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L.A. Artists and Performers to Salute Beyond Baroque’s 50th at Nov. 10 Gala


Source: Send2Press



More honors for Viggo!


Quote:

All-star line-up of performers include John Doe and Exene Cervenka (founding members, X), John Densmore, (founding member, The Doors), and many more

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© Beyond Baroque.
 
VENICE, Calif., Oct. 4, 2018 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A historic lineup of L.A.'s leading artists, performers, poets and authors will salute Beyond Baroque, the city's legendary literary center, at its 50th anniversary "Bohemian Bacchanal" on Saturday, November 10. The gala event, located in the Venice Arts Plaza, features a dinner and will be highlighted by presentations honoring actor/poet Viggo Mortensen, a long-time supporter of the non-profit organization, and award-winning poet Will Alexander. The evening also pays tribute to Beyond Baroque founder, George Drury Smith.


Read the entire article HERE.

© Send2Press.

Iolanthe's Quotable Viggo


Found By: Iolanthe

I confess I'm more than a tad over-excited by the news of a new Viggo photography book, Ramas Para un Nido. One thing is for sure, it won't be predictable. With Viggo all photography rules get broken (don't shoot into the sun, don't over expose, hold it steady…). Even the camera itself is often broken – when most of us would be packing it away for a journey to the camera repair shop, Viggo keeps shooting just to see if something interesting will happen. It always does.





The pictures in this book have been made with different cameras, techniques, and, unavoidably, with all the longing, love, laughter, doubts, and mistakes that have shaped my life so far.

Viggo Mortensen
Perceval Press
October, 2017



'In a way, I am a photographer even when I don't take pictures. I think it's an instinctive thing by now, a part of myself'.

Viggo Mortensen, The Photographer Of Dreams
By Giovanni Valerio - translated by Cindalea
Panorama First
July 2008




He likes to sit in bars to listen, and he would love to go unnoticed as the least known of the regulars. But he almost never does. He seeks images, constantly, or images find him. And then, Viggo Mortensen takes out his professional camera and photographs at ease. He always has it ready, just in case. It could be a landscape, like when he went about the north of Argentina; it could be someone who catches his attention...

Viggo Mortensen - "Above all, I'm a Cuervo... And a greater pride does not exist"
By Eduardo Bejuk - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zooey
Gente
April 2010




Several of Viggo Mortensen's different faces can be seen in his photos, some more recognisable than others. In front of the large photograph Topanga 7 where golden green light moves across a profile like it was a reflecting water surface, he says in perfect Danish:

'This self-portrait I shot with a slow shutter speed. That way I became part of nature. You can see the blue sky through the brim of the hat and there are plants in my face. With that technique you can become one with the surroundings - the house, the wall, or nature.'

Caught In His Own Picture
By Trine Ross - translated by Rebekka
Politiken
28 June 2003




Recently, I'm doing digital photography almost exclusively. I have old cameras, two from 1903 which I sometimes also continue using.

Web Chat with Viggo Mortensen
20 Minutos
Translated by Ollie, Rio and Zoe
6 September 2012




'Two years ago, I spent a few days in Montana with Viggo while he was shooting Hidalgo, and I swear he was never without a camera. One moment he was slamming on the brakes to photograph a horse on a hill, and the next, he was slowing down to take a picture of a cloud.'

Tom Roston
Editorial
Premiere
November 2004




'I have a camera with a broken lens -- I was actually doing it two days ago in Montana. There were all these horses running and I was taking pictures and then the lens was just all screwed up. So I took it off. I don't know what it's going to look like. It's hopefully just going to be a good flow of shapes and color.'

Viggo Mortensen
A Religious Moment Where Something Might Happen
By Scott Thill
Morphizm 2002




Did you and Viggo Mortensen use homemade cameras?

We're not that renaissance. Viggo's got an old hasselblad that he takes forever to focus & shoot. But I must admit he's got some real talent behind the lens. . . not too bad in front either.

John Doe
John Doe finds Emily at a Crossroads
By Emily Strange
Emilystrange.com
June 2012




I've photographed a lot with Leica and Hasselblad cameras but last year I started using disposable cameras. They won't be available a short time from now so it was good to use the opportunity while I could and play with them. I often expose the pictures for a long time, shoot directly into the sun. A lot of interesting things happen when the light goes through these unclear plastic lenses. The photos become different. Sometimes I throw the cameras to the ground to loosen the lens a little bit, then interesting things happen. Then you check out the films and choose the best ones. I have an opinion of how I want them to be."

Dreaming About Telling Stories
By Einar Fal Ingolfsson - translated by Rosen and Ragga
Morgunblaðið
29 May 2008




The artist uses multiple exposures, camera shake and long open shutter exposures coupled with extensive camera movement, to paint images onto the film emulsion.

Viggo Mortensen - Painting with Light
By Christopher Harrod
New Zealand Art Monthly
April 2004




He plays the camera like a musical instrument. It's a conversational kind of photography: it's Viggo telling you who he is with images. He looks at everything, believes everything has a meaning, and he shows you his pictures in the belief that seeing might reveals the hidden mysteries of everyday life.

Mark Power
The Salt Mine
3 September 2008




Mortensen's stills are often as much a question as they are an answer.

Things Are Weird Enough
by Shana Nys Dambrot,
Juxtapoz Magazine #19
1999




Viggo Mortensen's photographs can be explained as poetic; sometimes the focus is shallow, a lot of movement, light sometimes leaks into the pictures and makes weird influences.

Dreaming About Telling Stories
By Einar Fal Ingolfsson - translated by Rosen and Ragga
Morgunblaðið
29 May 2008
Morgunblaðið




ST: I was trying to figure out the process for those flares. I thought that burn came from the development process.

VM: No, it was in the camera. The wiring that advanced the film and activated the flash got messed up. I was fishing and dropped the camera and it got wet. When it dried out, it started doing that. I shot a roll, saw it and thought, "Oh, shit." But when I looked at them, I thought that some of them looked kind of interesting. So on the next roll, I tried moving the wire all the way to one side and the flares would go to that side. Then I moved it to the middle, the right, and on the bottom and shot maybe eight rolls of film before it stopped working altogether.

A Religious Moment Where Something Might Happen
By Scott Thill
20 September 2002
Source: Morphizm




When I see my own pictures, it's like seeing a movie. It is, for example a single moment in a film scene, that you remember. So is also the case with my pictures. I remember the places I've been to and can go there again through the pictures, Viggo says.'

Viggo on the sadanset exhibition
Kim Kastrup
Ekstra Bladet
16 October 2008




Not everything's a masterpiece, of course, not by a long shot. But when Mortensen's good, when he's firing on all cylinders, he has the ability to produce some truly breathtaking images. According to Dennis Hopper, it's because Mortensen's instincts "come from the right place, from the subconscious."

The Other Side of Viggo Mortensen
By Paul Young
Variety Life
2003



You will find all previous Quotables here.

© Viggo-Works/Iolanthe. Images © Viggo Mortensen.

Banyoles Reading Review Translation

Translation by Ollie

Mega thanks to ollie for providing this translation of Viggo's poetry reading review in Banyoles ...


"OK, here´s my translation of the Banyoles short article. With thanks to Chrissie who helped me polish it ... Despite her mistake at the beginning, which all of you will spot, the closing sentence of this article shows that the [author] woman really got what this man and his voice can do to an audience."
Quote:

Binoculars to listen to poetry

banyoles4.png
© Festival Aphonica.
 
By Alba Carmona

His own poems, works from other people and the accompaniment of a piano were the only weapons that the actor needed to thrust the blade and leave the concert hall in Banyoles with a standing ovation.

The North-American, son of Aragorn from Lord of the Rings [sic] and heir to other memorable characters, like the Russian mobster from Eastern Promises, opened on Friday the Aphonica Festival with Ramas para un nido, a performance on a naked stage, sold out days ago, in which the poetry recited is reflected by the melodies of Rafel Plana´s piano.

Dressed in black from head to toe, Mortensen changed the uniform of a legendary character to get in the skin of the rhapsodists. Barefooted - he parked the sneakers on stage as soon as he came in- and with a disorganised bundle of papers in his hands, he opened the reading singing Bob Dylan´s Masters of War.

"Thank you for coming on this rainy night...We almost didn´t make it! We have suffered a little oil explosion when we were in Maçanet, on our way here, and we have messed the car good and proper, doing everything you don´t have to do.That´s why our hands look so black...luckily so are our clothes," he joked before getting into his poetic repertoire, where he reflects on everyday life, violence and the mechanics of writing. He was only interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone of someone sitting in the first rows, who got a half serious, half ironic reproach from the actor.

Alternating Spanish, English and Catalan, he went jumping from his own poetry to that of others, with works from the Argentine poet Fabián Casas or María Mercè Marçal, from whom he borrowed El meu amor sense casa (My Love Without a Home), a poem, he says, that reminds him of the refugees drama despite being written in another context. The same happens to him, he said, with Tonada del viejo amor, a popular Argentine song he used to bring the evening to a close.

Acclaimed by an audience full of followers, especially female followers -so much that some of them came prepared with binoculars to see him as close as possible- he came back on stage with Plana for an encore. Then, he gathered the bundle of papers, the shoes, and left in another round of applause. The feeling lingered that had he gone on stage to read the manual of a washing machine, it wouldn´t have changed the warm reaction of the audience.

© Diari de Girona.


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Last edited: 18 March 2023 05:00:24