Where are your from and where are you living?

I was born in Lorca and I currently have my studio in Madrid, a city in which I feel very well.

Tell us something about your land:

Well, in Lorca, I lived all my childhood, memories and family. Music from the hand of my dear uncle Ángel, studying at the Murcia Conservatory and later being a member of the municipal band of Lorca, of great prestige and in which I left great friends and memories. Love for his history and proud to belong to that land. I like everything about Murcia, gastronomy, art, the sea, its people. Very proud to be and also proud of it wherever I go and travelled.

And also something about you. Your hobbies, your favorite places, your trips…

Art covers all those gaps. «I am only happy and I am truly me when I have a chisel in my hands». I like to travel and learn, transport myself to those moments of other times and feel the chisels and traces of other times, times of great masters and of a trade in danger of extinction, feel that calm and mystical atmosphere, because the stones speak to us, we do know how to listen. I have always felt in some way that I belong more to that era.

How did your passion for the ancient art of sculpture come about?

As a child and five years old, he already won drawing contests and this was repeated during the following years. Inherited from my father, it has come naturally to me, also with the feeling of having done it before and an innate love for art.

And about the sculpture, what can you tell us?

Feeling what others have felt for millennia is a privilege and a gift. The challenge in front of the block, tons in front of you, the wounds, the lever and rollers, the chisels and the hammers, the smell! You must love it to feel it, as others did, that is the true and best pay for the sculptor.

What is before, impulse, sketch or meditation?

It’s been a while, at least in my case, that the mental work is ahead of the sketch. But sometimes impulse and emotion prevail and the results are usually surprising. The visceral prevails over reason and order. The clear visualization of
that contain the block or, as Michelangelo said, remove what is left over from the block and free what it contains.

How do you catalog your sculptural work?

Expressionist with Baroque roots. Volume, light and shadow, modeling with light and applying the brushstroke to marble, wood or bronze. “Because the shadow owes its birth to the light.” At a dinner to talk about my work, among other phrases, one that describes me very well was pronounced: «Antonio Soler’s figuration, far from any conformism and difficult to pigeonhole, is almost expressionist, although of enormous baroque influence. With a natural language, he runs through the movement with a line of essentialist purity, almost tending towards abstraction».

Which of your works would you highlight?
It is very difficult to choose one, each one carries something of me. But for feeling and for the context, I prefer the monumental work “Consuelo”, in bronze and that I damaged the city of Lorca, due to the terrible earthquakes and in homage to the victims. I thank the then mayor, Francisco Jódar, for his involvement in everything and for his affection. It is a simple work that gives prominence to a gesture, the hug, this is the best way to express a feeling when we do not find the right word. And he inspired me, that day the mobile phone went down and people were looking for each other, we saw many hugs of relief and consolation. My whole family was affected and that same day I welcomed several of my relatives in Murcia.

In the work I put four sentences that showed what I wanted to express in it and above all and the most important, that of thirty-five children out of 3,500 who participated in a contest, so that Lorca’s future would be the one that would encourage belief in city ​​recovery. An encounter of feelings very difficult to forget, that day will always remain in my heart.

Who or what has influenced you the most?
All art and my experiences inspire me. There are also artists that I have always admired, Bernini, Rodin, Dalí, Barlach, Egon Schiele among others and I have them more like
encouragement, to continue in this struggle or tortuous path of the artist in this country. But when I delve into expressionism, it is when I feel in my place, it is without a doubt where I feel most comfortable. Full and hypnotic, visceral and free works, more personal and intuitive art, where the inner vision of the artist predominates, the expression as opposed to the shaping of reality, prioritizing the shaping of feelings rather than the objective description of reality. . That doesn’t keep me from experimenting and having the freedom
to express in other ways and materials.

What did your collaboration with Ridley Scott mean to you?
A unique experience, incredible to see yourself in a blockbuster of these dimensions. Memories come back to you of seeing his films in the cinema as a child and of course, also as an adult, very exciting. He also taught me that this was not my place, everything is diluted and everything becomes as ephemeral as a few seconds. I stay with the experience
without a doubt I lived with emotion, and he taught me that he was capable of being among those magnificent professionals, responsible for great film titles, some already, friends forever

Is it true, that there is a time to meditate and sculpt, and also for the silence of both?

Without a doubt, silence for me has been the prelude to creation, although silencing the mind of an artist is very difficult, and more so in times when everything goes so fast and the environment is clearly hostile to creating.

Have you been afraid to show your work to the public?

No, because I sculpt for myself, the relationship with my works is intimate and long before I show them. That bond will bind us forever. It is a privilege, to be able to work with my feelings and also outside of them through sculpture.

What do you think is left over in the artistic panorama at a national or international level and in particular in sculpture?

It’s not up to me to judge anyone or his work and all my respect of course, or give titles to anything, for that there are already too many connoisseurs. Masking the lack of craft and experience by sculpting only with words sooner or later discovers itself and never lasts over time. The most worrying thing is the number of palmeros that denote the lack of culture that predominates, in addition to the wrong path on many occasions, of some schools, seeking more the concept than the trade with archaic techniques and nothing adapted to the work, as it is developed at the moment. The student must know everything, they will be his weapons to go out and demonstrate; then talent and experience will do the rest.

What do you think about “everything is art”?

Not for me; one thing is to express and feel it and another to improvise. The work not only expresses, it also represents the talent, ability and craft of the artist.

A tip for those who want to start in the world of sculpture:

Train well and always be open to learning with humility, enrich yourself as much as possible and know the trade and its language, so you can create. This trade teaches you every day and will teach you to the last, whether you are a student or a teacher. The great Michelangelo defined it perfectly: “If people knew how hard I had to work to earn my master’s degree, they wouldn’t find it so wonderful at all”
You can’t make poetry if you don’t know the language well and some try to run before knowing how to walk.
If they feel it, there will be nothing to stop them and they will feel privileged, because you have to go through many difficulties and more in such a difficult country to be an artist.