Blanca Muñoz: "Perhaps women have a better pulse and more patience than men to weld"

Blanca Muñoz (59 years old, Madrid) grew up in a house where there was an exact replica of Goya's

.

It had been painted by her mother, a self-taught copyist at the Prado Museum.

She is the sixth of seven siblings, her family educated her in sensitivity for art, pushed her to follow her dreams and also to seek her own life.

"I did not begin to live from my works until I was forty years old."

Until April 2, she exhibits her particular stainless steel sculptures, born from a deep love for nature, astronomy and a constant existential doubt, at the Malborough Gallery, in Madrid, in an exhibition that marks her as a great Spanish sculptor.

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Blanca Muñoz defends her tireless search for light

His mother was a self-taught painter and his father a chemist.

Which of the two influenced her creative personality more?

My mother painted, modeled, carved, but never with professional ambition.

She had to drop out of school when the Civil War started and afterwards she couldn't go back to school.

When she met my father, he paid for her classes at the Peña school, which was well known at the time.

There he learned a lot and then continued as a copyist at the Prado.

She was really good at figurative.

She was always very frustrated for not having done a degree, but she is a very educated woman, who gave many university students a thousand laps.

He had great manual dexterity, he loved surrounding himself with beautiful objects: they were always restoring things from my grandparents or great-grandparents... They complemented each other very well and they educated us in that sensitivity.

So you always felt understood at home?

And most importantly: encouraged by them.

I am the sixth daughter and when I decided to do fine arts, another sister also did it, there was already enough family history to know that it was a very risky path economically, but they saw that it was clearly my vocation, and their support gave me the conviction and security that I needed.

When exactly is such a vocation born?

From school, in plastic arts I got into the most trouble: things like making a three-dimensional house with a patio or sewing a doll as big as me.

I have always thought that the convent school, which I was scared of, was very important.

For example, the bodice dresses in tissue paper made you think in three dimensions...

But for a long time his specialty was engraving.

At the Academy of Rome I deepened the technique in my engraving workshop, but that was where for the first time I saw sculptors in their studio working with blows with things, and it fascinated me, but engraving was still the easiest alternative because it allows you carry the study in tow and travel.

Later I moved two years with a scholarship to Mexico City.

It was a very interesting but hard experience.

I did not know anyone, I began to be interested in the power and greatness of the Mexican landscape and the influence on its archaeoastronomy [study of astronomical knowledge that ancient civilizations had].

I imagined flying over the Mexican geography and I translated those imaginary trips into engravings with a clear three-dimensional intention and from those engraved plates my first sculpture was literally born, enormous, but of course,

I lived in an apartment of 17 square meters... that was not the place to dedicate myself to it.

When I returned to Madrid, I decided that I wanted to learn to weld and I ended up setting up my studio in Puente de Vallecas.

Why did you choose stainless steel as the material to work with?

When I started making sculptures, I used mild steel, the cheapest and easiest to work with, but I immediately realized the physical effort involved in making them and the miracle of selling them, so that even after a few years a client tells you that it has oxidized and has lost its luminosity, which is essential for my idea of ​​building light.

I decided to go for the highest quality, stainless steel, even though I've stopped going out to dinner with my friends and have deprived myself of many other things on a personal level, I don't want half measures.

The world of metallurgy is eminently masculine.

How have you experienced that?

Perhaps women have a better pulse and more patience than men when it comes to welding.

Perhaps that is why my sculptures are the way they are.

Indeed, I have gone with my van to buy material and rods and large plates to the industrial estates and there they have always treated me very well, I was interested in their trades.

It is also true that my parents taught us kindness and respect with people.

That has opened many doors for me and the reality is that with my suppliers and workshops, with whom I have spent many years, there is absolute trust.

They are also motivated by the work because they become part of your destiny in some way.

Are sculptors perhaps the rudest artists?

I do not know.

Maybe we are more plain.

Many people are surprised when they see me in the studio, dressed as a worker... now I work like a queen, because I've been twenty years, I have heating... but I haven't been cold and I've got chilblains.

My father told me: "That only happened to us in the war."

Because in my case it's not that I told my parents: “I want to do this” and they said: “I'll put you in a studio”.

Many colleagues have had that luck, but for me it has been very important not to have it.

And would you say your job is dangerous?

In my case, the most dangerous are the radio stations, which are not designed for women.

It would be wonderful for me to have smaller and lighter machines, but they don't exist, I think only in Japan.

My job involves a lot of physical effort and you have to take care of yourself and stay in shape.

Fundamental to do yoga, for example.

What would you think if one of your works disappeared without a trace like Richard Serra's?

As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, I think I wouldn't care.

What's more, you don't know how excited I am when I see that my works don't return to the studio.

In addition to being an artist, do you also feel like a businesswoman?

This forces you to be an entrepreneur, whether you like it or not.

I have done all my crazy things in a conscious and planned way;

As I have not had the means, I have not rushed either.

I have gone like an ant.

Every time I have X, I invest thinking about the day when I don't earn a euro that I could throw away.

The last thing I would part with is my studio.

I could end up living on top of the surface of a sculpture [laughs].

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