Source: XOXO

My name is… Carolina Fontoura Alzaga. You can call me Caro for short. I’m… years old. NA. I do what I do because… Louise Bourgeois said: “Art is the guarantee of sanity” and I agree with her. My biggest dream is… to learn every artistic medium there is. I think life is… a true gift. Last night I ate… organic black beans and quinoa with portabello mushrooms, kale, tomato salsa, and guacamole. The last song I listened to was… “La bamba rebelde” by Las Cafeteras. My favorite book is… It always changes – right now it’s the Francesca Woodman photography book I was given. My role models are… My mother, my father, and my grandmother. My favorite 3 artists are… Sophie Calle, Ruth Asawa, Swoon. How do you take your coffee? Organic, decaf, almond latte. Are you a cat or dog person? Neither. If you had a super power what would it be? I would rid the earth of all pollution. Which cartoon character would you like to be? Gena the crocodile who is friends with Cheburashka, the principal character in a Russian cartoon. Can you describe your designs in 3 words? Repurpose, Revindicate, Reimagine. What is the most random thing in your bag right now? Nail clippers. What does recycling mean to you? Recycling is about incorporating one of the many principles of sustainability into our lives. We should do everything in our power to take care of the very thing that sustains us and reevaluate how we just flip a switch, run a tap, flush the toilet, and dump the trash without considering the implication of our actions. How did you come up with your chandelier idea? I saw pots and pans hung from a bike rim like a pot rack and I got the idea to make a mobile. I made the mobile but dissatisfied I decided to make a proper chandelier. What’s your next project about? I’m currently finishing a sculpture for a juried exhibition to raise funds for the World Bicycle Relief, an organization that gets bicycles to people in underdeveloped regions of the world who suffer from lack of access to health care, education, and economic opportunity. The exhibit will be in NYC in November of this year. What is the most extravagant thing that you want to recycle? It would be amazing to have a whole village made from used buses and wagons that can no longer function as vehicles but have been repurposed as living quarters. Some would be single vehicle homes and for communal spaces, or for larger families, vehicles would be stacked and stairs and planks would lead from one ‘car room’ to another. Like a trailer park but far more imaginative and colorful and unique. If you would design something for XOXO The Mag what would it be? A surreal