Uploaded February 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Jorge Lozano Lorza is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Josiane Blanc.
Production of the Canada Council for the Arts. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
To me one of the most revolutionary things that I can do as a person is to enjoy what I do.
I came to Canada in 1971, and I came to the Island, actually.
When I came, I had to work in a lot of jobs as an immigrant.
What I kept within myself is this feeling of wanting to express myself.
The first thing that I did was to buy a Super 8 camera because I’d seen some experimental Super 8 films in Columbia from Norman McLaren.
So, when I came, I bought that camera and went out onto Yonge Street.
And as I began doing that I discovered, too, that I wasn’t represented in the arts or in the media.
I would turn the TV on, and I couldn’t see people like me or with my concerns.
Making films and videos was the tool that I used to put myself in the picture and say, ‘I exist.’
A lot of my work is an encounter with situations, with events.
Through observing and thinking a lot about what I see, and in some ways, trying to detect what separates us, trying to detect what does us harm as [a] community or as groups.
When it’s recorded and I bring it back into the house, it’s already charged with intensity.
Things that have excited me, that have impacted me, that I had to film or to record.
To me, to create is an act of happiness.
Even though [they are] difficult subjects, I feel good about it.
So that gives me freedom and happiness to do it.
I don’t do political work; I do it politically.
It’s not that I do work about issues.
The issues are there because they are part of my life, so the works have that.
Real politics to me is thinking, how much am I what I am questioning?
The plants have always played a very significant role in my videos, absolutely.
The plants are a transformation to me. The plants are adaptable.
Basically, I identify with them.
In a way, they are still being themselves in another place but they’re not at the same time.
Doing what I do is my life.
I have nothing else that I can do and that I want to do.
And when one does what one wants to do, it’s kind of a privilege.
Most people can’t do that. Most people have to work in another job.
And I have the fortune to be able to do what I want to do as I want to do it and how I want to do it.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Jorge Lozano Lorza is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Josiane Blanc.
Production of the Canada Council for the Arts. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit ggarts.ca
****
Transcript:
To me one of the most revolutionary things that I can do as a person is to enjoy what I do.
I came to Canada in 1971, and I came to the Island, actually.
When I came, I had to work in a lot of jobs as an immigrant.
What I kept within myself is this feeling of wanting to express myself.
The first thing that I did was to buy a Super 8 camera because I’d seen some experimental Super 8 films in Columbia from Norman McLaren.
So, when I came, I bought that camera and went out onto Yonge Street.
And as I began doing that I discovered, too, that I wasn’t represented in the arts or in the media.
I would turn the TV on, and I couldn’t see people like me or with my concerns.
Making films and videos was the tool that I used to put myself in the picture and say, ‘I exist.’
A lot of my work is an encounter with situations, with events.
Through observing and thinking a lot about what I see, and in some ways, trying to detect what separates us, trying to detect what does us harm as [a] community or as groups.
When it’s recorded and I bring it back into the house, it’s already charged with intensity.
Things that have excited me, that have impacted me, that I had to film or to record.
To me, to create is an act of happiness.
Even though [they are] difficult subjects, I feel good about it.
So that gives me freedom and happiness to do it.
I don’t do political work; I do it politically.
It’s not that I do work about issues.
The issues are there because they are part of my life, so the works have that.
Real politics to me is thinking, how much am I what I am questioning?
The plants have always played a very significant role in my videos, absolutely.
The plants are a transformation to me. The plants are adaptable.
Basically, I identify with them.
In a way, they are still being themselves in another place but they’re not at the same time.
Doing what I do is my life.
I have nothing else that I can do and that I want to do.
And when one does what one wants to do, it’s kind of a privilege.
Most people can’t do that. Most people have to work in another job.
And I have the fortune to be able to do what I want to do as I want to do it and how I want to do it.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
