Pablo Cavero {autumn 2006}
I was born 1986 in Oloron, a town located at the base of the French mountain chain, « les Pyrénées ». When I was two, I moved to a little town in the South of France with my parents, « Aigues-Vives », between Nîmes and Montpellier. I lived for one year in Lyon while I was studying physics (I was eighteen). I’ve been living in Montpellier now for a year. Also, I have spent a lot of time in Paris and I know that city well.
previous schools attended and educational experiences:
Highschool: 2001 to 2004
Dhuoda Highschool, Science Major
17 rue Dhuoda,
30913 NIMES
Colleges attended: 2004 to 2005
Claude Bernard University, Physics and chemistry
3 boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918,
69622 VILLEURBANNE (LYON)
2005 to 2006
Paul Valéry University, Fine Arts
Route de Mende,
34199 MONTPELLIER, CEDEX 5
significant professional and creative experiences:
Professional experiences:
Internship in Paris: with Xavier Veilhan, from April 16th to May 9th, at the Grand Palais exhibition « La Force de l’Art ».
www.veilhan.net, www.forcedelart.culture.fr
– Different tasks at Veilhan’s studio and at the Grand Palais
– Observation of the artist’s different works and techniques
– Meeting many people involved in Veilhan’s work and the exhibition (it permited me to have very enriching discussions)
Internship in French Brittany, in Plouaret-Trégor: with Patrice Carré, from June 18th to June 25th, at the Dourven Gallery exhibition « Igor et François ».
– Participation to the installation, and the production of the exhibition
– Meeting gallery curator Didier Lamandé (with whom I had enriching conversations)
– Observation of Carré’s work and technics
Documentation about Carré’s work:
www.oddc22.com/actions/index.php?rub=101 (Dourven Gallery)
www.documentsdartistes.org/artistes/carre/repro.html
Creative experience:
Filming of a video I created, shot in a striking quarry setting.
It was interesting to coordinate everything with about 10 persons, and to work with the contribution of everybody’s ideas. This was very unlike drawing, painting, photography or doing any kind of art that is done (often) alone, and I liked that dimension a lot.
Tell us about yourself, what are your interests, influences and ambitions?
As mentioned, I studied science till the end of my first year in college, so that’s been a big part of my life. I’ve always been interested in mathematics, and applying them to nature : physics. Also, the bipolar reasoning in science – both being creative in order to find out solutions, and operating very neutrally in order to calculate things (like a computer) – always interested me. I think that a scientific way of thinking still has a great influence in my art, and I’m glad of it, because it permits me to mix different kinds of thoughts and think in a broader way.
I think I studied science till that time because of these aspects, but also because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do later, and since my grades were good, I was encouraged to continue. At that time, I was only slightly interested in things concerning art, although I did computer graphics, as a hobby. However, I appreciate the course my studies took, and I don’t think it would have been better to come earlier to art.
In my year of college science, a lot of elements in my life made me understand that I didn’t want to work in physics, and that I wanted to make art. Since that time, the more I experience, the more I know I want to make art my work in life.
I’m now working on a project which clearly shows the influence of science in my work (although I’ve also been doing things a lot less "scientific"!), based on an electronic circuit with a capacitor (component that can accumulate electricity) that will charge in exactly one month. I’m working with one of my friends who studies electronics, and we will develop the event-dimension of that work, by creating a website with a countdown to the end of the month/end of the charging. With that project, I’m trying to question the scientific way of thinking, but also to analyze the mental bounds we can have, bounds of what can (or cannot) be art, and break them or go beyond them.
Also, I’m trying to do very different things, and very innovative, on an as wide as possible scale, because I think that as time passes, I will learn new things and go forward, understanding more and more precisely what I want my art to do. I think it could be like building a pyramid: you start with a very large base wich becomes more and more narrow, precise. Also, one of my ambitions is to try everything I can to make art as big as possible a part of my life.
Here are some artists that I like a lot: the French band « Air », the Italian writer Alessandro Barrico, the French artist Xavier Veilhan, the American artist John Baldessari, the French artist Pierre Huyghes, the Greek artist (but L.A.-based) Miltos Manetas, the German band « Kraftwerk », and Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier.
Why do you want to attend the Sundown Schoolhouse?
My current university in France (which I chose to attend while I was still in science and didn’t know yet a lot about art schools) is a little too close-minded on the contemporary art world in my opinion, and not innovative enough. Also, as it’s easy to get in, a lot of students are here because they didn’t know what they wanted to do. Furthermore, in French faculties of art, you are mostly directed to becoming a teacher in these faculties, which doesn’t interest me a lot – and I think that an art teacher has to have experience and not only teach after his/her theorical studies.
I think that by attending Sundown Schoolhouse, I would find a wide vision of art that I would like a lot, a group of motivated and ambitious people influenced by very diversified elements and with whom it would be great to work, and at the same time a very good teaching open to a lot of things, with very diverse teachers too, who would all bring something from their life and professional experience (the website links for the professors were very interesting).
Likewise, I’m amazed by the cultural mix brought on by the presence of different nationalities in Los Angeles. I think it would be very good to study in Sundown Schoolhouse as a French/European student, to confront my culture to American cultures and others. For instance, I like speaking English a lot, and comparing it to French; I experienced many times relations with people from different countries, it was very enriching and it improved myself a lot.
Also, Los Angeles is currently one of the biggest cities of art, and I think it would be very interesting to live, study, and create, in the great activity and cultural background of that city. I recently saw the exhibition « Los Angeles, birth of an art capital », at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, on the art background of LA since the 70s, and it made me more and more curious to see that city. Moreover, studying at Sundown Schoolhouse would be a great link to meeting and working with many interesting people. I strongly believe in the Sundown Schoolhouse project, and would like to take an active part in the beginning of a venture with such a potential for growth and creativity.
How did you hear about the Sundown Schoolhouse?
I read Frieze magazine, and there was an article about Sundown Salons in it. When I saw the description of what was done in these salons, I thought it was very interesting. Shortly after, I researched the salons, and found out about Sundown Schoolhouse.