Alberto Villalobos
- by Alejandra Camacho. Translated by Christopher
- 24 juin 2018
- 12 min de lecture
I would like to thank Alberto for taking us on a tour through his studio directly from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He told us a little bit about his story and artistic vision along with what inspires him to create and how it is like to work with his two brothers Luis and Ernesto, who are a very important part of his life and his career.
Photo Credit: Ron Jones
Born and raised in Xalapa, Veracruz, Alberto has been involved in music and visual art since a very young age thanks to the support of his family. Alberto's mother, Margarita, was the main driving force for his artistic path thanks to her calling for teaching. His first contact with music was at the age of 4 at the Montessori, a school which was founded by his mother and later on at the Musical Initiation School for Children (CIMI), a school focused in music education. "My brothers and I were educated at home with the freedom to be creative, which in retrospect, was a wise decision by my parents. Later on, we started at CIMI, where we had closer access to music. Regarding the visual arts, I remember the first approach was different because painting and drawing has peaked my interest since I was very young. This affinity for visual arts has allowed me to look up to people I admire and learn from them, as well as take classes and workshops. Regarding the visual arts, I am self-educated and focused in what I am interested to learn".
At the age of 9, Alberto started studying at the University of Veracruz's College of Music finishing his studies 10 years later with a bachelor's degree in Violin. "During my studies I also got involved in drawing and painting workshops and classes. These were workshops in which the students didn't have to necessarily be enrolled in the degree to be able to take them, which encouraged me to keep painting"
His passion for music drove Alberto to attain a scholarship from The National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA) and study a Master at the Real Conservatory of Brussels, Belgium. "It was a challenging learning experience because I didn't master the language yet. However, there were many people who helped me along the way and gave me a hand in the process. The first year was very difficult because the classes I was enrolled in with Russian violin teacher Igor Oistrakh were extremely demanding and competitive. Now, I realize that all those experiences were very useful and am very thankful for that opportunity".
What drove you to New York?
When I was still living in Bruxelles, Ernesto, my brother, who had been living there with the support of a Fulbright-Garcia Robles binational scholarship, called me from New York City. He told me, "Alberto, you have to come to New York, we have an opportunity to play a concert at Carnegie Hall". I thought he was joking because Carnegie Hall is one of the most renowned venues for the performing arts in the world. I laughed, but he said, "No, this is serious. Buy your ticket and come as soon as possible." So, in 2005 I arrived for our first concert at Carnegie Hall. My brothers and I leased a house in the Bronx and for the concert and had friends come up from Brasil, Mexico, and Belgium. Who would have thought that one month later we would be performing at such an amazing venue? Without planning it I ended up staying for 12 years total. A lot of opportunities came up thanks to that show. We were invited to perform at the Latin Grammys and even met Eduardo Magallanes.
Photo Credit: Rafael Piñeros
Tell us about Villalobos Brothers!
It is a group that my brothers Luis, Ernesto, and I founded after performing at Carnegie Hall. We used to play at home together so it felt natural. Luis was studying in Germany with the support of FONCA before our concert at Carnegie, but later on he came to NY. The group has grown little by little. Our guitarist Humberto Flores and friend of ours originally from Fortín de las Flores, Veracruz joined the group later. We have been on tour, recorded albums, collaborated with many musicians, and worked on many other projects. This year we have been very fortunate because we were invited to participate in the Border Fandango organized by Jorge Castillo to protest against the wall between Tijuana and San Diego. In this project we have been lucky enough to collaborate with great musicians such as Arturo O'Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz orchestra (Antonio Sanchez, Regina Carter, Akua Dixon) and the Fandango community of Son Jarocho. (Tacho Utrera, Patricio Hidalgo, Martha Vega, Ramon Gutierrez) We are also very excited to complete a project that has taken us 4 years to put together which included releasing a symphonic arrangement of our compositions. This arrangement has been created by Eduardo Magallanes Calva, who is a dear friend and cultural icon in Mexico. Moreover, the Villalobos Brothers will be releasing their second album "Somos" which means "We are" in Spanish during the summer/fall.
Tell us a little bit about your first album
Our first album was named "Aliens of Extraordinary Ability" referring to the visa that all of us had to request in order to live and work in the US.
Photo Credit: Ron Jones
We have lived through unhealthy and unfair scrutiny. Just to give an idea, my brother Luis and I requested residency with matching applications. His was denied while mine was approved. I digress, back to the matter of the album. AOEA came out as a musical experiment with the collaboration of Ramon and Miguel Ponce, who play Mariachi music in New York. Rosa Avila, a great percussionist, took part in the album with percussionist Yuriana Sobrino, who is also from Veracruz. I remember that for this album we put together original arrangements of iconic songs such as "A Change is Gonna Come" and "Nothing Can Change This World" by Sam Cooke. We chose these themes for their importance in history and now more than ever I believe that we should feel proud of our culture as Mexicans and in general as Latin people. We are living in a tense political environment where we must fight to erase this stigma attached the immigrant, and through art we have found our way. As artists we have a great responsibility. We are in the seen for moments on stage and should take advantage of this time to shape other people's perspectives and perceptions during this time. In my case, through visual art (painting and sculpture) I've found another reason to keep exploring, experimenting and growing.
Could you tell us about the arrangements that you use to change perspectives?
We have recorded several. Luis composed a song to protest against police violence against the people called "Xalapa Bang". We talk about the strong versus the weak. Ernesto has composed various themes where he talks about immigration. For example we recorded "Casita Blanca" outside The White House in Washington D.C. ("Casita Blanca" in English is "The White House") I have also composed "Men of Clay" to protest against the disappearance of journalists, activists and migrants in Mexico.
Follow the itinerary of the Villalobos Brothers through www.SROartists.com y www.villalobosbrothers.com
Instagram: @Villalobos_Brothers
Facebook: @VillalobosBrothers
Tell us about "Men of Clay"
Men of Clay is a multidisciplinary work. It is a musical arrangement that we put together and played with Villalobos Brothers and is a collection of 43 masks of clay. The idea is born from the need to protest the vanishing of 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos school in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico (2014). The original lyrics are, "Mataron al estudiante, exijo una explicación, y que el pueblo se levante y se indigne la nación, y la impunidad reinante le de paso a la razón. Mataron al estudiante, al periodista, al maestro, secuestraron a un infante, desaparecen por cientos, activistas y migrantes, mujeres sin documentos" which means, "They killed the student I demand an explanation, let the people and the nation rise for outrage, and that the prevailing impunity leads to reason. They killed the student, the journalist, the teacher. A child was kidnapped and women without documents are vanished". The principal goal of Men of Clay is to create a tangible, visual and auditory memory for the people not to forget about these students. Rafael Piñeros documented the process of the masks along with the artistic vision and the editing of the video. He is a great videographer with a long career. The video will be released the next few months.
"Men of Clay" was presented in 2017 as a single exposition in collaboration with the "Bronx Arts Factory" and "The Point Center of Environment" in South Bronx, New York City. A neighborhood living a reemergence nowadays. Using donations and recycling board of woods of a non-profit organization called "Rocking the Boat". I finished setting up the exhibition which took months to prepare. After that, "Men of Clay" was invited to be featured in collective exhibitions in Dallas, Portland and Washington D.C. Two masks have mysteriously disappeared from the restaurant "El Original" in Midtown, Manhattan. But I take it as an ironic symbol. Imagine the pain the parents of the students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa feel and that are still looking for them after almost 4 years. Photo Credit: Sol Luna
Tell us a little bit about the process of making the masks
I start with a bust of cement and on top of it I place the clay. No two are alike. I made a bust two days ago as an experiment and will use it for future masks. When one mask dries, I take it off the bust and then I put another one together. You assemble them in parts and then you put them in an oven to "burn" them. In order to "burn" or "parboil" the clay you can use an electric, gas or a wood burning oven. I like the wood oven better because it gives a different finish to the clay. It is unpredictable, unlike the gas oven, which gives a similar finish to the masks each time. With the wood oven the results depend on many factors. The temperature, the ashes, the weather, the position of where you place them inside the oven, etc. Generally the wood ovens go outside populated areas because they generate a lot of smoke.
When I was working with my girlfriend Meagan (who is also a ceramist and plastic artist)
in this collection of "Men of Clay", we went to a studio in Troy, New York to work with a wood oven called "Bruno". There we learned different techniques like the "Raku" and "Pit firing" techniques. In these workshops there are teachers who specialize in these types of ovens. They are built with special thermal bricks and galleys. They keep strict binnacles of each work the oven has had to learn how to predict the unpredictable. In New York City, for example, the gas ovens can be inside and are used for practical purposes like making plates and cups. However, for "Men of Clay" I was looking for anomalies, and the wood is ideal for this purpose. One day we did rustic burnings just like Native Americans used to do and still do in places like Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico. Outdoors, they would fill up a hole in the earth with broken ceramic and pieces they are going to burn, set it on fire and then put soil inside. Days later they dig them out.
What are the materials you use when you paint?
It's been a combination of things. I've used what I've had in hand; sometimes it's acrylic, oleum, some other spray, markers, ink, whatever I have. What is important is not to stop. Always look for new opportunities and work with what you have. If we wait to have everything we need, we would never create. A friend always used to tell me "Don't try to explain. If you wait to have an explanation of why you do something, you will never do it". So, we have to do it and explain it later. Many times it happens we modify the direction we want to take on the way. Sometimes what stops us from doing what we want are our own insecurities.
Do you have projects you have been very proud of?
Fortunately there have been several. I remember when we went to India with the Villalobos
Brothers, or Russia, those have been great experiences. Organizing "Men of Clay" in the South Bronx was also a great living experience. It was a very warm reception of many organizations in New York. Don Antonio Atizapa who is the father of one of the students who is still missing came to the exhibition. He became an activist after the disappearance of his son. He lives in New York and still fights to find the missing students. Photo Credit: Erik Almeida
It was very moving to hear him speak and to
be able to fight for his cause and
show this tremendous injustice to the world.
What have been your biggest challenges?
Not giving up. The letters without answer, investment of time, money and resources, they are all worth it. Your art is worthy because it exists, it is as simple as that. If a small circle of people appreciate your work, that is enough. I lived it with this project "Men of Clay". I remember that the night of the inauguration was very cold, it was almost snowing and part of the exposition was outdoors. I thought that no one was going to come due to the bad weather. Nevertheless, a lot of people showed up. Dancers, activists, journalists, artists, musicians and photographers all came to show their support. My friend Miguel Ángel Melchor, a painter, originally from Oaxaca, brought 43 paintings that he made of the 43 students who disappeared. He drove countless hours with his family, helped me out to set them up, paint the gallery and decorate the walls. Two friends of mine, photographers, Erik Almeida and Laura Alvarado also presented their graphic work and my beloved Meagan Van Ahn. The protest of this injustice only brought our community together. Our art will always be a vessel to fight for unjust causes wherever we are.
Photo Credit: Erik Almeida
If you could do something different than what you've done, what would it be?
I think I would have a different answer everyday. Today I am learning to speak the language of jazz. I have a passion for it and am playing with musicians to learn from them. That's the challenge, to learn different things and not stay with what you already know. Each instrument has a different voice and give you different ideas. The ideas I have with the guitar don't share the same ideas with the violin and viceversa. They compliment each other.
What is the phrase that describes Alberto the best?
I don't know if there is one, but I'd like to think there is an attitude that does. It is an attitude of introspection, search and personal drive. Miles Davis once said, "Don't be afraid of mistakes, there are none." and that has stayed with me. It is all in your head. Sometimes mistakes are the best opportunity to try something new and grow as a person.
What is the biggest lesson of your life?
I think it is not to take myself too seriously. Many artists and musicians I respect who I've had the pleasure to talk to share that lesson. Now that I am teaching I am trying to share it with my students. Kenny Werner, a great master of jazz, says, "We have to be capable of detaching ourselves from our ego in the creative moment, the person that judges at the time of creation to be able to flow with nature" We can all practice that regardless of age. Unfortunately, many institutions narrow a student´s field of vision with what it is "good" or "bad". I've had to re-learn the way I play and see music. We have to improve ourselves constantly and while many institutions don't encourage self-evaluation, they give us the information. We just have to learn it, repeat it and memorize it. It is when we create and experiment that we learn.
Do you have a fun fact?
I like the art of making a violin. I like the smell of the wood after it´s just brushed. I have a great respect to musicians that didn't go to school and for people who work with their hands. I remember the first violin I made fondly because I gave it to someone I loved very much. I made it under the instructions of Don Elfego Villegas, a great musician and teacher. In New York I made one called "The Carpenter" which I gave to my brother Ernesto because his violin had just been stolen after a concert in Brooklyn. Something I'd like to share with you is the moment when you first play your violin after months of making it. It's really magical because you don't know how the wood is going to "sing" . If you are a musician and you make your own instruments it is like completing a cycle. It is a mystical experience.
How do you use your art to improve the world?
I would like to think that I do it by creating spaces of coexistence and understanding. From my perspective each artistic entrepreneurship improves it. I think there is a positive force in any activity involving a creative process. There are also negative and destructive forces, but I think that if we keep a positive balance in our daily lives, we are good. The problem is when we spend time and energy in irrelevant projects. We all have an internal compass that shows us which way we should go. We just have to learn how to listen to it. Overall, I think that any space and activity that we use to let our creativity flow brings a positive force. It could be in the kitchen, the garden, etc. By being a creative daily, in a much larger scale we change the world for the better.
Thank you so much Alberto for inviting us to your studio and sharing with us your creative process. Please keep us updated with your concerts and best of luck in your future projects!
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