It was in 2004 that the Bichos story came to light with my former partner Mario Pignata Monti, who had gone far too soon.
“LOS BICHOS”
Familiar expression of Argentina, hardly translatable because it designates as well an insect as a bull, a woman, a guy or a kid. Warm if you want or stripper in his own way. A “Bicho” is close to the corny, hero of a television show. Unlike the laws of nature, their gestation is done in three stages:
– THE COLLECTION
We started to put aside plants, flowers, bits of plants with interesting shapes. We picked up on our various trips to Japan, Argentina, Burgundy, Champagne, and even Paris … At the end of the exhibition “Brazil”, we were able to harvest! Over time, friends, family, florists, play games by finding interesting specimens. Employees of a public garden in Paris even allowed us “wild cuts” provided we anticipate the arrival of onlookers. It is this herbarium that constitutes “the collection”.
– THE SHOOTING
Each element is photographed in our studio with angles of view and different lights that will highlight their particularities. Texture and matter are our “obsessions”. More than 700 photographs have become our source of inspiration as the colors on the palette of a painter.
– THE COMPOSITION
The initial model is a bright, intuitive, almost gestural digital collage. Follows a slow process of maturation: add a touch here, round an angle, change an element, change a color, let a day rest … or months. This as well as the random gestation carries out the hard birth of a “Bicho”.
