SYBARIS COLLECTORS

Orlando Gracia García
Ig: @orlandogracia

Inspired by the Proust Questionnaire, the
questions we ask here seek to show side b of the
most prominent collectors of our time, to reveal
an aspect of their personality that few people
have access to.

What kind of art do you prefer to admire: classical art, modern art or contemporary art?

I admire all art, but modern and contemporary
art can quench the thirst of my senses. I like
the complexity with which some artists work with
materials that you encounter on a daily basis
and, through a process that requires time, they
manage to entice you, seduce you and inspire you.

What values do you appreciate in a culture?

Culture is a universe of beliefs, language,
traditions, ways of living, even of feeling and
behaving. Through culture we identify ourselves
and stay on the line of time, without being
diluted in a disposable society: humanity creates
culture and with it they create themselves. I
value the language, the letters, the colors and
textures, the smells, the traditions that allow
us to be what we are.

In what other time would you have liked to live?

In no other time. Being analog-digital is like
having the best of both worlds. Although I like
history, I see the idea of living in another time
as renouncing the unsuspected forms of our time,
of being able to be surprised with its magic, its
technology, its art. We know little of our time
despite living in it. We are meant to spend the
time exploring and experiencing what is coming.

Which color do you prefer?

Colors are letters in a language of sensations.
For me the sky can be blue, but also red, orange,
yellow, pink; the light on the objects is what
generates the color and in the dark it does not
exist. To prefer a single color is to give up
endless opportunities to shine differently. My
predilection is always grayscale and black, but
bright colors always represent energy, strength,
dynamism, I like to keep moving.

Where do you prefer to place a piece of art from your
collection?

I like art where no one expects it. It can be in
a natural environment, in a landscape. There,
where everything is perfect, the presence of a
work that makes you think contrasts with the
environment in unexpected ways. A piece taken out
of context and exposed in an out-of-the-ordinary
way represents an opportunity to feel, see, and
inspire. Works of art need oxygen to live. That
is why I like open places.

Do you like to appreciate a work of art alone or do you prefer
to do it with someone special?

The work speaks to you, seduces you and invites
you to feel it, generates emotions and makes
you recognize even weaknesses, inspires you,
questions you and invites you to meet the artist
in many cases. I like to appreciate art as the
artist conceives it, without limitations or
restrictions. Artistic collaborations impact me,
it is as if two or more universes come together
in one place. In the vestiges of the Second World
War, two bullets from different troops melted
when they hit each other on the way. The piece
created by coincidence generated two molten
metals: one bullet inside the other. It is a
piece that shows that something dies in war; but
in other cases, the conjunction of two artists
makes something to be born.

What region of the world would you like to live in?

I love Mexico, its culture inspires me. However,
Mexico hurts me at the same time. It is a
paradise discovered not valued. There is art,
culture, magic, traditions… I had the opportunity
to live in India, and culturally they have
similarities. Countries like Israel, Turkey
or India are places where I am drawn because I
perceive a similarity with my country and its
culture. I am Mexican and from the border (I come
from Tijuana). Here we grow up with that curious
and mischievous ambiguity of being part of
here and there, of thinking, seeing and feeling
differently from the Mexican in general ... but
obviously I prefer Mexico.

For you, art is…

Art is a language. Psychologists may define it
as a therapy, lawyers as an escape, doctors as
medicine, prisoners as a liberation, architects
as a necessity, collectors as a passion. The
perspectives are very different, but the common
denominator is the way to recreate realities. A
method to question, confront, present and show
realities and visions of the artist for various
purposes, not always aesthetic; the production
or recreation of some reality through color,
material, texture, the combination of ideas,
light, sounds. For me, art is creating what does
not exist from what exists, a romantic slip
between idea and execution. That perfect dance
and that magnetic dance that we live when we
begin to see the piece materialize is a spell that
surrounds you. Whether we like it or not, the whole
world lives under his yoke. Not even ignorance
resists art. Through art humanity creates itself.