Intervista Luis Cobelo

a cura di Laura Albudanzi e Maria Elena Morelli studentesse di
fotografia presso l’Accademia di belle Arti di Bari

1. The ‘Afuera’ project started by observing people and making videos of simple gestures
they are performing on balconies, terraces, etc… in lockdown, and it all started with an
elderly gentleman walking on the terrace. Is there anything that particularly attracted you to
this elderly man? How did you immediately come up with the idea of making a video and
continuing the project in this way, and not just taking photographs?

2. Still referring to your Afuera project. What emotions did you feel observing these
people? Did you feel similar to any of them?
 
I think I started filming that old man because photography was going to remain at a
very elementary level and perhaps insufficient. The video makes it like a mantra, a
state of mind that connected and connected better with the people who saw it,
including me. At first, I felt sad to see that the pandemic had forced him to take
walks on the terrace that he normally did on the street. Then I identified myself
since we were all in the same situation. 

3. The ‘Gun Lovers’ project arose from observing an American tradition, namely the
passion for firearms. There is frequent talk of the numerous shootings and murders that
take place in the United States and often conceal debates precisely because the use of
guns is legal in certain regions of the United States. I have noticed that in your photos you
often depict children. What do you want to represent with that? A way to keep children
away from this reality or to convert them and bring them closer to that reality?
 
The children that appear in some of the photos are children of those who love guns
and go with them to that event like other parents take their children to the movies or
other types of recreation. Sometimes these children participate by shooting various
types of weapons together with their parents. They are used to them and will grow
up thinking that it is legal to carry them and that in the future they will be able to
acquire them.

4. Again with reference to the “Gun Lovers” project, you took as a reference the ritual of
the Machine Gun Shoot used in Kentucky. In reference to the times that surround us, with
all the wars around the world, do you think that even a simple use of guns to recall an old
ritual can recall and incite people to the use of violence?

Any possibility of a weapon near a human being is a possibility of violence.
The weapons by themselves represent an artifact that could not initially do harm if
not activated by the human being, capable of all possible evil.
In any case, it was manufactured in order to cause as much damage as possible,
again, by a human being.