LASER/DISC/SCRATCH/DESTRUCTION RAPHAEL MONTANEZ ORTIZ Edited by Pedro ReyesDOCUMENTS FROM THE ARCHIVE OF RAPHAEL MONTANEZ ORTIZ EDITED BY PEDRO REYES | joined Raphael in the basement of his home in New Jersey where | dug through boxes of his archive comprised of slides, press clips, U-matic tapes, film reels, binders and vintage computers. As a long-time follower of his work, it was difficult to make a selection for this publication. | believe that it is especially relevant today as we increasingly experience violence as a part of our daily lives. In the following interview, he shares some of his insights on this topic and how instead of hoping for violence to someday disappear, there are ways to discover how to transform that part of our nature into a creative experience. As we seek out frameworks for committed practice, the ideas of Raphael Montaiiez Ortiz will be more urgent. EARLY WORKS, AESTHETIC FRAMEWORKS AND BRAIN ARCHITECTURE RMO: The sest piano wasin 1962. Twas a student at Prat Institute and Pedro Reyes: Looking at the photos of this piano destruction I now remember you mentioning that you My sister was there was a big empty lot where Iwas started making destructions as = kid. Raphael Montatiez Ortiz: Yeah, Ts nine years ol, there were four or five of us who would always hang out and do mischievous things together. There was this building that was going to be tom down and n lot. As vith most vacant lots, p always end up throwing things furniture, or other junk people threw ‘out the window into the empty lot that was next doe We over the fence, we enjoged breaking windows, and target practice and s0 on. There were these pieces of furniture lying around. We used to jump on them, ply teampoline, tear them apa, pull the springs out and stuff Those ‘wete my early Furniture strings mb (One day. I found out that thece was @ cellar down below I looked down and 1 could see there was an old p And so I jumped do tallec than all of the other f ‘mine, and I found this pipe and this litle rusy axand I staged banging con the piano, tying to dest sie ws tng pan ess du Ig Bing, Bing, big ing, bing, bing, so that mig hhave been d Seal bonkers 0s hoes that was in nye kind of thing cis ding ding ding PR: When did you work om a piano as fan atistfor the frst time? doing fee pieces One dy when Femme to the empty lot, someone had put a piano there and 80 Isai, well this is fantastic? “this is an opportunity to pick. ‘up feom that first childhood piano but {0 think about itin a more sophisticated sway? I went immediately to the hhatdwate store and I looked for small axes and then I thought, no, use big ax? So I bought a big ax, I came bac, and 1 whacked itaround, made a lotof noise. Evidently that stayed with sme because then in "66, I began with « number of other concepts sing pianos and continued in a more musical way, started thinking of them as concerts PR: You always produce some writing about your findings. Did you write about these early destructions? RMO3 In °62 I wrote about a tual thea shat I called the “brown ove the different kinds waiting something T even have acandy manitesto from wh candy store in Pro Trak the comon candy andi jou came forcotton candy you could tell me when ta stop. So then have these huge cotton ¢ coukdi’t see the child beh would this giane cotton candy. So I had fun with that and wrote the Sweet Tooth Manifesto Ten ahweys working on some aesthetic feamework, taking piano Lessons, and I used to hate her going: bing, bing, bing bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, so that might have been an opportunity to somehow redeem myself from sacrificing this monster that was in My ear.