Drawing different lines with Christian Diaz Orejarena

Today we visit Christian Diaz Orejarena in his studio in Britz. Shortly we are uncertain where the right entranceis, but a friendly man’s voice leads us to the destination – and there at the bottom of the stairs stands Christian and welcomes us warmly. He shows us his studio and explains that other artists are working in the rest of the rooms. But today we have the place, the former apartment and the sunny terrace for us!

First, we gather in Christian’s space and inspect everything thoroughly. On the walls there are some labeled Post-Its and on the opposite side there are strange masks and painted cardboard signs. We also discovered comics. They are of particular interest to us, because almost everyone reads comics regularly. Does Christian make them himself?

The artist tells us that he studied graphic design and then (media and conceptual) art in Vienna. During his studies he made many films (and he is currently working on one). However, even short videos are very complex, because everything has to somehow come in front of the camera; digitally or in real life. Drawing is much easier, because this is where the wildest stories and figures can be created on paper! Christian has enjoyed drawing a lot since he was at school (often also in class). He says that in the end a comic is actually like a movie, only with drawn pictures – a good format for telling stories.

A complex story that Christian wanted to tell is connected to his own: Christian was born and raised in Germany but his father was born in Colombia. (Since we are not quite sure, Christian shows us on the world map where the South American country is.) As a young man, his father came to Germany to study, met Christian's mother and has remained there to this day. And although Christian is half Colombian, for a long time he had no real connection to the country and people, as he never lived there and hardly knew his Colombian family. After finishing school, he wanted to change that: he went to South America and to the village where his father was born. There he learned a lot about the region and found out what a German from the 19th century has to do with it. Because this man has done some good things, but also some bad things, which still have an impact on life there!

At first, Christian just soaked up everything he heard like a sponge, then slowly developed a coherent story, often talked about it with friends and then started drawing much later. First the project was to become a small booklet, then a short lecture with pictures. . . and now the artist shows us with a hidden smile a real book: “Otras Rayas” (which is Spanish and translates to “Other Lines”). Christian has worked on it for a total of five years, he says. He made the drawings for the book on large sheets of paper, scanned them and reduced their size.

We look around again and discover: the picture of the book cover is hanging directly over Christian's desk! And the colourful fabric mask on the opposite, the one with the long trunk and the big ears, appears again and again in the book. (Christian tells us that you can be very cheeky when you wear it. When he wears the mask at book presentations, he is usually a bit more courageous and less excited – even when Christian’s dad, who appears in the book, is in the audience.) The cardboard masks and signs, on the other hand, are part of a project for which he worked with Colombian youths. He particularly enjoyed working together, but the project is not yet complete. For this purpose the wrote notes are on the wall. Christian has written down everything that is important and part of it, so that he does not lose track and can better decide how to proceed – kind of a mind map.

Christian tells us that he thinks a lot about the question of what art-making is in the first place. He believes that art is a special space where stories can find a place that would otherwise be lost or not given attention in everyday life. He thinks it's important to create a space where you can look at the world in different ways – and that’s exactly what art helps to do.

And how long has he been making art? On and off about 25 years, Christian guesses. (We estimate Christian at 30, but he admits he's already 40). So he started as a teenager! Sometimes he earns money with art, sometimes he doesn't get any and still keeps working because he finds it so important. Sometimes he does other jobs (for example as a graphic designer or he helps with a film) to earn money and sometimes he has a scholarship so he can do nothing but art all the time. That's especially great!

He shows us how much fun you can have with art with an exercise: Christian has prepared small notebooks in which collective comics are to be created. This works a bit like the game “Cadavre Exquis”, where you draw only one (body) part at a time, fold up what you have drawn and pass the paper on to the next person. This always creates really crazy figures! We now apply the principle to comics and stories that we work on together. On post-its we collect three words each (a noun/noun, a verb/word, an adjective/word) that should serve as inspiration for our stories. And then we start: each person starts on the first inside page and passes the booklet on after one minute. On the second page, the next person continues the story, and the next person still continues... and is not allowed to turn back. When the notebooks are full, we recite the comics to each other. Some of us are a bit disappointed because the story we started didn’t turn out as imagined at the beginning. But that’s exactly what makes the comics particularly funny – they’re about freezing diamonds, giant Gameboys, quarrelling siblings and (missed) scoring chances. And as funny and confidently as we perform them, you'd almost think we were all wearing Christian’s carnival mask...