In Persona I worked on the second part of the New Art trilogy. After focusing on women in Ceremony, I wanted to place myself fully in the concept of Persona and Humanism in the 21st century. The name of this project is directly influenced by Bergman, and it is my way of paying tribute to this Swedish artist, as well as emphasizing the idea that artists are not the owners of words, nor of concepts.
In this project, I collaborate with Manuel Murie, a neurologist and humanist. Together we have set up a dialogue between Art and Neuroscience. Our intention was to offer a vision of the person away from classifications and ideologies, with its origins being in the conversations held with patients with severe neurological conditions.
In Persona, I place empathy as the foundation of the project. This choice is essential for my work and my subsequent artistic stance, since it implies believing that the person is an empathetic animal by nature and believing in this, regardless of other possibilities. This is why Persona is a project of great importance to me, the backbone of my work as an artist.
On an artistic level, Persona takes its form as a monumental 7-metre-high piece of art, as a documentary film that I co-directed with Miguel Goñi Aguinaga, and as a musical and scenographic performance. This project has a unique energy, and I am particularly thankful to Patxi Vicuña, Charo Galar, Ricardo and Aimar Galán, María Dolores Sanchez and Luis del Río, for allowing me to enter their lives and have an influence on this humanistic work.
