Federico Brens Ortiz, 28, paints and writes poetry. Raised in the Dominican Republic, he moved to the Allgäu when he was nine and to Munich when he was 20. During the day he works in an office, in the evenings and on weekends he devotes himself to his art, modeling and cooking at home. In his poetry and his art, he processes experiences such as pain or grief – it can also be provocative at times.
Federico received some of these brushes from his friend. “It gave me even more encouragement to continue working on my art.” Federico loves trying things out, letting his creativity run free. He has been artistically active again for about five years. “But art has always played a role, even as a child in the Dominican Republic.”
In his art, Federico consciously plays and provokes with sexuality and religion. “I wanted to put my poems together in a book and the penis should be on the cover. The title of the book should be Biblia, the Spanish word for Bible. Basically my own Bible.” He himself believes in love and the good in people. He wants to be cheeky with art, to stimulate thought.
In addition to painting, Federico also writes poetry. Playing with language fascinates him. “Sometimes I read or hear a word. Then I research it and experiment with it. My native language is Spanish, I write in German. It’s such a multifaceted language.” The themes of his poems revolve around emotional worlds and personal experiences.
“Pain is not always something negative,” says Federico, “it can also be beautiful” when he talks about his painting “Painful Heart”. “Before I came to Germany, my father died. I had to learn to show feelings and them to accept. When I moved to Germany, I had to leave part of my family behind.” Experiences that hurt Federico, but shaped him and made him the person he is today.
The small pictures are unexposed Polaroids, which Federico did not use to take photographs, but to create new works of art. “The idea came to me very spontaneously. I cut open the blank Polaroids, scratched them open, alienated them and experimented with different materials on them.” During the creation I don’t know what it will look like in the end, that’s what’s exciting about it.” Abstract patterns and shapes are created.