With Andrea González - Portraits in Times of Pandemic
Guitarras Alhambra asks Alhambra artists from all over the world what they think and how this pandemic has affected their lives.
Interview Andrea González Caballero
1.How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your artistic activity?
Well I guess like every musician or people related to this industry who make a living from exposing their work to the public, and indeed we have been strongly affected.
In my particular case several concerts and events have been cancelled, for instance in April I had concerts in Mexico, the first one in Zacatecas and the second one with and orchestra in Querétaro and then I had a premiere plays from young composers, and they were to be presented in Baltimore for the very first time, this is a project that we had been working for months and finally none of this can take place. We will find another alternative and we really hope we can resume all of our activities as soon as possible.
2.Now that we all have to adapt and reprogramme ourselves to this situation, what new project are you working on?
Certainly I have tried to re-establish my activities these days and try to adapt of what we can do from home, I am doing more research in content edition, I am creating an on-line tutorial so people from home can keep learning and If I can help I am more than happy.
I just took part in a festival, called Global Hope Festival, we were fundraising for the global Covid-19 crisis and also I will participate in another online festival called Melbourne guitar festival and I will play and online concert in April and basically trying to do as much as I can, trying to adapt some of the cancelled projects and do it online. I am going to try to do an on-line premiere of one piece for guitar and anything that comes up to our mind we do it, why not? We try to keep busy.
3.In what positive way do you think this situation is affecting society and the planet?
Indeed there is something positive, I think the planet is taking a break, the pollution is dropping dramatically and we have the data to check that. It is really a shame that only with these kind of dramatic situations happens. I really hope that we as mankind can think about our future and yes I think we needed this forced break.
4.What hobby or other activity have you started doing that you did not have time for before?
Now it is time to stay at home and sometimes the hours can be long and we must think what to do with this spare time and something I am starting to do is painting, it was a hobby that I used to have but lately I was not doing anything special, so I am investigating, mixing colours, experimenting and most important, relaxing and unplugging my mind. I am also reading new books I had on mind from a long time ago and of course keep studying guitar for the next concerts and projects and entertaining ourselves the best way we can.
5.What would you advise to artists or art lovers in general to approach this global stage in our lives in a positive way?
Well this is a hard one, we the artists, musicians, painters, we feed our mind and inspiration from external stimuli, we travel, we get to know people, we are in constant movement, and this is all over, we are living a static stage. We need to stay at home and with this “wall” between us I think is now the time to think and reflect this old project we had in mind but we never took the time to do it, we were all running so fast that we never considered or thought about it. All these little things we many times thought, “if I had the time I would do it”, now is the time, so let’s do it. I propose and encourage people to rescue all these ideas, inspirations and make them real, it is the time now right?
6. After the coronavirus, do you think we will have learned something and we will change our lifestyle?
When this is all over and I hope it is as soon as possible I guess we have learned how to face a world crisis and I hope we have learned how to prevent and take quicker and drastic actions. As a society in these moments of weakness I have seen how people show the best of them, how generous and empathic they can be and this is something very valuable as humanity.
