Interview with Jorge Pomar “Amor”
Graffiti introduced me to the world of art. One day I picked up a three cans of aerosol with a friend and we went to paint some bombs. Blue, chrome and black. I remember that day with a lot of joy, pure magic. Something changed inside of me.
Painting in the street became a pleasure and an expression of freedom. When I was a teenager I used to skateboard and hang out in the streets with friends a lot. I started experiencing the city with a lot of curiosity, seeing urban space as a place of experimentation and exploration.
Painting was the only activity that made me feel something intense. When I finished high school I had no idea what to do next. I worked in a couple of places and started four different university programs but I didn’t finish any. Painting became an activity that represented freedom and fun. Little by little, I started to visit new cities, and to develop new friendships. Graffiti opened a lot of new doors for me.
I find endless inspiration in the streets, especially in Buenos Aires. I pay special attention to different things: the grey building facades, cracks, construction sites, messages written in restrooms, tags on metal blinds, words carved on a tree, the design of iron railings, things that get caught in trees, colourful awnings, flags hanging from balconies, car stickers, the colours of the train and bus lines, the walls of the railway tracks, the back of newsstands, garbage strewn on the ground, the sound of rush hour, hidden spaces, going up on a roof, down into a tunnel, into an abandoned house, drinking coffee in a classic downtown bar, etc. The city is like a big playground where I can experience and be inspired by an endless array of different situations.
Nowadays, I’m working on global concepts such as war business. I’ve found a way to take on this dark subject through trivialisation, using color as my starting point. My interest in this issue arose during the week of the first match of the World Cup in Brazil. The conflict in Gaza Strip was picking up again in a terrible way and I was overcome by a sense of absurdity as I watched how the planet was being mesmerised by a ball.
Last year I focused on vexillology (the study of flags), identity and the study of color, all centered around the theme of conflict. I held a solo exhibition called “$ 1.800.000.000.000” (one trillion eight hundred billion dollars) in Buenos Aires in the Alpha Centauri gallery, which took as its central idea the economic investment made each year in the weapons industry. I’ve also traveled in several countries over the last four years, and some of these were engaged in serious conflict while I was there. I filmed situations of urban life, local culture and mural processes during these trips, and used this material to make a documentary film called ”Thirteen cyphers”.
In Buenos Aires I had the opportunity to participate in “Pintó La Isla”, a beautiful project which took place in Isla Maciel, in the South of Buenos Aires. One of the artworks is entitled “History and Identity of Dock Sud”, which is a landmark close to the Buenos Aires port, the point of entry for a majority of immigrants coming to South America in the late XIX century. The most interesting part of my experience in this project was the widespread participation of locals in the project. Because of this, the artwork doesn’t have a purely individual framework, but rather belongs to various people. This has created a context where the mural is better taken care of by the locals, and also favours the generation of more projects like this.
I think the act of painting on the street becomes like a magnet for different situations. Painting a mural is all about being in a particular place for a specific amount of time and, while the piece is in progress, all around there is a constant flux of millions people, elements and influences. Exchange and interaction are unavoidable consequences. Over the last few years, I became aware that it’s all about living the experience, and learning and sharing, whatever the context, place, time and sometimes even the visual result of the artwork may be.
