44|PROTAGONISTA W hat is Tom Carr’s relationship with light? Light surrounds me and I try to understand it, to gather quotes, brushstrokes, or verses... from a poetic point of view. In this way, I am always enveloped in light, even in the “apparent” darkness there is light. What is light for Tom Carr? Light is the place where there is no shadow. It is seeing, knowing, identifying... it is knowledge in the absence of darkness. When did your work with light started? From my very first exhibition, light has been as important to me as any volume or object or thing existing in space. Light is one of the main characters. We are talking about the year 1981, in the Espai 13 of the Miró Foundation of Barcelona, where I placed light on the ground, illuminating from below and changing the first perception of space since normally light comes from above, especially in interiors. I placed all the light on the ground. Of all the light installations that you have done in your career, which has been the most surprising, the most magical? The most recent one, in the Leu Art Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee (U.S.A.). My most recent work is always the one that surprises me all over again. Light has endless possibilities and, fortunately, it is an extensive universe and provides the challenge of each new project becoming a new frontier to conquer. In my most recent installation, there are two light projections in the form of texture. The work emerges when the observer turns into the participant and his shadow appears, in a more frontal manner. Other times, a deformation occurs in which there is not only shadow, but also the projected light that surrounds the person or the objects around him. I had done this before, but here the ground was reflecting strongly, creating a sort of inversion. All of it resulted in something magical that I had never experienced before. What impressions has the public transmitted to you in this installation? I saw they were carried away, submerged in the showering or window of light that kept changing every eight seconds. Some children would not leave... and adults seemed to lose themselves in that world of light. I liked it a lot and I was moved. What is the ideal relationship between light and shadow? Where you find one, you find the other, they are condemned to be together forever. Light, shadow, darkness...I don’t know if we artists should be more transgressive, radical and break away from that. For the moment, I have the challenge of making the sinister kinder, the black shadow not so black. I would like to bring knowledge to darkness and this is achieved by placing color beside it to illuminate the shadows. We have a light and then a shadow of a specific color, usually blue. Projecting other colors can inspire the observer, pulling the shadows towards knowledge. It is less harsh. At the moment, I am exploring this topic and I believe it has a lot to offer. Before this exhibition, you worked in a tribute to Carles Buïgas, at the Museum of Cerdanyola del Vallés. How do you value this experience? Proyección de obras sobre diapositiva en la exposición “Cycle et coïncidence” en 2002, Museé d’Art Moderne de Céret, Francia. Foto: Robin Townsend.