PPA - Ernesto Bautista (El Salvadoran Multimedia Artist) Pt. 1

Undressing Underground/Platonic Polyamory

Today on the show we talk to filmmaker, poet, and multimedia artist Ernesto Bautista, who I almost certainly mispronounce the name of in my introduction despite Ileana sending me a WhatsApp message with the correct pronunciation. I still can't say her name either, though.

As I mention in the intro and we discuss a little later on in the episode, Ernesto was introduced to us by a mutual friend and our former guest, Ileana. You can hear more about her in our previous episode, Au Pair Nightmares w/ ileana.

But enough about Ileana. Today's guest is Ernesto. I'm not even entirely sure what to say except that we spend most of the episode silent as he offered thoughtful descriptions of his work, poetry, the history of his country. His work spans countless mediums and has been featured in museums around the world, including the main exhibit of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, Spain. He's made several experimental films, had his words plastered on the sides of trucks and the pavement of busy intersections, and created shocking works utilizing human blood and skeletal remains. All of this meant to investigate, inspire, and deconstruct our understanding of life, memory, perception, violence, death, and I guess some other things I'm not smart enough wrap my mind around.

As mentioned in the introduction, this episode will be broken into two parts. In this first episode we touch on his approach to art and poetry, his use of human remains, and his feelings about what it means to be alive. In part two we dig a little deeper into the El Salvadoran Civil War, his work with its survivors, and a brief introduction the flourishing heavy metal scene in El Salvador.

In the meantime, please check out Ernesto's website to experience more of his work firsthand. He can be found at https://www.ernestobautista.com. Though, just as his work explores life, death, and memory, so does his web presence as half of the links about him I click on are dead. You can also watch a brief, subtitled introduction to Ernesto and his work on FLORA ars+natura's YouTube, see excerpts of his own film work (about half of which is subtitled) on his VIMEO, and check out his Bandcamp to hear more of his metal band Karma Theatre, featured in this episode. Karma Theatre can also be found on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.