You have to be crude, whether you’re a man or a woman, because crudeness is a drive towards the infinit
In Latin, ‘brutus’ refers to animals that are slow, undisciplined, irrational and stubborn. But for the Romans, ‘Brutus’ was also a surname of noble lineage. Reading these two meanings one after the other conjures up a fleeting image of an illustrious animality – that is, the place where that which lies both within and outside the order manifests itself. One must be a ‘bruto’ or a ‘bruta’ because ‘brutos’ are a bit of everything at the same time.
Jean Dubuffet knew this from the very beginning. He sought out art where there were no signs to indicate its location. He sought it outside museums, art galleries and academic books. He found it in everyday life, in humble actions, in simple words and in raw fruit.2
Brutes shout and don’t wash. Brutes don’t vote and aren’t polite. Brutes smell and rub themselves. Brutes are just as they are.
La Fragua Bruta understands brutality as a force and art as a gesture of embracing that brutality. There is no art where rational, calculated and/or logocentric thought reigns. There is no art where excellence and perfection are sought. There is no art where the narratives that underpin a consensual and unquestioned preconception of the world do not waver. There is no art where there is no uncertainty, ignorance, abyss or void. There is no art where there is no error, doubt or misunderstanding.
La Fragua Bruta believes that for art to exist, it is necessary to erode all kinds of attitudes that do not open the door to the raw, the impure, the tainted, the marginal, the fragile, the mixed-race, the flawed, and that which does not fit in.
La Fragua Bruta is committed to surrendering to an animalistic, ‘other-selfed’ awareness, through which it is possible to expand the known world. La Fragua Bruta believes that becoming ‘other-selfed’ is to open the door to the duende or to grace. It is to find the divine by embracing bestiality.
La Fragua Bruta craves in-competence, in-completeness, in-formality.
La Fragua Bruta wants to walk slowly, to pause, and if it gets scared or finds itself having fun, to jump, run, fly.
La Fragua Bruta shuns frivolity and indifference.
La Fragua Bruta wants to graze on silence and bray with joy.
La Fragua Bruta does not dress in formal attire. La Fragua Bruta wears its hair loose, tied at the crown of its bald head.
La Fragua Bruta shakes hands, embraces, sniffs, touches. La Fragua Bruta works with tact and feels the contact.
La Fragua Bruta is a home. It is fire.
La Fragua Bruta observes its animality. It admits that it is raw. It confesses to feeling fear in its attempt to surrender to the infinite.
1 In film jargon, ‘raw footage’ refers to the collection of footage shot before editing. This material has no specific order, nor a polished appearance. Raw footage contains errors and unforeseen events as traces of the live shoot, making the cinematic gesture more visible.
2 Dubuffet, Jean. Writings on Art. Barral Editores, Barcelona, 1975.