Episode 2: Visual Arts

EP2_Visual Arts

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:00:02] Hello everyone and welcome back to this new episode of our Trash to Treasure podcast series on green jobs. I'm Anne Cassuto from the Ayamola organization in Barcelona.

In today's episode, we'll talk about creative reuse in visual arts and see how artists transform discarded materials into stunning pieces of art. We'll delve into the artistic journey of a world-renowned Catalan artist, Jordà Ferré, creator of the Antigua I Barbuda Collective.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:00:39] I like anything that's useful. I've got a ton of stuff, but still don't have a place for it, and maybe never will. Well, and it's the same at home. If you come to my house, everything is recycled: the furniture, the sofas, everything, is recycled.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:00:56] If you've ever wondered how an old broken piano could become a machine to create fragrances, stay with us!

We hear the term visual arts all the time, right? But what does it actually mean?

Well, simply put, visual arts are all the kind of art we experience with our eyes: Paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, collage, design, even film and digital art.

[00:01:33] Basically anything that tells a story or shares an emotion through visuals.

Sure, you see them in museums, but not only there. Think theater. Stage design, immersive installation, street art, all sorts of styles, in all sorts of places. All in all, you don't just look at them, you actually feel them.

[00:01:56] History is packed with examples you probably know, from cave paintings to Michelangelo's sculptures, from Van Gogh's vivid paintings to Henri Cartier-Bresson's unforgettable moments.

And jumping to more recent times: artists like Yayoi Kusama from Japan with her infinity rooms, or Banksy from England turning city streets into unexpected galleries.

[00:02:19] They show how visual art can completely pull you in and make you feel part of it, and that is pretty amazing.

So now, when we talk about reuse in visual arts, think of it this way. Anything you normally throw away can be transformed into part of a visual creation. There are literally no limits.

Remember from our previous episode?

[00:02:47] This idea of reuse isn't new at all. Actually, visual artists have been reusing all kinds of stuff for over 100 years. What's different now, though, are the man-made and artificial things they're using today, things that didn't even exist back then.

Let's rewind for a moment and look at some history to put things in perspective. Switzerland, 1915.

[00:03:12] The world is at war.

Out of the chaos comes Dadaism. It spreads quickly across Europe and in France, Marcel Duchamp drops his famous ready-mades.

Through their art, Dada artists were basically saying: “Hey, the world is falling apart, let's shake things up!”

Fast forward now to the 1950s in the US.

[00:03:53] The assemblage movement takes off. Remember the name Joseph Cornell? He built poetic universes out of discarded bits and pieces. Then, by the 1960s, Italy brought us Arte Povera, using poor materials to push back against consumerism. Artists like Mario Merz showed how even things as simple as neon tubes or branches could be turned into powerful works of art.

[00:04:21] Different places, different times, different artists, but all with the same spark, seeing beauty where others saw waste.

And this approach is still very much alive today with contemporary artists from around the world finding new ways to reuse materials. El Anatsui from Ghana turns bottle caps into massive installations, Vik Muniz from Brazil makes portraits from trash, and Sayaka Ganz from Japan transforms everyday objects into lively sculptures.

Across continents and time, turning discarded materials into art keeps inspiring creativity in exciting ways.

[00:05:04] Today, we’ll explore all this through the personal experience of Jordà Ferré, from Antigua I Barbuda collective, an artist who brings this transformative process to life in a unique way.

So stick around because when imagination takes over, trash isn't trash anymore, it's treasure.

We’re now in Jordà’s workshop, in Barcelona, between the sea and an industrial recycling plant. Picture this: a massive 1,500 m² warehouse, with high ceilings, divided into sections, packed with objects neatly arranged on shelves.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

 [00:05:50] I'm going to describe the workshop. Here we have the office, our dressing room, as you can see, inside a shipping container. And in front, we have another shipping container, which is our kitchen where they cook.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

 [00:06:03]. On this day, the workshop is buzzing with activity. There are areas dedicated to metal, wood, hydraulics, electronics, and motors… and a storage area for creations from past shows.

When I asked about the location…

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

 [00:06:17] This is perfect for me, but the problem is that they won't let me collect things. In Barcelona, officials are very strict, they don't give permission.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:06:23] Since Barcelona’s strict regulations limit him, Jordà gathers his materials from a recycling center in his hometown, a small village near BCN with more relaxed rules. He also acquires stuff from friends and through trading.

But let’s rewind for a second… Who exactly is Jordà Ferré, and how did it all begin for him?

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:06:49] My name is Jordà Ferré. I was born in Barcelona in 1970. I never thought I would end up being an artist or doing this kind of work… I applied to Barcelona’s renowned La Massana school to study graphic design. Luckily, they didn’t accept me.”

Anne Cassuto (Host)

While others would have been discouraged, Jordà looked for another life path and started working with puppeteers, doing special effects. By 18, he joined a theater company as a technician and head of stage design.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:07:13] I started with a theater company called “Sota el Teatre”, and that’s when I really fell in love with this whole world. I kept evolving, and realized I loved building things, I slowly started creating projects with other companies as well.

.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:07:25] Fascinated by building things, an obsession he’s had since the age of 11…

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:07:32] I used to take everything apart at home—literally everything. I’d turn off the lights with a string or some gadget, doing all sorts of little crazy experiments. But I never imagined I’d end up doing what I’m doing now.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:07:45] Creating, especially within the theater… has been one of his key forces motivating him to collaborate with various companies, including Royal Deluxe, and to run the Trapezi Festival, an annual circus festival in Catalunya. 

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:08:00] I was working for different companies, but I wasn’t really doing what I wanted. So I said, ‘Well, I’ll start my own company.’ And that’s how I began creating my own projects—almost everything I do are my own projects.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:08:12] By 2000, he’d finally gone solo to do what he really wanted. 

Today, Jordà Ferré, with his collective Antigua i Barbuda, is a world-renowned artist creating what’s known as machine theater, turning recycled materials into giant kinetic sculptures, moving structures, using them in imaginative performances that wow audiences worldwide.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:08:37] The thing I like least is acting. What I love most is being in the workshop, facing challenges ane bringing cool projects to life.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:08:43] Notable creations include La Danseuse, a 5-meter-tall ballerina that gracefully moves to electronic beats, and Floc de Neu, an oversized replica of the legendary albino gorilla from Barcelona’s zoo, a local icon that everyone knows and remembers.

And why did he start working with recycled objects?

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:09:11] It was because I didn’t have any money. It wasn’t like I was thinking, ‘Well, it’s better to recycle than throw things away,’ it was just that I couldn’t afford to buy anything. So I recycled, and recycled. And in fact, it’s become a bit of a signature for the company

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:09:28] And he kept doing it because over time he realized that recycled materials possess incomparably unique value.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:09:37] You start to notice that these materials carry a memory. I mean, these are objects that were made a long time ago, and they’ve been through many hands or used a lot, and you can tell. There’s a kind of wear, like wrinkles on skin. You can see the passage of time in them.

[00:09:52] Over time, I’ve realized it’s like they speak to you, you know? So I use them because I love them, not just because… it’s no longer really an economic issue, though that helps too. It’s because they… they say so much. So a piece made with materials like this, for me, gains incredible value.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:10:20] Sustainability may not be his main goal, but like many artists he lives it naturally, inspiring others to discover treasures in the most unexpected things.

Picture now a real, beating heart from a living animal – he won’t say what animal, but it’s not a model, not fake. And it’s pumping what looks like real blood. It flows and pulses right before your eyes- as part of his interactive ‘Love Machine’ for the show ‘Circo.’

Here is how it works. You place a stethoscope to your chest. Your heartbeat is transmitted to the machine. It starts to pulse in sync and pump blood through a tube, measuring love in liters.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:11:01] The heart itself is a recycled heart, you know?. I mean, I can’t tell you where it comes from but I can assure you—it’s real.. And I have a spare one, a backup, because, well… The liquid it’s preserved in tends to dry it out.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:11:14] That's one creation. Now imagine a piano that turns music into scent, so you don't just hear the melody, you actually smell the music. Like the heart contraption, it's part of the Circo de las Penas project, where several machines were made to express emotions.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:11:34] So this machine is a piano that has a roller, like those little music machines, which turns along to a piece composed by Pablo Guerra, an amazing musician. As it turns, it activates the keys and creates music. But what this piano does, which is what we wanted, is that you don't hear the music through the notes, You experience it through the smells. Each note, by notes I mean all the Cs, all the Fs, all the Ds, are connected to a solenoid valve that releases a scent into funnels. As you can see, it goes through this tube and everything is concentrated into a big funnel at the end. So when the score finishes, the perfume that has been created is released. And yes, you can actually smell the music.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:12:12] All built entirely from recycled materials, of course.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:12:19] There's a small fire extinguisher that serves as an air chamber. The control mechanism that fires the air is recycled from some factory.

[00:12:27] Here we also have this recycled paint spray-gun. We use it to release the perfume. And this piece, where the person smells it, are the spickets from an old drum.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:12:39] And so on and so…

At this point, I'm wondering how Jordà comes up with all these wild creations

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:12:48] I never build thinking about a story. I build things simply because I feel like doing it. I wanted to make a bar that serves you drinks automatically. When I finished it, we came up with a story, but the idea wasn't, oh, I want to talk about Alzheimer's, so I'll build something. It's more like, I wanna build this, and ah, well, with this, I could tell a story about Alzheimer.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:13:09] So, how important is modern technology in his work? I mean… to create pieces like these, he must use some pretty sophisticated machinery.

And over the years, how much has the evolution of these tools changed the way he builds?

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:13:26] Tools are essential. At the beginning, I didn't have anything, so my pieces had to be really basic. As you start getting tools, like for example, an iron bender, you can do so much more. I used to bend iron by hand with a piston because I couldn't afford a bender. But once I had it, everything I used to make straight, I could now bend into curves.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:13:45] Today, Jordà plays with tech like 3D printers and laser cutters, but the parts you actually see, He cuts those by hand. For him, modern machines make things almost too perfect, so he saves the tech for hidden, structural or repetitive pieces.

[00:14:02] For the visible parts, authenticity and uniqueness always come first!

Now that we know Jordà a bit better, let’s hear some tips and advice from him.

So if you’re a young creative person dreaming of doing the same, here are Jordà’s tips to help you start out:  

Let’s start with mindset, the stuff that really shapes you as an artist!

 [00:14:34] Find your own path and unleash the artist within! Turn the used and worn into unique treasures!

Now, when it comes to learning and gaining knowledge, Jordà hardly recommends focusing on the skills you actually need.

You don't need a degree to be an artist, but Jordà says there are tons of programs today to boost your skills, even in sustainable arts. He admits he's a bit out of the loop and can't get specific.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:15:01] Keep in mind I'm really disassociated from the whole scene. I don't keep up. I don´t know who's who.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:15:07] But he suggests checking out art and design schools, theater institutes and more.

Jordà also insists on not missing out on technical training. Vocational courses and hands-on workshops can be a game-changer, especially if you work with your hands.

[00:15:24] People still often overlook them, but they'll save you time and teach skills you can only really get by doing them yourself.

Speaking of concrete info, don't worry. On our website, you'll find the TTT Green Jobs Training Guide, a useful document with plenty of detailed information about academic possibilities.

[00:15:47] When Jordà started, most of these academic programs didn’t exist, so take advantage of the moment you’re living in!

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:15:56] In my time, doing vocational training was supposedly for idiots. So I never did it. And it's a shame because if I had, damn, I'd already have learned using the lathe, milling… you know. I've been learning over time through books, friends, and watching.

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:16:15] Remember, he says…Practice as much as you can! Hands-on experience is crucial. The more you build, experiment, and create, the faster you’ll grow as an artist.

Alright, let's take a look now at what Jordan recommends when it comes to the process of creating, especially when it come to reuse.

[00:16:37] Work with what you have, think reuse, cut waste, it's good for your pocketbook, great for the planet and will seriously fuel your creativity. Then, invest in tools gradually, slowly and steadily, but only if you feel that you really need them.

Also, be flexible. Even if a project looks perfect on paper, check it in a real world and adjust when needed.

So, after all these helpful recommendations, one big question still looms. How can you turn your art into income?

[00:17:11] In that sense, the network you've been building over the years is gold, Jordà says, so use it. Anyone you know could open doors and even help fund your project through public programs or private companies.

Local councils, regional and national institutions, or the EU, all offer grants for artists, some focused on green projects.

 [00:17:31] Check what's available. Supporting sustainability becomes more and more important, so working with reuse could be an advantage and unlock additional support. And to pitch for funding, Jordà suggests always keeping a concept dossier ready, even if your project isn't built yet. Make sure to include your background, your project idea and artistic references to give it depth and direction.

Voice Over Jordà Ferré

[00:17:58] Having references is super important. Whether I’m aiming for something more Dadaist or Art Deco, each project has references: where I come from, who influences me… I don’t know… Chema Madoz, for example, an amazing photographer, and how he perfectly conveys what he wants

Anne Cassuto (Host)

[00:18:17] And finally, don't forget, protect your artistic integrity. Make work because you want to, not just for money or trends. Stay true to your vision and the rest will follow.

So in this episode, we dove into the fascinating world of creative reuse in visual arts and explored how it has evolved since the last century, showing how giving new life to existing materials can be economically beneficial, but also a creative and sustainable act.

[00:19:02] We also reflected on how much easier it is today to pursue artistic training, and taking advantage of them can really make the difference.

And yes, we saw how important it is to build and nurture your network.

We hope this episode inspires you and gives you that boost of clarity, confidence and motivation to keep pushing forward on your own artistic projects.

Alright, we are about to wrap up this episode. Remember, we can transform trash into treasure.

[00:19:35] And stay tuned, in our next episode, we'll explore Sound from Scrap, where trash finds its rhythm and music is made from the most unexpected materials. You won’t want to miss it! You won't want to miss it.

Remember to follow our podcasts, like and share our social media posts.

[00:19:54] Also, make sure to visit our website “trashtotreasure.eu” where you'll find tons of tips, inspiring blog posts, as well as the TTT Green Jobs Training Guide, a comprehensive document full of information on training opportunities and practical tools.

[00:20:13] Finally, be sure to register for our Webdesk service to benefit from a B2B session with one of our team members and receive personalized support and advice.

Remember, trash is treasure and the future is as green as the jobs that will shape it