Diego Moreno
About Sorcery, Ultra-Catholicism and why monsters should be a good thing. Mexican photographer Diego takes us on a spiritual trip down to Chiapas, where his grandmother is source of his daily inspiration and supernatural creatures might be welcome all year.
2020: What was your highlight this year, knowing we've been hit by this pandemic? How is everybody doing in your family?
Complicated, my maternal grandmother broke her leg in the middle of the pandemic. It was a limiting circumstance, since she had an emergency operation and everything that comes with living in a hospital is always complicated and painful. And even more so with this worldwide virus it was very exhausting. I think the year has been tremendously overwhelming but I have also strengthened family ties and creating since the confinement.
Your work also represents the dark side: with masks and montages of horrible creatures of the night - what does it mean to you?
The darkness and the monsters have come to represent the inhabitants of my own unconscious and a passage to another realm. They are not real people, I know, but in a way, they provide a framework for understanding the human condition. By making use of monsters and darkness, perhaps, I can reveal secret truths that are not visible in everyday life. Reflect on all misunderstood beings, creatures and marginalized things. For me they are endearing and I identify with them deeply. In this case, let's talk about monsters: They don't pretend to be anything else. Human beings are false, we are always tied to what is socially accepted and we are in a constant affirmation about evil and about "others" always with rejection. Part of the nature of this projectis to unravel all that pre-established to resinify and create new possibilities of being and being. The idea of a "monster" must not be frightening, it must be beautiful; In fact, our world would surely be a little more magical if these figures lived among us.
How much Mexicantradition do we see in your work - how do you translate your heritage?
My main imagination comes from my maternal grandmother Clemencia, she has made me have a very particular attachment to darkness. I come from an ultra-Catholic background and a deep culture shock. I have always thought that I live in two worlds, the indigenous world and the Spanish world of the conquest. Mexico is many Mexicans; it is a complex but fascinating territory. I come from Mexican heritage with a link to death, black humor, mystery and the mystical. This happens a lot in southern Mexico, where I grew up. That is why in my work this manifests itself, creating fantastic worlds and characters like those my grandmother told me when I was a child, and how her ancestors told her. In all my work I reflect on contemporary Mexico.
How did your genius series HUÉSPED come to live?
HUÉSPED, I started when I was fourteen years old, there I started to do photography. This project is conceived through images and texts, where I narrate the complexity of my family history, marked by disturbing cycles of domestic violence, machismo and attachment to the Catholic religion. This project, as a family album, allows me to build a present to find a place in the world and reflect more deeply on the fragility and complexity of the human condition, and the hostile times in which we live.
HUÉSPED. developed for eight years, which explore my own identity through an intense process of immersion in photography as a means of bonding with my family, creating and recreating scenes that allow us to enter this complex network of relationships. while they are transformed into the same photographic act.
If you close your eyes for 30seconds. And put your hand on your heart while doing so - what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
The beautiful face of my grandmother Clemencia telling me that she loves me very much.
What's your favorite phrase at the moment?
"Events are accidents of bodies and the void where everything is fulfilled"It's a phrase from one of my favorite poets, and I actually got it tattooed recently.
Where are you living now?
Since October of last year I returned to live in my town, I built a house here near where my Grandmother lives and the pandemic allowed me to live in my new house. I am happy with my new space and with the climate of my town, it is very cold.
If you could choose three places on this planet - where would you like to be?
Iceland, Mérida Yucatán and Mexico City.
What is your favorite food?
Las quesadillas.
What gives you inspiration these days?
October is my favorite month of the year. „Halloween“and „El Día de Muertos“in Mexico are my favorite dates, the whole year inspires me with terror, monsters and anomalies. And this month is very special, I feel in my natural habitat. I think, for all Freaks like me, it's a month where we can be without any problems.
interview FRANCIS SALVATOR
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