Inma Herrero, author of ‘Glacier I’, the cheapest work: “Art is not valued in Spain and the situation is precarious”

The artist Inma Herrero is the author of ‘Glacier I’, the cheapest work of the 44th edition of Arco, whose price reaches 300 euros and that F2 Gallery houses, although she is not these days in Ifema Madrid because she lives in Finland, where “there is much more support for culture and art than in Spain.”

“I think that art in Spain is not sufficiently valued and the situation for an artist in Spain is precarious because there are few resources. Life for an artist is very hard,” says Inma Herrero in an interview with Europa Press, in which she acknowledges that she continues to live in Finland because she gives her “vertigo” his return to Spain.

Inma Herrero regrets that art is not considered “a cultural good”, therefore society “does not buy enough because it does not value it as it deserves.” “I think that artistic work has very low prices and, in addition, VAT is very high. They are aspects that do not encourage more economic activity,” he recognized.

In this sense, he considers that there are Spanish artists who, “even having visibility and recognition”, this does not translate into the economic aspect. “We have chosen a profession in which you have to fight a lot,” he said.

Also, Herrero comments that the art sector is an industry in which there is a lot of speculation, so there are works by some authors who are “overwhelmed.” However, he considers that this element allows “to compensate” the moments of history in those authors have not been “quoted.” “Everything is a matter of supply and demand,” he argues.

“Democratize” collecting

On the price of his work in Arco, he points out that he can help “democratize” the idea of ​​the public to start collecting, although he fears that he can “underestimate” his work. “It’s fine because you don’t have to have a lot of money to buy a work of art. But I don’t want to say that everything has to be cheap because it can cause the work of artists to undrack,” he clarifies.

In his opinion, you have to learn to value what is behind each creator. “The superficiality that prevails today causes our work to become a single moment. But I invite the public to stop and give the opportunity to see what is behind. In this way they can discover things that can open the doors to other worlds,” he said.

It is the fifth occasion when Herrero goes to Arco. “It is important to be there because it means that you are on the Spanish artistic map and gives you visibility and legitimacy to your work,” he said.

A job on climate change

His work ‘Glacier I’ is a photograph that arises from a trip to Svalbard Island in the Arctic Mar, the geographical point north of the earth, as Inma Herrero states, and in it shows two fleets of fossils that are in one of those glaciers, which was previously a tropical forest. “For climate change and for the movement of the earth it is now in the north,” he explains.

“My work what it does is recover that already non -existent skin from a glacial forest and collect all those imprints of plants that no longer exist. The idea of ​​a petrified image on a rocky surface is like an image of a time that no longer exists, an idea of ​​death and decline. It seemed to me that there was something very poetic and very interesting to go to this landscape so hostile and deserted,” he details.

On this island, according to Herrero, it is an important territory for scientists who are studying the effects of climate change and how it affects flora, fauna and melting glaciers. “It is one of the places on the planet where the temperature increases faster,” he emphasizes.

Housing for artists

During the interview, Inma Herrero tells how his arrival in Helsinki (Finland) 10 years ago. “I came to make a master’s degree and they gave me a scholarship to make a postgraduate degree here, where I live in an area where there are houses for artists, which has a study where I can work,” he reveals.

Thus, he explains that most of his time dedicates it to artistic creation, but also teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts. “It’s curious because the silence here has helped me to concentrate more on my work,” he says.

In addition, he believes that in Finland the artists are taken more seriously than in Spain and exalizes that there is the concept of housing for artists. “I think that all the poetic depth is better understood that sometimes creators aspire to make understand. It is a profession that is more accepted than in Spain,” he remarks.