Interview,HUGO HUERTA MARIN: First of all, I really want to thank everyone for being here. I feel very honored. You’re here with me to celebrate the book that I worked on for seven years, and it’s finally coming out to the light. I’m even more honored to have this conversation today with one of my favorite artists, but also one of my favorite humans, Marina. I wanted to start this conversation light, with this quote that Marina sent to me some months ago.
For someone that has such an extraordinary career, like you, what kind of recognition do you value the most nowadays?Honestly, being humble, because I think it’s dangerous for an artist to become a god, and [have an] ego higher than the Himalayas. Woody Allen once said, “Today, I’m a star; tomorrow, I’m a black hole.” It’s a good perspective. You have to really understand to be humble, it’s not you who’s important. It’s the work. It’s the message. It’s the content.
For me, it definitely is nature. Nature is magic. Waterfalls, volcanoes, running water, the tops of the mountains, trees. And [also] the old cultures. Anything to do with shamanism, the aborigines of Australia, the Indians, Tibetan monks, they have so much wisdom to learn from. I always believed that in my position as an artist, I’m the bridge between the Western and Eastern world.But in my life, I have very few true friends that are very important to me.
When I was 14 years old, I was sitting in a kitchen with my grandmother, which is actually the most important kitchen in my childhood. That’s where everything happened. I was having breakfast and we had an old Bakelite radio. There comes the sound of this voice, and I remember standing up in the middle of the kitchen and starting crying. It was incredibly emotional, my relationship to that voice. And then later on, the speaker on the radio said, “This was Maria Callas.