Artesanía de Galicia - POTSFINK

“My process is to think for a long time untilI see everything really clearly”In the thirty years thatKukas and Isabel havebeen working with puppets,although the productionof shows is their most popularactivity, their workshop has alwaysbeen another fundamentalaspect of the company.Is the marionette workshop oneof the ways of making this businessprofitable?ISABEL: Of course. There are seasons with a lot of showsand others without so many. And there is also a demand.KUKAS: There are also certain jobs such as making propsand sets, or even making marionettes for other companies,which we have also done.I: Indeed. It is a job that makes Kukas an artist and a craftsman,doing what is required, making marionettes, props,posters and sets … Because in fact these works are allinterrelated. We have three fundamental activities in thecompany: the production of puppet shows or puppets withactors; then the craft workshop for sets, props and papiermâché;and we have another activity to which we devotetime, which is teaching. Kukas spends a lot of time almostexclusively giving Occupational Training course in theCraft Centre in the Theatre Course at the University; almostevery year we give courses in making and manipulatingpuppets, especially in Lugo.This is a mixture between a handicraft componentand an artistic one. How does this relationshipwork? Where do the two meet and separate?K: Well I’m not really sure where the crafts end and theart starts, or vice-versa. I see things that say “This is art”,and I think, “Well, because you say so”, I just see a handthat worked; it doesn’t transmit anything to me. And othertimes they say, “No, this is a piece of handicraft”. But look,working on stone like Master Mateo worked, what wasthat, craftwork or art? I don’t really know where it startsand stops.K: Handicraft work is usually understood as that of producingseries, and so we don’t ever do that. Each work isunique. But the person who makes individual works is alsoa craftsmen. At best craftwork is a type of art that can moreeasily become accessible to the people, and art is somethingthat only capitalists and millionaires can achieve. Idon’t know the difference.I: Crafts also have a more practical, useful aspect.K: But if it doesn’t have a functional element, I don’t knowup to what point craftwork is not art, such as in the case ofa decorative plate. In Galicia there was a time when therewere some fantastic ceramicists, and there still are, and Ialways wondered why this wasn’t art, because I adoredthat type of craft work, it was so interesting. And if thecraftsman is the creator … I think Galician craftwork isvery creative. What impresses everyone outside of Galiciais that it is so creative.The last show, Untitled 4x8x6, portrayed theprocess of the artistic creation of the puppets. Init the drawings leap out of the paper into realitythrough a magical trance. The real process willbe somewhat different...K: I don’t know how other artists do things. I know how Ido it. There are creators who start out by scribbling on thefloor and look at the scribbles, to see what they discover.I have a process that involves spending a long time thinking,getting up early, going over things in my head until Isee things clearly. When I see them clearly I draw them onpaper. I have to see them very clearly. The process of thinkingtakes me a long time, and doing it takes a short time.Other artists or craftsmen start modelling the clay as if thework might tell them what is inside it. But when I make theclay I’ve already seen what’s inside it. My process is moreof a mental one, of going round in my head first.And then is it easy to reach the aim?K: Very easy. Then it’s a matter of technique, like writing.These are craft techniques, whether it is painting or sculpting,nothing odd. What you have to learn is the language,the process. Then the creative force depends on each person.No one teaches that at any school.I: A lot of the work that we do has in principle a handicraftpart, and then it has an artistic side. They are normallyunique works, made with an artistic intent.18