A refuge from repression

It was October 1973, Franco was in power and repression was alive everywhere in the country. Picasso had died in April that same year and it felt like an indication that it was time to move on. I was working in Granollers (Barcelona) for Piher International, a powerful Catalan company in the field of electronic components. They offered me the possibility to go to London to learn English, and I took it. A few years later the company was driven to bankruptcy by the USA because they dared to sell goods to Cuba.

I did not choose it. The options were Chicago or London, and London was nearer. Piher transferred me to their subsidiary in the UK, in Middlesex (near London). I soon realised that there were many opportunities for me in the UK, and within two years I was at art college where a new life began.

I have been in London since then, although I was in Italy for a year, two years in Holland, and in other countries as Artist in Residence. In 1988 I returned to Barcelona and lived and worked there till 1995, then I won the Pollock Krasner award and returned to London.

There are many jobs available if you have the right qualifications or if you are prepared to take poorly paid jobs. The best jobs though, go to the 7% of the population educated at private schools. When I arrived in England the country was governed by the Labour Party and the possibilities offered to students were enormous. I managed to complete my secondary education and then I obtained scholarships to study for a B.A. (Hons) and an M.A Fine Art at the best art schools in London. Later on I obtained further scholarships to study in Paris and Amsterdam. London gave me the ground to build what until then had been a dream: to be an artist. Unfortunately all this has now gone for newcomers. At present to study at university young people need to borrow money to pay fees and support themselves, so they start their first job with a huge loan to pay off.

The museums, the libraries and the parks. British people are reserved and particular but you always know where you stand with them.

The madness created by the prospect of Brexit

The Mediterranean, the sun, the mountains of my village, and a dozen people.

Food supplements because they are cheaper in the UK

I gather that like everywhere else, your neighbourhood defines your status. However, in London you can be in a street with houses worth millions of pounds and the street parallel to it has council houses (homes for the poor) and squats full of squatters. I live and work south of the river; on the whole people prefer to live north of the river which is where the majority of the night life is. In recent years gentrification has changed the bad name the south used to have. The area around my studio though still has isolated areas that can be a bit scary, yet where I live is very bourgeois and peaceful. Yet, it is all in the south.

Sure, any dark or narrow street at night is a threat and if you are a woman alone, stay away from parks after dusk.

The freedom to go out in the street without a shower, with old clothes, in other words, looking like a mess and no one bothers you and respects your privacy.

I have never left Catalonia. Your homeland is like your first love, it is always in you.