Interview with the Deco-Artist Marta from Barcelona

Hi Marta!

Thanks very much for taking time for this interview.

Thanks for your interest in my work.

 

First of all, please tell me your name, artistname, age, where you come from, your real life job and your motto of the day.

My name is Marta Balza, I make stringart decorations as Optical illusionS.  I’m 27 years old, coming from Barcelona and I’m chemical engineer, my motto of the day is “always looking after your trip”.

 

 

When did you get into the Psychedelic Trance Scene?

It was in September 2000, when  for the first time I went to a psytrance party in Barcelona. I felt attracted by the music and the philosophy of this type of parties and then I started to go to several events in England, France, Greece and Portugal, where I’ve met loads of people and I felt like discovering the new hippie movement of this century.

 

What`s the essence of Psy-Trance for you and the situation of your local scene today?

PsyTrance it’s more than music, psytrance it’s a culture, a way to live, a way to think, a way to have fun...In psytrance culture we take care about  decoration,  visuals, the place, the sound, the food, ... the essence of psytrance it’s the combination of all these factors with the music.

 

Nowadays in my city, Barcelona, psytrance scene is growing up and we have more parties than some years ago where we can see great dj’s and artists, and to see the amazing work of international decorators and vj’s. For new year’s eve, Existence Festival (by Sindar) was awesome and very well organised. For me it was the first big festival organised in Barcelona, and if that festival keeps on hapening, I think that could be the first winter festival in Europe.

 

 

How did you get in touch with Psy-Deco? What is so fascinating about that?

When I went to my first parties and festivals I realized how important the decoration was in this kind of events. The psydeco is necessary to create a good atmosphere, to create magic to the place you are dancing in, to make you feel comfortable and  have a nice trip. The music gives you the energy,  the decoration modulate this flow of energy to make you live a very good moment.

 

How do you work, what`s your material and equipment your work with?

I started with my experiments with different materials and textures, untill I got to know the technique called StringArt. My deco work is based in creations on two and three-dimensional structures composed by modules that allow a fast, sure and easy transport and assembly of the decoration. The 2D structures are used to decorate the cabin of the Dj, and the 3D ones, are those that I hang from the roof.

 

Basicly my material is wool, wood and lot of time and imagination. My technique, the StringArt.

 

This technique is based on the progression of straight tangent lines to hyperbolic curves and combining in a good way the colors of the wool, the angles between the edges of the structures and the number of straight lines, some very psychedelic effects can be reached.

 

What inspires you/do your ideas come from?

I always have a passbook in my pocket where I draw the structures that come to my mind in any moment of the day. When I have to decorate an specific party, my inspiration is adapted to the place that I have to decorate. I mean, before preparing a decoration, I go to the place to take measures, to study the corners where the structures can be hunged up, to see the distribution (where is situated the cabin of the Dj, the bar, etc..), and in function of all these factors, I make a design (normally by computer). I show the project to the promoter of the party and like that he can also contribute with his ideas. Hereby I reach very nice effects instead of putting the elements of decorationn randomly over the room.

 

Where we can see your Art? And what can we expect in the future from Optical illusionS?

You can visit this link www.myspace.com/stringart_psydeco to see lots of pictures of my recent works and to know my next gigs.

 

About the future, you can expect from Optical illusionS a big effort to make nice decorations to open your mind, to stimulate your imagination and to make you fly dancing with psytrance music.

Okay, that`s all. Thank you very much for your words! There`s somehing more you want to say?

It has been a pleasure to make this interview ,thank you very much for your interest!