Today we are with Josu Trincado, Venezuelan circus performer and audiovisual producer, I invite you to know a little of this artist, enjoy!
Astrid: What artistic work have you developed throughout your life?
Josu: Throughout my life I have done several artistic works, I started in painting, drawing, then I jumped to photography, video and then I entered the circus area, and I do a little bit of everything.
Astrid: Which branch of art do you most identify with?
Josu: Well, I think I identify myself with any branch of art that is visual, I am a very visual person, I like everything that is visual, that’s why I started with drawing, painting, photos, videos and I try to do that, like painting with everything I do, in fact when I juggle, in my mind I am always drawing the figure that the patterns make, in my mind I am always drawing the figure that the patterns make, when a person juggles enters the world of numerology, you realize that everything is drawing, really all the throws and all the times that you are doing is to draw a figure, what I identify myself with the most is the drawing.
Astrid: Do you think you can achieve a fusion between all the artistic work you do?
Josu: Well, fortunately I believe that I can merge everything I do in art. Yes, as for drawing and painting, I design my own costumes, I draw the patterns, everything just as I want to be dressed in the show, I also spent a lot of time in conservatories and learning in the musical area and I try to edit my own songs for the show of El Avispao (my character) with my own music, When I dedicate myself to photos and videos, right now I’m doing photography and video with respect to the circus, because as an artist, it happens that you present yourself millions of times and you receive millions of audiovisual materials and 90 percent of them are useless, because it doesn’t help me to have my picture taken when I drop my nail (laughs), so I feel that I have achieved a fusion between all the arts that I do and yes.
Astrid: Have you participated in
forums or exhibitions?
Josu: Well, I am not much of a forum participant or anything like that, I am a person of few words but the only time I participated in forums was when the national network of circus art was being activated here in Venezuela, that was in 2014 / 2015 that forums were made in the UNEARTE (Fine Arts) for the university to accept to include circus with a curriculum and one could graduate as a circus artist from the University of the Arts.
Astrid: Do you belong to any crew or artistic group?
Josu: For a long time I worked as an independent artist, now I am in a group called IKE, you can look for us as Ike Producciones, we are circus artists who try to produce everything ourselves, we make our music, lighting, our everything and in parallel I am working with another group called ENGRAVIDOS, we are a little more produced because it has much more time.
Astrid: What messages do you try to convey when you express yourself artistically?
Josu: The message that I try to transmit when I express myself artistically is in search of eliminating prejudices, when I started with photography, at the beginning for many years I dedicated myself to street photography and in that work I always tried to capture that reality that people normally ignore, that is to say, I could easily go to Plaza Venezuela (place in Caracas) and get under the bridge that I crossed to the UCV (Central University of Venezuela) to document the life of the people who live there, which is a subject that people normally ignore, they see a street inhabitant (they do not see it), so no, I was always kind of interested, I realized that there are many people that you see in bad situations that are much better people than the ones you normally see out there and in my personal circus show of El Avispao, the message that I try to leave to the public is that, to eliminate prejudices because it seems very bad and one also lives it normally, I have seen people juggling at a traffic light and they treat me as less when the same person applauds me excitedly when I work in a theater or when I perform in a tent for example of Los Hermanos Valentinos (for a long time I was a juggler there) so the message that I always try to leave to the public is that, to eliminate prejudices because it seems very bad and one also lives normally.
Astrid: What toys do you normally use?
Josu: With the circus I started with juggling and I am a specialized juggler, I started with contact toys, the crystal, the Contact and nowadays what I do the most is to play with nails, I like to play with quantities, 5 spikes, 6 spikes but in juggling I do everything Diabolo, Swining (pois), spikes, hoops, balls up and bounce, I do unicycle, I also work as a tightrope walker, and nowadays I am specializing more in duo acrobatics.
Astrid: Do you prefer to work with manual or digital tools?
Josu: When I started in photography, my first years as I did not have enough money to buy a digital camera, and at home I got my grandfather had a Reflex roll film, I started taking a lot of analog photos, in fact I have my lab at home and I do my own roll film development, and when I switched to digital I also always prefer that all the controls be manual, the focus, control the light, control absolutely everything, in fact I think that’s why I’m a little enemy of recording with a phone, because practically the phone does everything for you, it sets the exposure, it sets everything and I like to have everything manual and in the circus I like everything to be manual and that everything depends on me than to depend on someone else or on some device.
Astrid: Would you do this for the rest of your life?
Josu: Yes, I think I would do this for the rest of my life, that is to say, the photo and the video I will never leave them, and the circus I don’t think so either and when the time comes when my body can’t take any more to be a performer, I think it is time to spread my knowledge and dedicate myself to teaching but yes, always dedicating myself to the circus and audiovisuals.
Thanks to Josu Trincado for allowing us to conduct this interview today, it is an honor to be able to share with you part of the work of this wonderful artist.
I invite you to follow him on his social networks.
Social media:
Instagram:
@josujoakin
@avispao.el