David de La Mano | Interview

We recently talked to David de La Mano about his experience at Memorie Urbane 2014 Street Art Festival, about his work and collaborations. Enjoy an exclusive interview for The re:art.

You were a guest of this year’s edition of Memorie Urbane street art festival in Italy, where you painted several murals and also collaborated with Pablo Herrero and E1000. Can you tell us more about these recent murals and your experience at the festival? What did you enjoy most?

Painting at Memorie Urbane 2014 has been a great experience for me, as I had the opportunity to meet in person artists who I like and interest me, and also spend time with other artists and share experiences with them.

David de La Mano in Gaeta/ Photo: Flavia Fiengo

I met E1000 in Madrid, a few days before the festival started. It was only a quick collaboration, but it was a pleasure for me and, above all, a pleasure to get to know him.

David de La Mano and E1000 in Terracina/ Photo: Arianna Barone

With Pablo, I painted the 4 sides of a tower in Porto Badino (Terracina), an idyllic enclave. It was a great effort in a short time but I think the result was worth it. We had the idea, and we really wanted to do it.

David de La Mano and Pablo Herrero in Porto Badino/ Photo: Blind Eye Factory

I enjoyed most the contact with the people.

View the works of David de La Mano, Pablo Herrero and E1000 from Week 1

View the works of David de La Mano, Pablo Herrero and E1000 from Week 2

For most of your murals, you collaborate with Pablo Herrero. When did you start working together and in what way do you feel Pablo completes your work?

Certainly, lots murals have been painted together with Pablo. We’ve known each other for many years, studied together, at art school, university and degree courses (which we concluded). We also began to paint together and since then it has been very easy. Pablo S. Herrero is a great artist and has very clear ideas and I think his work and mine complete each other very well.

Cargo – with Pablo Herrero, 2014

Transit – with Pablo Herrero, 2013

Contraindicación – with Pablo Herrero, 2012

You often depict human silhouettes, either an individual profile or masses of people. Do the individual profiles represent man today who has lost touch with his roots, while the masses of people seem to represent the primitive man, the ancestral memory that still survives inside us? What is the relationship between the two, if there is any?

Through these figures, whether men or women, I try to represent the ways we perceive the world. They are mimetic representations, but also recognizable. I use the figure of man, woman, or the masses as narrative metaphors.

The most important acts have been carried out by human groups where the sum of forces helped to achieve impossible goals for an individual.

Trasciende, 2013

Testamento, 2013

You connect your characters to nature. What do the trees attached to the silhouettes symbolize and what is their place in the urban landscape? Is it an effort to make people more conscious about their way of living and who they are?

Undoubtedly, man is one with nature, and every time I collaborate with Pablo S. Herrero we establish a relationship with nature.

This relationship has many faces, sometimes it is reflective, sometimes positive and hopeful, and sometimes critic. We always propose an open look, with different interpretations, not trying to offer a discourse or a statement, but rather a suggestion, a question.

Silvanus – with Pablo Herrero, 2012

Síndrome del espejo – with Pablo Herrero, 2012

Is the circle a perfect shape for you? Or is it a vortex of people? Why does this motif recur in your works?

The circle has many connotations, undoubtedly. The circle is closed, it represents the world, the eye, the ego, the hole, cycles etc.

It also repeats its own magnetism, once you’ve painted the circle it is hard to leave it, no?

Vórtice, 2013

What do you find most fascinating, in a good and/ or bad way, at human behavior today?

The behavior of the masses is really amazing. Together, rational individuals are capable of achieving incredible things, through the power of collaboration and the positive, although this power is sometimes destructive and terrible.

Otoño – with Pablo Herrero, 2012

Name a contradiction you noticed about today’s society. Do you believe contrasts may help people better understand things or distort them even more?

We live in a society full of contradictions, but it is also an amazing moment in history when the voice of the people is greater than ever, and when free individuals work together to achieve things that a few years ago we could only dream of.

El tunchi, 2012

Emboscada, 2013

Where will your next mural be painted? What are your future plans?

The next mural will be painted in a couple of days, again with Pablo, for the Bloop Festival in Ibiza, then in Montevideo.

Future plans… to paint.

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Learn more about the artist on his blog, on Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Flickr.