Aurora Blyde interviews Sammy Cucher during the exhibition CCS-10. Arte venezolano actual (Caracas: Fundación Galería de Arte Nacional, 1993). Cucher discusses the various ways in which his work addresses social issues; he explains how he thinks art can raise public awareness of psychological, social, and cultural problems; the myths and archetypes contained in his works; the potential he sees in mixed media and video in the field of communication; and, finally, the type of audiences that attend different exhibitions, which is something he believes the artist must take into account.

The exhibition CCS-10. Arte venezolano actual was one of the most important events ever devoted to conceptual art, non-object-based art, and the use of mixed media and technology in Caracas. Curated by the graphic designer Álvaro Sotillo (b. 1946), the exhibition included ten emerging artists from the 1970s and 1980s who, by 1993 (when the exhibition opened) had already established themselves: Eugenio Espinoza (b. 1950), Sigfredo Chacón (b. 1950), Héctor Fuenmayor (b. 1949), Roberto Obregón (b. 1946), and several others who came into their own later on: Alfred Wenemoser (b. 1954), Sammy Cucher (b. 1958), Meyer Vaisman (b. 1960), Oscar Machado (b. 1953), José Gabriel Fernández (b. 1957), and José Antonio Hernández-Diez (b. 1964).

The interviews conducted by the journalist Aurora Blyde and published in the catalogue/study guide for the exhibition provide an overview of emerging art in Venezuela, which helps to see links between one generation and another and to identify similarities with Venezuelan and international art movements in the 1970s and beyond, while placing in time the individual poetics and career of each of the participating artists.

This article captures the measured sense of social commitment that can be seen in the work of the Peruvian artist Sammy Cucher, who moved to Venezuela in 1960. The interview is interesting because of the clarity with which Cucher discusses his own work and certain issues relating to art and museology, including the complex factors involved in the communication that takes place during an exhibition or the viewing of a work of art, and the artist’s approach to exhibiting to different audiences and in different exhibition spaces, museums, galleries, and so on. He also talks about art for mass consumption in public spaces of a different type, and the relationships between the human and technological aspects of the process. Cucher has worked with Anthony Aziz since the early 1990s, on works he signs “Aziz Cucher.”

To read Aurora Blyde’s interviews with other artists who participated in the exhibition CCS-10. Arte venezolano actual, see “Jugando a atrapar el espacio [Entrevista con Sigfredo Chacón]” [doc. no. 864412]; “Por la seducción de ver [Entrevista con José Gabriel Fernández]” [doc. no. 864393]; “Para hacerle ofrendas a la muerte [Entrevista con Roberto Obregón]” [doc. no. 1097592]; “De las cenizas petrificadas por el tiempo [Entrevista con Oscar Machado]” [doc. no. 864755]; “Irreflexiones, reflexiones y flexiones [Entrevista con Héctor Fuenmayor]” [doc. no. 864715]; “Ficción sobre ficción [Entrevista con Meyer Vaisman]” [doc. no. 1051228]; “Entre el orden histórico y el caos emocional [Entrevista con Eugenio Espinoza]” [doc. no. 864696]; and “En la búsqueda, pero sin querer buscar [Entrevista con José Antonio Hernández-Diez]” [doc. no. 864736].