This document is excerpted from the transcript of conversations between the German-born Venezuelan artist Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994) and the Venezuelan filmmaker José Antonio Pantin. These conversations, filmed in 1981, were arranged as part of a project sponsored by the Galería de Arte Nacional [National Art Gallery] (GAN) in Caracas that set out to document the careers of the country’s most notable visual artists. Though the project was never completed, the transcripts of a questionnaire and two interviews were filed away with Gego’s papers that are now archived at the Fundación Gego (Caracas), where they are periodically consulted by researchers and specialists. Portions of the audio and video recordings of these sessions were presented at the exhibition Gego, 1955–1990 at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in 2001. Pantin subsequently directed a documentary, 10 minutos con Gego [10 Minutes with Gego].
In this interview, Gego discusses the most important architectural installations she produced during her career—two of which she worked on with the graphic designer, painter, and teacher Gerd Leufert, the Lithuanian-born Venezuelan who was her life partner from 1952 until her death in 1994. In 1967 Gego and Leufert worked together to produce Murales [Murals] at the INCE and the Mural Centro Comercial Cedíaz [Cedíaz Shopping Center Mural] at the Torre (both in Caracas). On the other hand, Cuerdas [Ropes] (1972), in Caracas’ Central Park, is perhaps her most famous architectural installation.
This document was reprinted in: María Elena Huizi and Josefina Manrique (organizers), Sabiduras y otros textos de Gego / Sabiduras and Other Texts by Gego (Houston: International Center for the Arts of the Americas, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Fundación Gego, 2005), under the title “Puro hecho” [Pure Fact], which according to the text, was taken from the artist’s first sentence.