Jorge

Chamorro

Jorge Chamorro's collages are constructed using surreal elements, showcasing a remarkable combination of form and structure. Each composition invites viewers to embark on a voyage, culminating in a narrative that we are invited to interpret. On numerous occasions, Chamorro strategically displaces the central figures from the portraits and interjects or redirects them with extraneous elements, thereby reframing the focus. The collages inherently exude an intriguing enigma, encouraging a deeper, more contemplative engagement.

"If there is one thing that defines my work, both in design and in collage and teaching, it is simplicity. When I feel I've done a good job, it's always come out simple, direct, clear. Even without intending it, it comes out that way. There is a type of art, of design — and of everything — that seems very difficult to make, that seems to be put on a pedestal, inaccessible to mortals. There is another that makes you think what a simple thing to do, that anyone could do it, and that positions itself more at ground level. Although I can delight in the first type, it is the second that interests me, it is where I see myself.

Of course, there is a fine line between simple and bland, between direct and superficial, between clear and crude. But that makes it more complicated — paradoxically — and more interesting, and that fine line is the tightrope I like to walk. My aim is to achieve the simplest possible discourse and visualization with as much conceptual depth as possible.

Designing is problem solving, so the simpler the final solution, the more complex and profound the process of arriving at that solution. I am interested in communication that integrates people, not that which separates them. That something can reach the hipster in London and the baker on the corner. I like the simple life, so why would I like complicated communication? Collage making is also very much connected to simplicity. You don't need big displays or great technical knowledge to make collage. I'm interested in the idea of working with limitations, with few resources."

"I don't have an obsession with any particular material. I can work with ancient relics or a photo from yesterday's newspaper. In general, books inspire me more than magazines, but you never know where the images will appear that will make you want to cut them up. That's part of the mystery of collage. I also don't work on any particular theme, so one day a nude photo might catch my eye, the next a landscape, the next a coffee pot. And the same magazine or the same book may not attract the eye today and tomorrow it will.I usually get the material from street markets or second-hand shops. Berlin is a paradise for collage material, because there are many places to buy and the prices are usually good."

"I don't like to make collage for collage's sake, I have to feel a deep calling somehow.I don't work on specific subjects. I never say to myself: 'today I'm going to work on love', for example. I just start looking at my books, turning pages, until something catches my attention, without even asking myself why it catches my attention. And then I look for the perfect partner. And try and try until something surprises me. That's my only strategy, besides good music and cigarettes: whatever I do has to surprise me. I have to instantly fall in love with what I've done. And the following days I go back to it to make sure it wasn't a passing infatuation. I never paste the images at night, during the creative ecstasy, I wait until the morning, to have a more analytical look. I usually spend a lot of time with the work until I paste it. I look at it from close up, from far away, I put it on the floor and walk around the collage. A lot of times I also take photos, look at them on my screen, big, small..."

"Looking back, I think my professional life has been quite faithful to the passions I had since my earliest childhood, which are shapes, stories and the human being. In design, collage and teaching I encounter each and every one of these things, and my earliest memories are of living in fantasy. My world was adventure films, Westerns and Lieutenant Blueberry comics.

Years later it was time to choose what to be in this life, and I thought that in graphic design I could somehow combine that inexplicable attraction for shapes and visuals with an interest in human beings and stories. So I studied Audiovisual Communication and then I started working as a designer, first as an employee and then as a freelance. And until now. And with the satisfaction of having combined all my childhood interests much more than I could have thought when I decided to start in design, and then came collage, in the silliest way, without any major pretensions. Or I was looking for another form of expression, and was not aware of it. The fact is that the first time was a real epiphany.

I remember as if it were yesterday the first night I made collage. I couldn't stop, I was absolutely bewitched. I already knew the nights of bewitchment with design, with which I had — and still have — a great time, but that time I discovered the power of paper, the energy of working with my hands, the joy of impossible combinations and the freedom of not having to be accountable to anyone. And once again all my interests that I had been pursuing since childhood came together."

Jorge Chamorro was born in 1972 in Madrid, Spain. He is currently based between Madrid and Berlin.