“Working with Renata is like playing with fire, drinking champagne, traveling in a balloon and falling down a roller coaster, all simultaneously,” says the great choreographer Oscar Aráiz, a friend of Renata Schussheim for more than five decades.
Plastic artist, sculptor, costume designer, book illustrator and imaginative creator of the staging, in 1982, of that legendary first national rock concert in Ferro, where Serú Girán, led by Charly García, presented “Bicicleta”.
Since she was little she knew that her vocation was art and she dedicated herself to perfecting herself, first with Ana Tarsia, and later with the painter and draftsman Carlos Alonso. The first sample of her was when she was 15 years old and she confesses that, in her youth, she was a kind of groupie who attended the legendary Di Tella Institute, where she met all the members of the cultural movement at one time. effervescent. After her debut as a costume designer with the ballet “Romeo and Juliet”, she followed a path that led her to countless plays, dance shows and operas, collaborating with artists such as the Russian musician Mstislav Rostropovich, our own Julio Bocca, or the Spanish Luis Pascual.
Warm and expressive, she gives herself to the talk with NOTICIAS at the Recoleta Cultural Center, where the exhibition “Al Rojo Vivo” can be seen, a journey through 50 years of her work.
News: Why is costume so important for the actor?
Schussheim: It’s your second skin. Finish defining a character. Muriel Santa Ana sent me a photo kneeling in front of the dress she wore in “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant”, which is the one that opens a whole parade of red garments on display. For her it was an emotion. In the figurines I don’t just put together the dress, it’s the makeup, hairstyle, shoes. You work with the filmmakers and actors, you are accompanying them until the curtain opens and, sometimes, afterward as well. A very personal relationship is created.
News: He likes to teach?
Schussheim: I do it with my assistants. Many young girls call me who want to know where they can study and the truth is that the only ones I have trained are the ones who have worked with me. Many are already professionals like Valentina Bari or Mariana Seropian, who at this moment is like my guardian angel, because without her I would not have been able to do all this. I think you perfect yourself by working and doing.
News: What memories do you have of the era of national rock effervescence?
Schussheim: Everything was blood traction. It was fantastic with that energy that you feel that young, popular music has. Rock is something very strong. Luckily the presentation of “Bicicleta” with Charly (García) in Ferro was recorded. It is a material that we pass here in one of the rooms. I wonder why Romay (Alejandro) recorded it for Channel 9. A visionary!
News: Do you like to continue collaborating with people who may not be well known?
Schussheim: Yes, through Instagram I looked for the graphic designer Martín Gorricho, who made the Cervantes posters, and when I found him he told me: “I hope we work together.” I replied: “Now! Let’s invent something.” Now we are in a book with the figurines, but I have to get off the carousel a little because I am detonated. This year I had “Tootsie”, the exhibition at the Borges, the opera “Il Turco in Italia” and this monstrous Recoleta project that I was able to do by Romina Del Prete, who also accompanied me at the Borges, who is much younger than me .
News: What was your first meeting with Charly like?
Schussheim: I have the memory of the place, a basement that was called “The Crazy Ball” and it is like a miracle of my brain because the tape deck is full of information, I have to reset it and I remember how the music hit me, how I liked it. He had already made Sui Generis, but I didn’t know him. I registered it in “The Bird Making Machine.”
News: And with Lino Patalano?
Schussheim: At Cipe Lincovsky’s house, when I was about 21 years old and pregnant with my son (Damián Laplace). We were friends with him and we worked together. He is so missed, he was so generous, so bon vivant. When he turned 70 we all went to Italy and he rented a hotel facing the sea. How crazy! Lino was like from another era in terms of his generosity.
News: Were you about to do a show with Manuel Puig?
Schussheim: When we met we were doing “No problem”, a show with Caviar, at the Canecão in Rio de Janeiro. Manuel grabbed my hand and said, “We have to do something together.” You can imagine that I loved that idea and that project. Lino became involved as a producer and we traveled with Jean François (Casanovas) to meet with him. He wanted to make something from scratch. Unfortunately it could not be finalized, but the manuscript is published. I gave it to Carlos Puig, his brother, they gave it a name that I don’t remember, but it remained unfinished. Manuel was a young guy, so handsome, he swam every day. I spent several days there, I went to the house to chat, we watched movies.
News: What attracts you to art in general?
Schussheim: I like everything, everything (categorically).
News: Is it a refuge, a way to dream, to express yourself?
Schussheim: It’s like oxygen, it’s culture, it’s growth, all of that. It is encouragement, it is intelligence, it is everything that has to be in life and that I hope does not change.
News: Are you in love?
Schussheim: No, I haven’t been in a relationship for a long time. Yes, very surrounded by affection, friends, family, a daily life with very young people, with a very rewarding work team, which is like a ship that moves forward. I have two granddaughters from my son Damián, and my beloved daughter-in-law, Úrsula, who is a visual artist and works in theater. They are Aurora, 5 years old, and Camelia, who is turning 1 year old.
News: Are animals part of your life?
Schussheim: I have two female dogs, Mora and Chanel, a Scottie and a Westy, which are the ones on the Black and White whiskey label. And I have a parrot that for me was like a Christmas story. I was so desperate and he came through the window, it was like a divine sign. I thought, “God sent me this bird to bring me good luck.” One day he ran away and I was in tremendous depression. Damián told me: “Mom, you can’t be like this because of a parrot.” What is incredible is having found it because it is a burrowing parrot that is a pest. There are millions and for me it is a miracle to have recovered. It’s like (Gustave) Flaubert’s parrot. I draw, I have it on my shoulder, it’s in my head, I’m like Captain Hook (laughs).
News: He lived in Mexico for a year and returned to the country. What attracts you to Buenos Aires?
Schussheim: I love this city. She is beautiful, effervescent, despite everything. Just as it suddenly drives me crazy, I think it’s a place where you never have peace. Wherever you relax for a minute, you get a slap on the back of the head. We are in a state of constant uncertainty that, if you are more or less creative, you can capitalize on. A life of tranquility for me is what is most like death. A psychoanalyst told me: “Do you ever sit down and watch television and scratch your neck?” I’m dying, it’s not my project, I don’t enjoy that.
News: What do you think of the current situation?
Schussheim: It is terrifying, not only here, but throughout the world. I’m not 20 years old anymore, I don’t want to go back. Let us move forward as we can, but without going backwards. When I was a girl, I thought, civilization advances because man is intelligent, but he regresses all the time and despite history.
News: Do you think about death?
Schussheim: A lot. Not before, but now quite a bit, minefield, I say.
News: With fear or curiosity?
Schussheim: With impression I would tell you, I can’t tell you that I have prepared it because I would lie to you. I don’t feel like it. She used to think she was immortal, always the youngest. But, well, there are many dear people who are no longer here and that is the most terrible thing, when our contemporaries begin to leave us. Suddenly you become aware of the time you have left.
