Hello, let’s see, talk to you from the simple.
From the basics. From what motivates me.
From what one way or another,
it makes me own my life
since I have use of reason.
I have always been that annoying of the house
Irreverent, misunderstood, crazy, gafo, immature …
And all those people who in one way or another
in school he criticized me
or the block annoyed me
today in 2017 they say: “That’s my pana”.
And it’s cool, not because of an ego theme
but for a simple subject
to understand that simplicity falls in love.
For me, simplicity falls in love,
simplicity is absolutely everything.
It is to arrive at a place and present yourself as you are.
It’s getting to a place and simply,
get naked in front of the person
that you want me to know you
It’s just giving him the opportunity
to the people who have the criteria
to accept or reject you
It’s no use filling up with makeup,
filled with follies, ideas, strategies, not real
to get a person’s attention,
when in the end you will take out your true caste
and you will generate a rejection
in whoever it is, that you have in front.
In my life, everything you know,
if they know anything about my life,
it has been a product of being simple,
to be direct, to be honest.
To be Donaldo Barros since I’m a child.
That’s why “Historias de un vecino” was born.
Stories of a neighbor, born in 2004,
in the university, without being called “Stories of a neighbor”.
A photography teacher says let’s go outside
to do a field work
and I chose to take pictures of people who lived on the street,
destitute and others.
And he said no, because you could not,
“Because the photo to the homeless,
I was going to get more attention, and that was not the idea.
Call attention from misery, blah, blah, blah. “
I said; “I want to take the picture, I want to do that work”
And he told me: No.
-Yes. -Do not.
-Yes. -Do not.
-Yes. -Yes, if you do, I may put you 0.
-Well, yes, I do it right, you put me 19 or 20.
And the guy said “okay”.
I went to the street, walk a whole boulevard
from Chacaíto, to Sabana Grande,
Until Fine Arts, I do not remember.
And I went getting people with whom I sat down.
With which I was growing.
With which I was listening
and I understood that he was not the destitute, but that he was a person.
A person who has a story
A person that like all of us who are here,
We have a story to tell.
This was the photo I made to Muriel in 2004.
And today they tell me “Those stories of yours
of a neighbor, brother, they are brutal; they are incredible.
How do you do them? “I do not do anything.
First, they are not my stories,
I simply listen to them, transcribe them,
I take a picture and I communicate them.
And second, it’s a direct attention call
so that we understand that we are all part of a context.
That we do not have the right to be arrogant
and to think that nothing of what happens to us around
It is underestimated.
That in one way or another
yes we open our hearts a little,
we can fall in love, truly
of what we are, what we have
and what we want to be.
And that’s Stories from a neighbor.
“Stories of a neighbor” is to realize that you are part of something.
And besides, I’m not the pioneer in this.
They do this in many parts of the world.
After doing this,
a lot of unhealthy people
He approached me and said, you are copying from I do not know who.
— Do not know him! – You’re copying.
— Do not know him! – But you’re copying.
It is not the idea!
It is that in one way or another,
one has the need to communicate.
And communication comes from a lifetime.
Now since 2014 with social networks,
and with the amount of people who followed me on my Instagram account,
I said “Let’s take advantage of this window
to inspire people to stop thinking
who is the person who has the front,
without even greeting her.
Maybe he’s interested in who the neighbor is. “
Who is the one who lives in the 1st floor? Who is the one who lives in the 6th floor?
Who is the lady who screams.
That at least ask him his name.
Let him know that it exists.
And that also that person knows
that this one who does not want to know anything about the world, also exists.
And I started doing interviews.
I went with my camera, my bundle everywhere.
“Hi, what’s your name? How old are you? What do you do?
Tell me what are you doing? Give me an advice.
What do you think about life?
What do you think of the values?
What would you like to tell a lot of people
If you had the opportunity to give them advice?
And people like it says “I exist.”
And it’s brutal.
It’s amazing, seeing something so basic falls in love.
That something as simple as “mucho gusto”, falls in love.
That a sincere “I love you”, falls in love.
That is my dream, to live in a society
where a hug is not to bend to anyone.
Living in a society where a “I love you” or a “I love you”
Do not be inferior to anyone.
I am romantic, super romantic.
I am one of those who cries for love,
I wrote a book of stories and essays called
“I want to draw a kiss of yours”.
Because I believe in love
and I believe in friendship, and I believe in the human being.
Although every day, they are screaming at me everywhere
I have to stop believing.
I am stubborn, I am very stubborn to believe.
And it’s not poetry, it’s true.
They can investigate it and see it wherever they want.
Stories of a neighbor has a quantity
of faces they do not know.
This is a Bhutan, a country between China and India,
I went to last year, and I had the fortune to document.
And I did not lose the opportunity to make Stories of a neighbor.
People with a very different culture,
but with a basic principle that the human being has,
to be repeated with the people who were interviewing in Caracas,
and in Bhutan they told me the same thing but in another language.
That they had to translate me because it is impossible.
But in the end they said the same thing, values, to grow
Believe, love, share …
The human being wants that.
And it can not be that there are so many people
with the possibility of doing things well.
So many people with the possibility of being happy
and decides not to be.
What is that?
We are going to be happy!
Do not overdo it!
(Laughter)
I do not know about you
Security!
(Laughter)
But let’s be happy, from the basics.
Do not confuse happiness with that incoherent laughter
but happy with simply communicating and being part of something.
Imagine a neighbor’s stories as people:
Cruz Diez, Lorenzo [Mendoza], Edgar [Ramírez].
Normal people, who with criterion and with rigor
He took over his life.
That they say to those people or that they say to me
or those who have set up here,
or sure to many examples that are below,
that things are not possible.
Of course they are possible!
Whenever you identify what you are good at,
because I’m sorry to tell you that not everything is possible
and it is important to know, to assimilate it.
Not everything is possible.
But if you identify that you are good at something,
the possibility of touching the infinite, it is possible,
super possible.
Thanks to photography, I have been on the street
a lot of time in my life,
taking pictures of people, portraits, listening to stories
and knowing structures.
I have been for many years,
I take pictures of the structures, I’m a fan of the lines.
Of the patterns and others.
And a couple of years ago, a friend tells me:
“You realize what you’re doing
geometric abstraction, kinetism … “
And I eat?”
-Yes, with the photographs.
-Yes, in the Cruz Diez workshop they told me something like that.
-No no. Come here.
He took me an example of Cruz Diez,
an example of Soto, an example of Agam,
one from Le Parc, one from Vasarely.
He put pictures of me beside these examples,
and they had coincidences and I was surprised.
And I began consciously investigating what I was doing unconsciously.
And I opened a world with galleries, museums, collectors worldwide.
And a name was created based on my work as a Venezuelan,
which is called “streetnetic”.
(Applause)
The name was created from that work
that is born from the simple, that what is there is born.
Because my art workshop, the workshop that I use to make art,
it is the street, it is the sun, it is the shadow, it is the schedule.
It’s the street. That is my workshop to make art.
This is an example.
And this work I did on a Sunday
and on Wednesday, a collector bought it.
That’s right, because you believe in what you are doing.
Because you simplify and do not think
if he took this photo in this way, surely he will like the man who is there,
so I have to do it like that because his tastes …
Then you are already sabotaging the training process
the creative process …
And you are removing the true elements to your work
That in the end, and I tell you from the bottom of my heart, and I sign them with blood:
Simpleness falls in love.
I am what I am: Donaldo Barros.
I do not know what you think of me.
But I am what I am, because I am simple.
Because I say “I love you”. Because I hug.
Because I take care of my dog. Because I pick up my dog’s things.
Because I live my life seriously, being as simple as possible.
And that has generated terrible confusion
in the people with whom I surround myself.
At some point they thought I was not doing anything, that I was crazy because I rapped,
because I’m a FIFA agent, because I write,
because I make a lot of things and I dominate the soccer ball.
I spend my time playing soccer and such.
“This guy is wasting time.”
I’m being happy
I’m being faithful. To me. Without hurting anyone.
Without thinking that I have to take someone out for me to emerge.
No, if I emerge, you emerge, we all emerge.
Why does there have to be a single photographer?
One artist Why are not we 15?
Why are not we 20?
When you are truly good at something,
You are not afraid of competition.
And it’s something that I tell everyone.
Stop competing in an unhealthy way.
Support, share the knowledge
so that knowledge makes sense.
You ask me how I do the photo.
I’m teaching you, there it is.
Now, what optical use? What speed or contrast do I use?
Practice, understanding, madness …
Things that happen to you like when you kiss.
You know what I’m talking about.
(Laughter)
You know well.
Of this building, pum, a work.
And this work, this or another …
Take her to this. And see it and touch it.
And to know that nowadays
I have my production center outside, in Madrid.
Where I can move my work worldwide.
Being Venezuelan, telling the whole world
that through photography, I’m generating something,
that in one way or another
It captures the attention of many people, being Venezuelan.
Simple, street, walker, honest,
Someone stand in front and tell me:
“Donaldo, you can not”.
Gentlemen, you can.
Because simplicity falls in love, I tell you.
When you’re in a relationship, and you start thinking about him, if I tell him or not, I’ll tell him.
In the apartment, if not that if the ring, if it is cheap or is very expensive …
Bye. Bye!
While at the moment you say:
“My life, I just love you.”
That is for life.
I believe in the “for life”.
I believe in forgiveness, in love, in reflection.
I believe in simplicity, in art, in my country.
I believe in my friends, I believe in asking to learn.
I do not believe in believing without asking.
I believe in that you have to believe first and then you can see.
I do not believe in that “you have to see to believe”.
I think you have to have faith, to be able to see.
Because I’m not coincidence.
I am causality of my work, of my effort,
Of my credibility, of having surrounded myself with wonderful people
And also having surrounded myself with people who have hurt me a lot.
And it has taught me to understand,
It’s up to me to be simple in the search for the answer.
And be people. Because before being an artist, footballer, FIFA agent, writer and others,
I am people
And know that this kinetic work you see there,
This gentleman comes, Cruz Diez and he tells you in Paris:
“You turned the kinetic eye.”
– Through master photography?
-Very good the truth, I congratulate you.
And that this man, with his team, two years ago
invited me to his workshop, at ArtiCruz in Panama
and he said “Welcome!”
How do I tell you that simplicity does not make you fall in love?
Yes I showed myself simply as I am.
And that these people, as well as you,
as well as my friends, like my family, like the people next to me,
He has said “Welcome” to their lives, to their ways.
Its contrasts, its colors, its searches.
To his idiosyncrasies, to his gentile, to his pardons.
To his mistakes, to his successes.
Gentlemen, simplicity falls in love!
Simpleness falls in love.
Fall in love
Be simple
I assure you that you will not regret it.
Be simple, of course.
Thank the glass with water.
Thank the kiss.
Thank the rejection.
Simplify yourself
And I assure you that they will live much calmer.
Goodnight.
(Applause)
”
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