Artist Victor Enrich’s architectural structures are “possessed”, both by reality and escape, finding catharsis in his head. There between layers, they bend; split; spout tentacles, an arm, two horns; open up to the sky. Helped by 3D technology, he works photographs of regular buildings into dreamlike creatures that set to “resurrect the urban form”. His artwork uses the architecture of Tel Aviv, Riga, Helsinki, Barcelona and New York that resurface elsewhere, after a swim in his subconscious. The architectural illustrator has been making unreal cities since he was 10 – with pencils and LEGO sets – where he played God. “With time, I’ve realised there are way more interesting games… like playing with ‘real’ pieces. The only difference between that game and this game is that in this one there’s real audience. But what’s common in both games is that I play alone,” says Barcelona-based Enrich in an email interview. [fpgallery id=123] Edited excerpts: Where do you slot your work? My work can be considered as simple photography. In terms of artistic movement, the closest description should be oneiric realism; Realism because of the pretension of finding a way of expression that simulates – with lot of details – reality, but oneiric because this reality has been transformed into a parallel reality. [caption id=“attachment_50977” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Artwork by victor Enrich”] [/caption] What led you to go from illustrating functional buildings to creating artwork? Since I was a child, I’ve always had the need to give an opinion about what I see, about reality. I jumped into art because, through the strange forms I create, I give an opinion. While I was working as a freelance architectural visualiser, my opinion was strictly necessary in technical aspect, not human or social aspects. In the world of 3D, there are lots of extraordinary professionals, with high end techniques that let them express almost whatever they want in terms of creating totally virtual environments and/or characters. I found, instead, more interesting modifying our recognisable reality rather than creating a brand new one. What I show in my pictures is not an Utopian project or something that one day I want to see built. It is just a perception of reality and I used ‘possessed’ buildings as canal objects to express that perception. Regarding the element of surprise, this is definitely an important element in my creative process. As a consequence of that I feel constantly the push of visiting new urban realities. This permanent movement and non-stop observation creates layers and layers of urban feedback in my subconscious that one day go back to the surface. Why does the American city have a defining place in your visualisation and in what is your connection with the American TV series of the ’80s? The American city has assumed a key role because its morphology is totally different than European city. American cities are based on private transportation, with suburbs and downtowns, combining high density part-time neighbourhoods, with spread low density areas. Skyscrapers, tunnels, roads, bridges and suburban areas of American cities have become important in my mental imaginary, as a stairway to dreams. All this feedback I got it from TV series that were shown in Spain when I was a kid, in the 80s. In my pieces, I constantly touch the subject of the skyscraper, or the bridges or any other big infrastructure, directly or indirectly. Are you trying to take these structures out of their cultural context? I would prefer to say that instead of taking out structures out of their cultural context, I want to modify that context.
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