Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you call home currently?  I live and work between Spain and Peru.

2-How would you describe Yves Decamps?  A distracted, slightly neurotic grizzly bear.

3-Did you study art or is it inherent?  I studied visual arts and I graduated in photography. As a painter I am self-thaught.

4-What do you dream about?  Mostly I do not remember my dreams in the morning but when I do  they seem to be  nightmares about family members having faces very similar to those of the characters in my paintings.

5-How did you acquire your style?  I think it’s a process that develops over the years but I must admit that I have always been attracted to surrealism and absurdism. In my work I always try to distort things  to a certain level without completely loosing touch with reality.

6- Is there any reality behind the characters in your paintings or are they purely fantasy?  My characters are the consequence of a photo montage of variety of images so the result can be considered as a completely new image. Although sometimes it is posible to detect parts of existing people. I am also influenced by the grotesque folcloric masks of the Peruvian and Bolivian highlands.

7-What else interests you besides art?  I have  a profound obsession with the Andes mountains.

8-Who is your favorite artist?  It’s very difficult to choose just one, but if I have to I’ll say Hieronymus Bosch.

9- What advice would you give putative collectors?  To stop apprraising  an artist and his artwork according to the amount and the prestige  of  the galleries he has worked with.  One should value an artwork according to the mastery of the artist. A great painting might be painted in two days but finally it is the result of many years of practice and hard work.

10- Best advice you ever received in regards to your career as an artist?  The journey is way more interesting than the destination.

11-If you could live in a museum anywhere in the world which would it be?  I would live in the Citadel of Pisac, in the sacred valley of the Incas near Cuzco, Peru.

12-Do you listen to music while creating? If yes, what genre?  Yes I do, from trash metal to flamenco and  from  John Coltrane to Bach.

13-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration?  For me inspiration means quietness, so I like the mountains.

14-If you could have dinner with three artists living/dead who would be at your table? David Lynch, David Bowie, Pedro Almodovar.

15-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio?  When I’m in Spain coffee, when I’m in Peru coca leaves, music.

16-If you were asking the questions what question would you ask and please answer the question.

If you could go back 25 years in time, would you study art again?  I would certainly make art but I think I would study something else.  It could me more interesting to make art coming from another background like for example science or history.

17-How would someone find you on Social media?  Instagram: yvesdecamps

18- Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art= giving meaning to the absurd

Food= something to enjoy

Sports= good to do, dumb to watch

Politics= corrupt limited system thinking

Poor= economically, mentally or spiritually?

God= universe

Rich=economically, mentally or spiritually?

Luxury= not necessary but nice once in a while

Sex=dopamine fix

Picasso=paintings over rated, etchings under rated

Religion=waste of time but sometimes interesting.