Led by a desire to transcend the individual approach during the creative action and the impulse to mingle influences, the artistic duo ASMA incorporates a process of reciprocal and fruitful cross-pollination. Their works express the dynamic of authorial dilution by revealing aesthetic characters that are sometimes discordant and unexpected. The eclectic and the mysterious arise as essential attributes ingrained in the artists' pieces, both in terms of the origin from which they extract some of their compositional elements and in respect of the unbridled generative tension that drives them in the stage of conception. Through shades of tenuous chromatics, the figuration discloses the existence of alternative dimensions, hovering between imagination, remembrance, dreams, and reality. The symbolic natures of the chosen themes, their hybridised identity and their juxtaposition trigger the outflow of a plurality of significations. Each work stands as well from which to dip into for unceasing reinterpretations. By fostering a temporal blend, the ancestral becomes contemporary or perhaps even premonitory of potential futures.

Would you like to introduce yourselves first as independent individuals and creatives and then as the merged entity which forms the artistic duo ASMA? Also, where does the choice of your name stem from?

We are Hanya and Matias. The whole point of starting ASMA was a way for us to move away from individual focus. Before we started our collaboration, we were both developing our individual work in different ways and mediums; after meeting in 2016, we naturally fell into habits of collaboration and discovered interesting results from just loosening up and getting out of ourselves. We eventually ventured into pouring all our energy into ASMA, understanding what was happening in the studio and discovering its language. The name came about while thinking about something that connected us in a very broad sense (we both have asthma which is ‘asma’ in Spanish) but also a word that had a sound and form that we like. After thinking of ASMA, we found that in ancient Greece “asma”, as well as other medical conditions, were seen as symptoms of magical or otherworldly events and we were interested in the dichotomy that could exist in the word both including a rational and magical ancient meaning. Basically, we are trying to resignify something non pleasant that we both have experienced into something generative.

It is charming to read about your focus on the permeating process of interrelation. It suggests the idea of an osmotic flow in constant evolution. How does this dynamic become actual during your daily cooperation and workflow?

We think it mainly happens through conversation between the two of us and by a willingness to surrender power through flexibility. It has been a muscle we have developed through our collaboration but we mainly allow ideas and processes to change without feeling the need to restrain them. We don't plan out works all the way through, and we allow new ideas and mistakes to guide the direction of the pieces. We also let mundane things influence the work in a very organic manner, so our research feels more like a cumulative magnetic orb. We try to work on most of the steps of the processes together to diffuse the authorship and to let each other change the work in unexpected ways.

It seems that in your pieces, the symbolical, the fantastic, the organic, the futuristic and the ancestral blend together to generate unexpected hybrid narratives. Which are the sources of inspiration that trigger your practice?

We definitely like to mash up things that don't necessarily go together. Thinking about that, we can say there are two types of sources of inspiration that blend into our work. One nurtures a more ideological interest in how multiplicity and difference exist in the world and resist categorisation or homogeneity. This is most of the time an inspiration that comes from everyday life through interactions with people, nature, places and objects. This is what feeds our philosophical and political alignments. The other avenue of inspiration comes from formal and aesthetic interests which help us create symbolic juxtapositions in the work, which include Art Nouveau, alien or mythological figures, gothic and medieval ornamentation, board games, science fiction, early “Choose your own adventure” games, craft objects and processes. We mix them together to find a feeling of dissonance in the objects.

On which level do the imaginary and the real mate, and how does this state turn into a tangible experience within your exhibitions and projects?

We don't know, but we like to think that they mate probably at every level because they are part of each other in a way. The real informs the imaginary and the imaginary often affects the real. This thought inspires a big part of our work as we like to include a psychological layer to our stories. We try to connect the work to the real world formally by including certain recognisable objects and putting them in contrast with fantastical imagery. Sometimes these objects are visible and sometimes they are hidden.

What do you believe is the potential of metaphorical language and the value of myths nowadays?

We believe metaphorical language speaks to the unconscious so it gives a different kind of experience absorption. We like how myths have constellations of symbols but we think that some classical myths convey popular interpretations that have flattened their potential meanings. We use myths because we want to complicate those readings, we like to bring something that is taken for granted and widely understood and twist it. It’s empowering. We are not too interested in the historicity of myths, and that's why we bring them out of their temporal context and sent them into the present or possible futures. We like that myths bring a less logic oriented attitude that we feel it’s more necessary for our current contemporary world which seems to have been stripped off of its mystery.

What are you currently focusing on, and how do you imagine your voice as artists unfolding in the foreseeable future?

This current year, we are trying to spend more time with the work in general. We are currently working on a show that opens in June in Los Angeles which will be a mix of medieval fairy tales within an office space environment. We imagine working on projects that take us longer and unfold with time. We also would like to keep expanding into other mediums or fields and make clothes, videos, books, scenography, music. We are managing to find the time for all that.