With Fernando Espí - 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 with Fernando Espí
1. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your artistic activity?
I guess like everyone else, we have had concert cancellations, tours, trips. In my case, concerts in Spain have been cancelled a week ago, ten days or so I had to be in Portugal, I had an Erasmus course that was also suspended and next week I had to travel to Montreal, Canada to do a couple of concerts and well, all this has also been cancelled.
2. Now that we all have to adapt and reprogram ourselves to this situation, in what new projects are you working on?
I have used these days to finish things that were half done, these days without obligations allow for catching up. In my case, in compositions, in administrative matters and well I am always thinking about new projects and ideas and maybe prepare some new repertoire for concerts and a future recording
3. In what positive way do you think this situation is affecting the society and the planet?
There is a positive thing that has brought the coronavirus and is the need to change our mentality, I think we are understanding that we are not invulnerable, we are not superheroes, we do not have absolute control of everything as a human species. As human beings we have learned, we have known, we have discovered but we cannot control everything and this has taught us that we must live differently, have greater respect for the planet, ecology, to your neighbour and not to waste, not mistreat the planet.
4. What hobby or other activity have you started doing that you did not have time for before?
No hobby, as I said before, spending time catching up and this confinement has brought a little freedom, a quieter study of pieces that I did not have in mind but above all also free time to read, listen to music, watch a movie, watch a series, be with family, in the end activities that by the professional demands are a little limited, so the confinement has brought that. In my case I had no need or I did not feel the need to do something new but to do things that I had put aside in time and to dedicate more time to the family.
5. What would you advise to artists and art lovers in general to focus and be positive on this global stage that we are going through?
Yes, maybe the most important advice is to value what we have. We are living perhaps the best time of the human being in which there are medicines, there are cures for illnesses that before there was not that we have a standard of life at least in the western countries very high that allows us to have certain whims not only running water, electricity and food but possibilities for entertainment and the most positive thing that can be taken out the fans of the art is to understand, right? that a concert, a live performance is an important act not only for musicians but for the whole world, it is a privilege that is not only intended to achieve an esthetical goal, at least the artist intends to continue maturing and provide a better version of what he is doing, of its work, but at the same time it is a privilege, it is an entertainment and the attendance, the social act of going to a concert is an important one, it is a privilege that we must take care of.
6. After the coronavirus, do you think we will have learned anything and changed our lifestyle?
I would like to think that yes indeed, I would like to think that this is going to lead to a change in mentality, a change in human and social relations, a greater distribution of wealth, control of waste and a more respectful treatment of the planet and the environment but anyway, I also believe that the human being forgets too soon and tends to live in comfort, and if this returns to normal in a short time, then the great economic powers, the banks, the oil companies, the energy companies and the pharmaceutical companies will once again want to maintain the "status quo" that they had, and in one way or another they will control the flow of society, and if we do not fight, if we are not strong, the system will take us back to where we were. I would like not to be pessimistic but history has shown that crises, wars, pandemics come and go and we all have to be rowing in the same direction and I think society is very divided, very fragmented, very polarized too, not only in the same country, the same community, but if we start talking about continents, poor countries, rich countries, mostly overpopulated countries, there is a very complicated question to determine if this will finally lead to a change in lifestyle worldwide, hopefully we will learn once and for all.
