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My name is JosÈ Emilio Fuentes Fonseca.
Iím 33 years old.
I live in Buena Vista, where I call myself the mayor of culture.
I work here and live here...I do everything.
I do a combination of painting and sculpting, always on the theme of infancy, childhoodÖ
maybe itís a little naÔve?
I donít think itís naÔve, but well, itís got a little bit of naivety in it,
and what I do is manipulate childrenís language into an adult language;
and so, the sculpture starts to take on another level, because Iím making my toys in a natural size,
yet which look like theyíre made for a child. Now though, now I'm a bit older so I'll make them a bit bigger.
And basically I create a symbol, with everything I do.
Infancy, as a subject within my work,
I really discovered it a year before I graduated from middle school,
when I was wondering what I would graduate with.
And well, I started making this poster for an advertising compaign I wanted to do,
which involved collecting toys from around the country to donate to Cubans who are more in need.
And, after studying and studying I started to make a train.
Since I was little I always admired one of my neighbours,
whose dad was a mechanic and used to make him toys.
He had pliers, saws, hammers, and I decided that one day Iím going to get all that and Iím going to make my own toys.
I then realised Iíd found what I wanted to talk about, through art.
And itís really effective, because we were all children once,
and we're all familiar with the language of children, even though we don't use it every day, but it's there.
We all used to draw as a child, because we were all kids,
so, adapting myself to the language of children
has enabled me to talk about very serious things,
very big things, very important things,
but always with the tenderness of a child, you know.
And I definitely have the background to base it on,
which is what happened to me when I lost my fingers.
My brother found thisÖ in a load of gravel, he found this firework,
and he brought it home, and when he got here he said that this is a Bengal ñ a firework ñ
and I was running around the house when one day, I decided to pick at it to see what was inside,
and when I did, it exploded and it took my fingers off.
But what happened to me has happened to hundreds of kids, I mean, it shouldn't, you know,
but children always have this inherent danger, this great danger, during childhood;
this negligence that comes from the child's own innocence, from the parents, and from society itself.
As for my work, yes, itís undergone an aesthetic change since I started.
For example, I used to make lots of toys with objects I found, rubbish and stuff.
Now, Iíve discovered new possibilities with new materials,
such as metal, steel plating, now that I discovered itÖ these are inflated metals;
I fitted new tyres to the car, which didnít have inner tubes,
and I said ìif this can be inflated without an inner tube, I can just seal metal and put a valve on itî.
And just like that, it worked, and I was given the ability to use such a hard material like steel,
to make it seem like plastic, which can be manipulated as though it were some other material, you know.
At first I didnít do it on purpose, but now itís become part of my work, the whole concept of a vacuumÖ
so weíre also talking about something which was incorporated through material itself,
and the shape, and the way itís made, you know.
This is where works are produced, as in the neighbourhood you can do everything.
If you need something for plumbing, carpentry, whatever you need, you can get it right here in the neighbourhood.
So, production comes from the ëhood.
And itís a way of keeping up to date with whatís happening out and about.
I get to the corner, which is my favourite spot, and thereís everything going on.
When Iím working on a piece, it usually goes out on the sidewalk or the street, like theyíre doing now;
it's like, always maintaining a cycle of exposure for the neighbourhood.
And up to now my most popular piece is the horse, which is a piece Ö I havenët exposed yet.
Itís a dialogue between a horse and a lamb, itís all symbolic;
the horse is a symbol of power, and the lamb is a symbol of the people, itís a dialogue between the two.
My job is to work, to produce.
To me, I really believe an artist is like a ìchorizoî maker,
only our chorizo has a different value on the market,
and the only thing left for us artists is to work and to be consistent with the work of anyone else.