EQUILIBRIUM

Time-lapse video

Footage and video shot while working

Techniques

I used Acrylic paint, Airbrushes, brushes and markers. For some elements I cut my own drawn stencils and applied masking-tape to mask the shapes. I used the computer to design some elements in 3D and then cut the stencils. As a final step I covered the entire mural with matte fixative to protect the it from UV lights, dust and time.

4 months of work

It took me four months to finish the mural. The time-lapse video shows the process and techniques that I used. As a nocturnal person I've been working mostly during the nights, in the autumn and winter season, which inspires and propels me.


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 Click on the panoramic photo to view a larger format  

 Perception and message behind EQUILIBRIUM

 

Iimagined the day that mankind would be able to go through the portal of destruction or of creation. At one side of the metaphor the man is living in an invented time, raising empires and destroying them as often as he pleases, using his own, against his own and any living thing, which have no say or voice and are forced to remain silent with no means to defend themselves. And others choose to pretend that nothing happens. These empires are dedicated to produce weapons, use weapons, explode bombs, destroy, contaminate, control and consume large excesses of resources from the planet, to feed their thirst for a sick power. There you find the man who is walking in circles accumulating richness, that he will never be able to bring with him in death, filling that void in his own being. But on the other side, hope invites us to visualize a compact civilization, connected travel through the universe in this great organic machine called Earth. She is our mother, our home, our library of all the accumulated knowledge we can get. She invites us to forget those human differences that do not exist, but are invented. And join in consciousness to create an ecosystem that allows us to interact with technology and nature. The woman has a crucial role in this next step, it is she who has always fed us and cultivated us and is by nature the protective mother of the family, and the foundation of the civilization. In her consciousness are the seeds for the continuation of our species, and its evolution where the balance of everything will be the key.
Jag föreställde mig dagen när mänskligheten skulle kunna gå genom portalen av förstörelse eller skapelse. På ena sidan av metaforen lever mannen i en påhittad tid, och skapar imperier och förstör dem så ofta som han behagar, och använder sina egna, mot sina egna och alla levande ting, som inte har någon röst och tvingas till tystnad utan möjlighet att försvara sig själva. Och andra väljer att låtsas som ingenting händer. Dessa imperier är dedikerade till att producera vapen, använda vapen, explodera bomber, förstöra, förorena, kontrollera, och konsumera stora överskott av resurser ifrån planeten, för att släcka sin törst efter en sjuk makt. Där hittar du mannen som vandrar i cirklar för att ackumulera rikedom, som han aldrig kommer att kunna ta med sig i döden, för att fylla tomheten i hans eget väsen. Men på andra sidan, inbjuder hoppet oss att visualisera en kompakt civilisation, ansluten till att resa genom universum i denna stora organiska maskin som kallas Jorden. Hon är vår moder, vårt hem, vårt bibliotek med all den samlade kunskap vi kan få. Hon inbjuder oss att glömma de mänskliga skillnader som inte finns, men är uppfunna. För att tillsammans i medvetandet skapa ett ekosystem som tillåter oss att interagera med teknologi och natur. Kvinnan har en avgörande roll i detta nästa steg, det är hon som alltid har matat oss och närt oss och som av naturen är den skyddande modern till familjen och grunden till civilisationen. I hennes medvetande ligger frön för fortsättningen av vår art och dess utveckling där balansen av allting kommer att vara nyckeln.

Percepción y mensaje detrás del mural pintado en la “Casa del Pueblo” “Folkets Hus” en Gotemburgo, Suecia, año 2014

Imaginé el día que el hombre será capaz de cruzar el portal de la creación o la destrucción. En una parte de la metáfora, el hombre vive en un tiempo inventado, levantando imperios y destruyéndolos tantas veces como le plazca. Usando a su especie, en contra de sus mismos y cualquier ser vivo, quienes no tienen voz ni voto y están forzados a permanecer en silencio sin poder defenderse. Y otros optan por pretender que nada pasa. Estos imperios están dedicados a contaminar, a producir armas, a usar armas, a explotar bombas, a destruir, a controlar y consumir grandes recursos del planeta, para satisfacer su sed de un poder insaciable. He ahí el hombre caminando en círculos acumulando riquezas que nunca se podrá llevar consigo a la hora de su muerte, tratando de llenar ese vació en su ser.

Pero por otra parte, la esperanza nos invita a visualizar una civilización compacta, conectada que viaja a través del universo mediante esta gran maquina orgánica llamada tierra. Ella es nuestra madre, nuestro hogar, nuestra biblioteca de todo el conocimiento acumulado que podamos obtener. Ella nos invita a olvidar esas diferencias humanas que no existen pero mas sin embargo son inventadas. Y ser parte de esta conciencia para crear un ecosistema que nos permita interactuar con la tecnología y la naturaleza. La mujer tiene un papel crucial en el próximo paso, ella es la que siempre nos ha alimentado, cultivado y es por naturaleza la madre protectora de la familia y la fundación de la civilización. En su conciencia están las semillas para la continuación de nuestra especie y la evolución en donde el equilibrio del todo será la llave.

Descargar PDF, Ingles y Español. Click: Equilibrium-Reflexión SP-EN 


 

Interviews in Swedish newspapers related to my work

Entrevistas y artículos en periódicos suecos relacionados a mi trabajo artístico

New artwork

Article on the website of the People´s Community Center (Folkets Hus Göteborg) 
http://folketshusgoteborg.se/nyheter/konst-pagar/

A new mural by the Mexican artist Rommel Valenzuela was inaugurated at ‘Folkets hus’ in Gothenburg on the 31st of January. The piece of art that now adorns one of the cultural center’s walls had been commissioned by the People´s Community Centre. It was Rommel Valenzuela who was commissioned to create art on a wall. The artwork was inaugurated on Friday, January 31st. Rommel Valenzuela was born on February 5, 1982 and got his Master’s Degree in Graphic Design in Mexico in 2004. In 2009, he began working as a Graphic designer for a company based in Gothenburg, where he designed graphics for touchscreen user interfaces. In 2012 and 2013 he studied a Master in 3D digital sculpting in Madrid, in one of the most recognized universities in digital art in Spain. He is a multidisciplinary artist who has previously made individual and collective exhibitions in Mexico, with both audiovisual installations and paintings. He has been interviewed in both Mexican TV and radio several times about his art. He produces digital music, works with 3D modeling, illustration and traditional art techniques.


Interview with Göteborgs-Posten Två Dagar Newspaper

ROMMEL VALENZUELA – Artist who thinks outside the box

 

When I was a little boy my dad once told me to paint a picture of something. He sat in front of me so I painted a portrait of him. I did it in an abstract way, him being inside a mouth of a frog that was in the mouth of a large tiger. I was eight years old and realized that there is a connection between my mind and my hands. When I discovered Dadaism and surrealist artists, such as Salvador Dali and Joan Miró, I identified with their way of expressing themselves. I am stimulated by thinking outside of the box and to distort reality in order to create metaphors. There are many things that inspire me to create, but music is probably the most significant. Good music makes me dream, travel, and to lose track of time and space. I grew up with Pink Floyd, Jean Michel Jarre, Kitaro and world music. I also like Scandinavian music. It was actually the reason for me coming to Sweden the first time around.

I participated in an exchange program when I was 23 years old and chose the town Rättvik when I heard that it was a great place for folk music.

In Sweden, I found a place to develop. When I was told that the People´s Community Centre in Gothenburg was looking for artists to do a mural I sent my portfolio. I came by the centre and looked at the wall and then they asked me to do a sketch. Two weeks later, I presented my idea to them. They liked what they saw and gave me green light. It felt very exciting. The People´s Community Centre in Gothenburg is a special place and I have put my soul into this painting. I find it easy to lose myself in what I do and I couldn’t tell how many hours I’ve worked on it. My sketch was one meter long and the wall is eleven. In Mexico, I have created visual installations and had my own exhibitions but this is the largest public painting that I have ever made. The mural is about balance. I like to imagine the future and to express my vision of what happens to human beings and society. Right now we live in a patriarchal age. Society discriminates against women, we drain the Earth’s resources and use technology in a way that could destroy us. But if we would find a balance between nature and technology, we could create a portal to a better future. Our civilization could then reach as far as it is possible. Artist and designer Rommel Valenzuela has painted an eleven meters long surrealist mural inside The People´s Community Centre at Järntorget in Gothenburg. It was inaugurated on 31st of January and the curious will find the painting in the stairwell on the fourth floor. Journalist: Amanda Lindberg


 Interview with Metro Newspaper

In the night art is created

Click on the photo to read the interview in Swedish     The muralist from Mexico gives new life to walls in Gothenburg, Sweden. The artist Rommel Valenzuela likes to work at night time. – The tram home at four in the morning, it’s a special feeling, he says. Like last winter, when he made a large mural inside the People’s Community Center in Gothenburg. A 30 square meters big mural, with a theme appreciated by the labor movement. That money and exploitation of the planet´s resources come with a price for humans, nature and the animals. But paint cans and brushes inside a stairwell in an office …it does not work perfectly. Not if people at the same time should be there and work. So Rommel Valenzuela used to go there in the evenings. – When everyone had gone home, I arrived, he says. He did not take paints and other materials along with him back and forth. He kept them in a cupboard inside the People’s Community Center. Then he showed up in the evenings, with his creativity and thoughts. Things that are easy to transport on the tram.

Moved here

Rommel is from Chiapas, Mexico. He came here the first time in 2005 to participate in a volunteer conference with the organization Peace Works.

Graphic Designer

He had already finished his artistic studies, when he moved here. In addition to painting and digital sculpture, he studied graphic design. But as a newly arriven in town, he had to do a bit of everything. Dishwasher, carpenter in the building industry and more. And although it may seem like far away to take care of the dishwasher in a restaurant to find the jobs he studied for, this was exactly what happened. Rommel got a job as a carpenter at a company that built special tables with built-in touchscreen technology. Then, one day, he got a chance to sit down in front of the computer. “Show me what you can do,” said the CEO. – It went very well. He had to take off his overall and continue with the company’s graphic design work instead. Now he hopes to get more jobs with murals. Maybe some more traveling with the night tram to some place where a grey wall in a building needs a new life?
– I’ll be happy to, says Rommel.

Journalist: Thomas Drakenfors


Interview with Kultur i Väst

The region of West Sweden´s cultural administration
http://www.kulturivast.se/konst/rommel-valenzuela-muralmalare-med-harmoni-och-balans
  Captura de pantalla 2014-10-13 a la(s) 13.16.51
Rommel Valenzuela – Muralist of harmony and balance

The mural on the fourth floor of the People´s Community Centre in Gothenburg is gigantic. It is eleven meters wide and measures nearly three meters in height. Details are intermingled with large design. We are faced with intense colors in an almost dreamy image. On Thursday, April 24th, the artist Rommel held a presentation about his painting.

– One can truly say that I have put my soul into this work. It has  taken me four months of full-time work to complete it but I’m happy, he says when we visit the People’s Community Centre. He has painted the whole picture freehand, using brushes and airbrush. A curtain was stretched up to protect others from the paint, so he only had one and a half meters distance from the wall. This meant that he had not yet seen the painting from a distance, but has been forced to be close and paint the small details. But since he enjoys painting smaller details, the narrow perspective suited him perfectly. It’s the first time he has painted such a large mural, and there lies an enormous amount of work behind this gigantic painting which contains three main tracks. One moment, where we are currently, the grim, harsh reality. That part looks industrial. We live in a very technologically advanced society, but we make use of  technology in an erroneous way – for instance by producing and selling weapons. We actually have all the prerequisites for a good life, but do not seem to have the ability to create a good society. In the center Rommel has painted the crossing, which we are facing, and is beginning to bear traces of a more organic society. Then, if we want, we have the future. The vision. Matriarchy. That’s where we need to go. – This is my vision, my view of our world. We cannot continue as we have done in the past. We only repeat ourselves through history. I believe in a matriarchy, there were good examples of it in ancient Egypt, and it’s time for a new era, a new age. As I see it, the matriarchy accounts for the new and different lifestyle. That’s what I want to communicate through this painting. We need to create a more balanced world.

Communicates through art

I assert that the painting is very political, despite its dreamy, utopian expression. The hope is for the women, matriarchy is clearly visible. Rommel agrees that the painting and his art can be seen as political, even if it is not his purpose. – I don’t belong to a political faction, but it’s important for me to visualize what I feel and what I see happening around me. To communicate this image is what my art is all about. The mural on the People’s Community Center is like one big world full of details, which is composed of many smaller worlds. Just like in real life. – This world is made up of many smaller worlds, but we only have one Earth and we must take care of it.

Multifaceted artist

Rommel Valenzuela does not feel the need to create a signature artwork – a clear design that would make people instantly recognize his work. If I would have to find a common denominator however, it could be that he likes bright colors. – This particular mural is a metaphor for the world. I like metaphors and what they can convey. I have my vision, what I want to express, and then it is up to the viewers’ own interpretations, what they envision in the future or see in the present. If they can see any hope or not. Rommel is a man full of surprises, something evident in his interest in different creative disciplines such as photography, graphic design and music. – I enjoy working in different fields. Sometimes I want to take a picture, in  another moment, I feel like creating music. To move between different expressions means a lot of freedom and I like having that independence, the important thing is to express whatever is inside me. That I can convey what I want to communicate. Rommel is interested in numerology and geometry. His mural in the People’s Community Center contains several examples of that. – It’s fun to play with both numerology and geometry and I spent a lot of time to figure out and paint the geometric shapes. The painting is full of geometric shapes and symbols, each with a specific purpose: to create balance. During my presentation, I will go through how I have thought, he says.

Street art

We get into the topic of street art and art in public spaces. Rommel Valenzuela thinks many artists are inspired by Banksy and his style and are attracted to the rebel in being anonymous and go out and paint on walls. – Anyone painting on a wall can not be considered an artist, but it’s an interesting phenomenon. I like street art but prefer to paint a scenery opposed to traditional graffiti. I want to see a message, a sense that you are trying to create a certain feeling. It’s okay if the painting is only decorative, but if you paint in the public domain, I think you can try to create something more, given that you have the opportunity to reach a different audience than those who normally go to the museum. Preferably, he would like them to engage in mural painting. The first mural was made in Rommel’s home country, Mexico, and one of the prominent figures in the genre, is the Mexican artist Diego Rivera. What is significant for a mural is that it tells a story. – Muralism has a clearer connection to other people and to society. Making a mural is to write and share another story, so you have to know what you’re talking about. It is a complex project where you have to be aware of what you communicate and how you express yourself. One should, for example, be careful with the use of symbols, as they can have a different meaning than what you originally intentended. You share your thoughts with the audience and you get their thoughts in return. It’s an act of communication.

Journalist: Anneli Abrahamsson


 

Opening January 31st, 2014

 Opening on the 31st of January, 2014, by the President of the People´s Community Centre in Gothenburg, Mats Gröndahl and the President of the Region of West Sweden’s Cultural Advisory Board, Alex Bergström.

 

 

Workflow

Studying the area

studyying the area

Checking the place

I went to visit the place and began to think of how the elements can fit in the environment, observing it from different points of view and where people enter and leave.

Observing the angles and start to imagine

I didn't know what I wanted to paint and how it would be until I started to visualize the message that I wanted to leave on the wall.


Sketch

Sketch scale 1:100 drawn with graphite on satin paper

1m x 30 cm

SKETCH


Perspective

Tracing perspective on the wall

Fundamentals of perspective drawn

Fundamentals of perspective drawn

Tracing the perspective to achieve the deep deepness that I wanted to mark.

Parallel perspective

Parallel perspective

I thought that it would be really helpful to use threads to trace the parallel perspective in a large scale.


 

Geometry and Kinetica

Explanation of the geometry workflow and the numerology behind the mural

 

 Numerology • Pythagoras and other philosophers of the time believed that because mathematical concepts were more “practical” (easier to regulate and classify) than physical ones, they had greater actuality. St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354–430) wrote “Numbers are the Universal language offered by the deity to humans as confirmation of the truth”. Similar to Pythagoras, he too believed that everything had numerical relationships and it was up to the mind to seek and investigate the secrets of these relationships or have them revealed by divine grace. 11, 22, 33,… are commonly referred to as “master numbers”. wikipedia/Numerology

 

Geometry of balance

 

numbers used in the geometry

Numbers used in the geometry of balance

I have used 5.5, 11, 22, 33 and 44 to create this geometry. Those numbers where used almost in the whole composition of the mural.

Geometry of balance

The gear that contains the seeds of nature crossing the portal of creation.

 

Numbers behind the portal of destruction and creation

numbers

Numbers used in the portal of destruction

I have used specific numbers in the mural such as 11, 22, 33, 44 all to achieve the balance that I wanted in the composition. It was very interesting to play with numbers behind. Sometimes I automatically got the same numbers in the distance between elements by pure coincidence during the process of my work, which confirmed that those numbers had to be there and it wasn't only my own choice.

Numbers used in the portal of creation

The same numbers of elements were used in the portal of creation. The whole composition has the same numbers of elements, which creates balance and symmetry. In other words it's like the night would never have existed if the light does not exist.

Triangle forming the gate of creation

triangle copy

Structure and optical illusion

 

optical illustion structure

optical illusion 2

The portal of creation completed by the reflexion of the door

 

 

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