Five Questions from Quarantine: Lope Serrano

What’s your self-isolation set-up at the moment? 

Our house in Barcelona. A bright and comfortable 90m2 apartment in the Eixample neighbourhood. We can not see the streets but we have a stunning rear-window-esque view from the dining room, which is the central stage of our daily routine. We are 3. Myself, Cecilia, my wife, and our 7 month old baby, León. From 8am to 9pm, he is the sun of our solar system. For the rest of the time, the moon of our dreams. 

We pile up books and magazines and notebooks and crayons and computers and toys and cups of tea and cups of coffee and some other things that, to be honest, I don’t know what the hell it is

Both me and Cecilia, she’s a photographer, we work outside, in an office/studio. I work in CANADA headquarters and she works in a nice and cute co-working place called Studio Stadio. But we are used to working eventually at home, writing treatments, drawing or editing images, so, somehow, we are not complete strangers to this exceptional time. 

We have a big central table where we pile up books and magazines and notebooks and crayons and computers and toys and cups of tea and cups of coffee and some other things that, to be honest, I don’t know what the hell it is. We also have a neater corner with a stationary computer and nice views though. In any case, I’ve always liked to be surrounded by a mess of our own stuff. It’s like on the beach: I feel the pleasure of dipping myself in the sand instead of exercising caution.

It’s lockdown; aside from your family, which four people, past or present, would you most like to be quarantined with?

You know what, actually a quarantine is a litmus test for human relationships, you know? It’s better to be surrounded by those who can tolerate you in the broadest sense of the word, which means, ultimately, love. And vice versa. So, somehow or other, it is good to have a restricted company these strange days since love, real love, is also a restricted term. 4 people that are nice for a weekend but too much for a who-knows-how-long quarantine. So it’s better to be some kind of unrealistic here. 

What about being with George, John, Paul and Ringo again, in, let’s say, 1975, just in the peak of their break up, and having some instruments and a pool but not cameras, just sound recording, so the memories would be the real Treasure of that isolated Island.

We need entertainment, what’s your favourite short film? 

I saw I am Easy To Find right before the quarantine and it’s such a beautiful, smart, tender, wise and intense masterpiece. I’ve always liked and admired Mike Mills. 

He has been a pivotal artist in the process of forging some of my skills and sensitivity and this is a mountain top of his work. Alicia Vikander, oh my god. She’s simply a miracle. What a marvel! 

You’ve completed Netflix. And Amazon Prime. And Disney+. It’s on the hard stuff; board games. What do you pick and why?

Risk. I can not remember a better board adventure in my childhood. I used to play with 2 kid friends each weekend, back in the mid 80’s. Easy mechanics, great expectations and the only harmless experience of being imperialistic I can imagine. And you learn geography.

You can call me a nostalgic hipster or snob bastard but IT’S DEFINITELY NOT THE SAME if you play with a contemporary version. The 80’s version is, in visual and physical terms, MUCH BETTER.