It moves, shakes, rearranges itself, and the figure is never the same. Ximena Caminos it’s a kaleidoscope. Pure technicolor extravagance that in each movement generates an unexpected and unique energy, which spreads out like a colorful waterfall, where the irregular is transformed into symmetry. A thousand versions of herself. Reincarnations and resets throughout an original life, but without divisives, which may be strange for some, but where listening is always attentive and the step has a course. It’s the colorful palette of monochrome sophistication of the former Alan Faena, his creative alter ego for more than a decade and father of his son Noa. With an enthusiastic step, it covers less and presses more in its progress through multiple trails. Whether it’s to get art out on the street, as a curator of the Underline; the catwalk that runs through the Miami elevated subway, and that in 2023 will inaugurate its second phase; to develop a multidisciplinary cultural hive; or to remember with photographic memory the exact moment in which that almost cinematographic idea of rescuing oceans by creating reefs made up of an earthly automotive collapse imagined by the great Leandro Erlich arose. Pure sophistication to the rhythm of tango, in the shape of a blue whale’s heart that originated a modern Atlantis with River Plate airs, arising from the ideas of a girl who loved making mud pancakes.
News: Four years have passed since the previous interview. What happened in that time?
Ximena Caminos: Looking back is amazing. Four years ago I was on shaky ground. I think she still felt that she didn’t have a voice of her own. Until then I had been working a lot on everything related to the Faena District and Faena Art and suddenly I had to go out and build my project. And I didn’t know which way to go. But suddenly everything happened. I got married, consolidated my direction and realized that I wanted to work in everything that has to do with the intersection between art, sustainability and technology. I started thinking of Honeylab as this interdisciplinary platform of thought where art meets science and technology.
News: What do you think has changed in the art scene with the pandemic?
Roads: All digital interaction was enhanced. This also applied to what happened with digital art, the timing was perfect for NFT’s to explode.
News: Is the Basel Art Fair in Miami a good summary of Latin American art?
Roads: It is a partial summary, heavily edited, but true. The fair is a huge mobilizer of resources and trends. He put Miami on the map with another identity. Culture is a great asset. During the November primary elections, the citizens of Miami Beach voted to approve a $140 million cultural bond to support what they considered landmarks in the city, of which my project, the ReefLine, is going to receive 5 million to develop the first stage with a positive vote of 68 percent.
News: Is Argentine art up to the task?
Roads: Completely. Argentina for me is an innovative leader in many areas. I love Argentine art.
News: What do you hope The ReefLine achieves?
Roads: Protect marine life and improve coastal resilience by sustainably rebuilding what was once there. It will also be a tourist attraction, while also serving as civic infrastructure and a legacy project that will raise awareness of our fragile marine ecosystems.
News: Has this love for nature always been a passion?
Roads: Nature has been my refuge and my teacher. The moments in my life in which I was happiest and that forged me the most were moments with nature.
News: Was it more difficult for you as a woman to make your own way when you separated from Alan?
Roads: It is difficult, but sometimes a difficulty can be an opportunity if you know how to turn it around. Being a Latin American woman can be a weakness, but when it comes to applying to college they have a place for those specific people. You have to know where to find your opportunity. It wasn’t hard for me to make a place for myself, but it was hard for me to think about what place I wanted to occupy. It took me more than a year to come back to myself, reconnect with my essence and rethink my projects from my center, without interference.
News: What was your opportunity?
Roads: I think that all the projects I did, which were many, gave me credibility, because I always give more. I’m not afraid to ask, I’m not afraid to be ambitious with ideas, because I don’t just think about them, but I carry them out.
News: Alan has just announced his engagement to Grace Goldsmith, and a few years ago you married Luciano Ferreyra. Are they good exes?
Roads: We are very good friends and we have a relationship of great respect for each other’s decisions, and we are two self-sufficient and independent beings, which is why we can work together.
News: Did you think about going back to Argentina?
Roads: The Reefline ties me a lot to Miami, but I also have the idea of going back. Noa is Argentine and has a lot of family here and I like that she grows up a bit in her place. Miami is a strange world, it is a very consumerist society where you are in a bubble that is inside another bubble.
News: What does he feel when he comes?
Roads: He loves it, but he is also very used to that thing in the United States where everything goes and there is everything. So when he’s here he slows him down, which is what I’m looking for, to put his feet on the ground. Once a year I treat myself to an outlandish trip with my children (Emma and Lucio Capilla and Noa Faena). I took them on a road trip to Japan, Greece, Venice and Portugal and I want all the brothers to be together.
News: Of everything you did, what do you miss?
Paths: Have time for me. To wonder what I would do with that free time: yoga, meditate, plant, read. I have two types of creative times: joint creativity, which is the one that excites me the most, and then I have my own, which is more internal, and which takes much longer to blossom. The other day at the Bar Mitzva in Noa, the rabbi spoke about the importance of not taking all the trains, about the fact that sometimes you have to lose them to win. When I decided to start having my own projects, I felt like I was jumping from one train to another without maps, and that was the best thing that ever happened to me. Sometimes being a little lost is the best way to find yourself.
