DOT ART MADE IN IBIZA

Attending in person to a visual art exhibition is always very different to having read or heard of an artist or a painting, or a style or a message. When looking at a painting or listening to live music is easier to connect with the artist and understand his message. To examine an art-work from Siegfried M. Bacharach is a continuous vibration! It is captivating and intrusive, gentle and aggressive, direct and sharp. Bacharach squeezes life. With a touch of psychedelic!

I met Bacharach one afternoon during the  “Vision Primitivas y otras…” exhibition of some his work: 33 sculptures made of recycled wood chips, including three totems and some paintings. Reading his story, a vibration of life has shaken my skin. Talking to him, a vibration of hope has invaded my mind. And looking at his work, the vibration of the journey captured me into to a psychedelic trip made of infinite white dots on animal and human forms that animated space Can Tixedo Can Art Gallery Café_ Buscastell-Ibiza.

The journey of Bacharach, contemporary artist only 78 years old, is a fascinating journey including continuous intense events:

How long have you been in Ibiza, how did you get here and why did you stay?

I was in Paris. For 10 years I was a successful singer, but suddenly a series of events got me tired and I decided to change, with much pain, because I enjoyed what I was doing, but I could not continue. And to change and break with the past I came to Formentera, in 67, on the advice of a friend. With the only existing boat at that time. It was February and it was cold. In Formentera I went to Fonda Pepe where I found stoned people and junkies and, therefore, it did not captive me. The day after I went to Ibiza, where I discovered its colours. I opened a small gallery (8 square meters) of African art with a friend, as I had once opened in Paris (I always liked African art and it influenced me). The backroom, which was larger, became the first French Crepperie (because I did not like Spanish cuisine). The place became fashionable as a meeting point for many at the time. So I undertook the dinning business. I opened a restaurant in Dalt Vila, which still exists. But I ended up tired of the slavery involved in this job, and I quitted. Incidentally, I believe in destiny: I started working in a clothes shop from a friend who went travelling. It was the hippy era and I realized that the style was perfect for Ibiza and started to produce up to being one of the first to present Adlib and be recognized in Europe. Everything was fast and friendly. Everything I do is because I like it, if I get tired I change and new things happen.

And what about creating, painting and composing sculptures?

I’ve always had a tendency to paint, since the age of 20, but I’m not academic or consistent. I do it for pleasure. The sculptures are the result of the compositions with pieces of wood I find in which I see a figure. I may find pieces in the trash that inspire me. Also, I never throw anything away. Some of these sculptures are made of remnants of other works. The painting technique I use is out of necessity, because I am unable to paint so I use points and lines.

This technique is immediately associated with Australian Aboriginal art, Dot Art, made of dots, circles and lines on wood to tell stories, recreate events … ( or to remember, in the myriad of points, those killed in a genocide like the holocaust that caught him in Auswich at the age of nine). A similarity he was not intending and he accidentally discovered visiting an Aboriginal art exhibition in France. This coincidence convinced him that this is his technique.

I like the idea of having found my style. Now I have time I’m working with more interest in the production and with support from friends. This convinced me to organize my first solo exhibition in the hall of the Diario de Ibiza a few years ago, during a graffiti expo by Hosh, my nephew. I like to say “this is a Bacharach”.

What do the shapes of animals, masks, totems and eroticism as this … What is your message?

Eroticism for me, while not vulgar, is a hymn to life. The message is the pleasure in life. The totems are focused on life, prosperity… procreation. Everything has a meaning that relates to life. I do not believe in anything, I do not believe in God and what I do helps me find ways to express moods of life. It comes from the subconscious.

For a man who survived the tragedy of the Holocaust, who has worked hard and successfully in all he has done and is doing it for the pleasure of doing, the question arises:

What does it mean to be free?

It is very important that you feel free. When I arrived in Ibiza I immediately felt free to be myself, contact with people was true, I felt the confidence of the people, the will to do freely what I liked until I was tired, but happy. I’ll say it in Italian, va bene? (Smiling) “La mia vita è una far niente, con piacere.”

Paradoxical, by the way!

words by LUCIA BARBIERO, if you want to contact her then write to lucia@dubibiza.com