Mar Aragó
Nike Air Zoom Spiridon 'Triple Black'
For the first Kickstory interview in Spanish, we talked with Mar Arago. Born in Valencia, she graduated in Fine Arts and moved to Barcelona to study Art Direction. Mar talked about her inspirations, as well as her small collection of specific black Nikes.
“My name is Mar, I’m 25 years old and I’m from Valencia. I studied Fine Arts, then my Masters in Production and now I’m here in Barcelona studying Art Direction.”
Why Fine Arts, was it something you always wanted to do?
marWell, it wasn’t something I chose, it was something natural for me. It’s like, people are good at certain things and I was good at doing manual things. I don’t know, it has always been so clear to me, ever since I was a child… it was only in high school that I suffered some kind of pressure because I had a good grades, and there was pressure on me to become a doctor or a lawyer – apart from that, my parents knew and never tried to change what I wanted to be, they assumed that it was a natural thing for me. I wasn’t good at stuff, it wasn’t like “Wow, your really good at drawing!” or “you’re a great painter!”, but I knew I wanted to be an artist.
After Fine Arts, you studied Art Direction and Artistic Production. With these areas of study, what are the projects you want to do in the future?
marI’d like to work as an Art Director. I love projects in which I have to take things from abstract to figurative, it’s what I do best. People with like Graphic Designers are very rational, everything has to be perfect. My vibe is more of doing whatever comes mind, more emotional, that transmits something, that’s abstract – Art has that, it gives you a different point of view about everything…
Tell us about people who inspire you – at work, in fashion, in life.
marIn fashion, Margiela, obviously. He was the best in this world, but not anymore since Diesel bought the brand and it’s not him who’s in charge anymore. Artists I really like James Turrell and mostly installation Artists – they’re complete, they master the concept, the aesthetics, space, they dominate everything that can be called art.
I try not to fix myself in people who are inaccessible to me, I can have them as references, but they are like gods to me. On the other hand, my biggest inspirations are my friends, I have very good people working next to me – they inspire you and they can contribute to your work because they’re at the same level as you, to me this is way more interesting. When you open a magazine, like i-D or something like that, and you see the daughter of Will Smith or some other person who had it easy and at the same time there are people around you working hard, for free, doing amazing things – that’s admiration. What I have for already consecrated artists is respect, but admiration, I just have for people who are at my level.
What is your relationship with sneakers in general?
marI’ve always worn sneakers since I was little. I always remember this one I had when I was very little, it was a Polly Pocket sneaker – I have them engraved in my memory and I think they were the first ones I had. I’m not the kind of girl that goes around carrying a purse, you know? I always wanted to be comfortable, that’s why I always wore sneakers because I’ve always been like that.
I just don’t like when people buy sneakers just to have them. I believe that if you buy something that is worth so much money, it has to be useful, I don’t buy them and put them away like in a museum – I’m not a collector. I can like them a lot, but I’m not going to spend €200 if I’m not going to put them on.
When and how did your relationship with the sneakers begin?
marI guess it was in college. It’s that time when you start to develop your own style when you have more maturity and know better how to choose things. I already knew that clothes I liked, my mom would always tell me “You look like a cockroach all in black” – because once again I was dressed all in black, colors always influence you when you’re dressing up, but black is always the best option. Besides, when you get older you start buying more expensive things, because you are making more money, and you start buying the things you want and not the things you can, which is a very big difference.
Why do you have such a large Nike Air collection?
marWhen you spend more than a 100 euros in a sneaker, you have to think that you are at least investing in technology.
What’s your relationship with these sneakers?
marI just had to go after these – yet, the other ones I have were not so hard to find. I wanted black shoes as always, because I was always wearing my 95’s – which to me, are the best sneakers I have, the ones that last longer, more robust. And it was like, I liked them so much that they need to rest a bit. So I bought the reflective Spiridons to interchange, which is perfect because I have an obsession with light – I have a background in video, projections, and installations and when I saw the reflective part in the sun, I fell in love. But every time I went to buy it, there was never my size until one day that was like “now or never” and I bought it.
