibited in Blanca, in the Pedro Cano Foundation, and we had a presentation there, a talk with Pedro Cano, very interesting, about my works, that`s good for them to get to know you because these public acts help you to make your image known and to get to know your work. Of course, if there are no competitions, if you have no way of relating to the artist, there is no diffusion, there is no relationship.
- You are talking about Pedro Cano, Pedro Cano, who is very well known, I was in Blanca a few days ago, well, he is there in person, but not only in Blanca, he is an amazing artist, isn`t he? I`ve seen his work, exactly, I`ve seen his work, and it`s fantastic, and what he helps people too, all this has to be taken into account, right?
- Of course, his foundation together with the University of Murcia are doing a very interesting job with this competition, and also an effort, which is an effort, for the dissemination to the public, which is not fully rewarded, because let`s not say that the artists they are promoting are emerging and we don`t have a projection yet that could mean something more interesting for them, but well, we have to work on it, we have to work on all that, and we need that interaction, but of course, it is complicated, I understand that it is complicated, the issue of the subsidy and that kind of thing,
I don`t know, I don`t know to what extent it helps the artist, I don`t know to what extent a subsidy can help the artist, because if you get a subsidy, it`s good that they reward you for your work, but the interesting thing is that the public accepts your work, understands it and, of course, buys it, but if there is no relationship with the public, other relationships, I don`t know, for me, from my point of view, I don`t understand very well, unless it is to make the artist known, disseminate their work and that kind of thing.
- What I also believe, José Carmona, is that Cartagena has good artists, here we should give more visibility to all of you, shouldn`t we...?
- Of course, of course, yes, exactly, and it is very interesting that the institutions help us in this way to visualise our work and also that people don`t know about it, and that we are understood,
For me it is very important that my work is understood for those who might be interested in my work, that it is explained, and for me that is the task of the gallery owners. The institutions also work very well to make the artist known as a whole.
- Of course, but it`s what you say, here you have to give it more visibility, and look, I remember, I remember a time when I remember seeing more galleries, there was a gallery that I don`t remember now what it was called near the big hotel, it was in the.... I don`t know, yes, between the Callejón de la Parra, well, the point is that it had a lot of visitors, I mean that in Cartagena, art has continued, the thing is that like everything else, I don`t know why, there comes a time when it has its decline, right? and a city where an exhibition was inaugurated on a Friday night, or a Thursday night, was very much visited, and I`m not just talking about a gallery, but about different places where art was very, very much pursued, very much followed, and very much admired, Pepe.
- I think they are trends, I don`t really know what that depends on, but there are trends of the people, of the taste of the public who prefer a certain place, or are more interested in some places than others, that happens, that fluctuates, what we must never lose is the interest and put the strength of the institution, the one who can do it, and disseminate the work of a local artist, that for me is important, because, let`s not fool ourselves, all the town councils, and those who can do it, try to put at least part of their weight behind local artists and make them known, it is important, when we are in our own city, then you go abroad and try to get more people to know you, to be known in more places, but of course, it is interesting that there is attention for the local artist, it is also interesting.
- Of course it is, well let`s remember that in this case José Carmoná is going to be exhibiting together with Alberto Márquez, Antonio Sánchez, José Luis Angulo and Manuel Pérez, in the Bisel Gallery, it will be, well you started on the 8th of March until the 12th of April, right?
- Yes, yes, exactly.
- And then what are you going to do, where are you going?
- Well, at the moment there is a kind of standstill for me, I`m not going to continue looking for galleries, it doesn`t particularly motivate me because I`m quite well off, I don`t know if I`m happy with the galleries I`m working with, the Bisel Gallery in Cartagena and the Babel Gallery in Murcia, and my work, let`s say that it has reached a point where it is somewhat finished for the moment, I need an interaction with the public, to see how the public reacts to my work and I don`t know, I`m reaching a moment of waiting, for the moment there is the Mucho Más Mayo project but there is nothing more than that.
- Well, in these projects, although this project, as you say, is finished, we still have time to go to the Bisel Art Gallery, specifically until the 12th of April, and see your work there, and also see the work of other painters, and well, the only thing I also say to you when we are finishing is that your art has given us life in this case. José Carmona, we are going to continue to support art, we are going to continue to support culture, look now later, we are going to talk to a writer, a well-known writer, SonIa Sabedra, who is also very active in social networks, and well, I imagine that you are also active in social networks, right?
- Yes, well, I have, I have profiles on Instagram, I have an Instagram profile but I can tell you that I don`t have a lot of exposure on social networks because it`s not a medium that satisfies me,
nor does it meet my expectations because my work is more conceptual, so the aesthetic attraction that this type of medium needs, let`s say I`m not entirely satisfied, but I`m not very popular on social networks either, let`s not fool ourselves. That`s what happens to me, that my work is a bit complicated when you try to see the subject I`ve gone behind and try to understand it, it`s very peculiar.
- That`s why, that`s why it`s always important to be at the artist`s side, I mean when we have doubts, we try to get to know you a little better, right?
- Yes, exactly, sometimes people ask questions and through the gallery owners we receive the questions and we resolve them, or they can ask me directly if someone has any doubts or wants to know anything about my work, I also document very well, because behind each work there is a kind of little story, a history, and all together they form a concept, an idea that I`m working on.
- Well, until 12 April at the Bisel Gallery in Cartagena, these meetings in the Gallery with Alberto Márquez, Antonio Sánchez, José Carmona, José Luis Angulo and Manuel Pérez.
- José Carmona, I don`t know if you want to add anything else.
- Nothing, thank you and your programme for the diffusion and support you are giving us, thank you very much.
- Thank you, Pepe, you know, it`s the name, the title that we gave to our space, our programme: "Your art has given us life", eh?
- I think it`s very nice, very good.
- Thank you very much, best regards.
- Thank you very much.
- See you later, goodbye.
- Well, once again we`ve talked about art and now we`re going to talk about books with Sonia Sabedra. We`ll take a break, we`re already at 11:29 and we`re almost on time, also to do that Easter week summary.