René Victor Valqui Vidal
vvv@imm.dtu.dk
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~vvv/

Birth: 11.12.42 in Lima, Peru
Nationality: Danish
Languages: Spanish. Danish, English, French
Last Position: Professor of Operational Research and Creativity at the Department of Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, The Technical University of Denmark, 1967-2008.
Since 1998: Visual artist (painting, graphics, sculptures, ceramics, photography, and visual poetry).
Since 1998: Teaching at the Technical University of Denmark Creativity and Problem Solving.
Since 2000: Facilitator for participative creative problem solving processes in connection with the EU project LEADER+.

Education
July 65: MSc in Engineering, the National University of Engineering, Peru.
1965-1966: Post graduated studies at Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, Belgium, within the areas of Operations Research, Econometrics, Management and Organisation.
1967-1970: PhD student, The Technical University of Denmark.
1971: PhD degree in engineering with the thesis: OR in Production Planning, The Technical University of Denmark.
1992: Dr. Tech. degree with the thesis: Engineering Optimization- Selected Contributions, The Technical University of Denmark.
1994: PhD degree in Cultural Sociology with the thesis: A sociological study of OR, University of Copenhagen.
96-97: Studies on creative processes and painting at the School of Visual Art, Copenhagen
Since 1997: Every year participates in the international workshop (2 weeks) on art (painting, music, ceramics, sculpture), Holbæk Kunsthøjskole, Denmark

Paintings
Juried Exhibitions
2000: Autumn exhibition, Det Fri Copenhagen, Denmark.
2001: Autumn exhibition, Det Fri Copenhagen, Denmark.
2002: Summer exhibition, Tistrup, Denmark.
2003: Rundetårn exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2003: Spring exhibition, Århus, Denmark.
Solo Exhibition
2002: Galleri Shambala, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2003: Albertslund’s library, Denmark.
2005: Albertslund’s library, Denmark.
2006: Glostrup’s municipality, Denmark.
Group Exhibition
2001: Bergen, Norway.
2002-2007: Albertslund’s municipality year exhibition, Denmark.
2003: Galleri Shambala i samarbejde med Herlev Kommunes Kulturcenter Gammelgaard, Denmark.
2007: Christmas exhibition, Gallery Shambala, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sculptures
Solo Exhibition
2003: Albertslund’s library, Denmark
2005: Albertslund’s library, Denmark
2006: Glostrup’s municipality, Denmark
Juried Exhibition
2003: Autumn exhibition, Det Fri Copenhagen, Denmark.
2004: Spring exhibition, Århus, Denmark.
2006: Spring exhibition, Århus, Denmark.
2007: Spring Vestsjælland exhibition, Holbæk, Denmark.
Group Exhibition
2007: Christmas exhibitions of artist that have exhibited in the gallery, Gallery Shambala, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Photo
Since 2004: Digital photography and modified photos, many of them are shown in virtual galleries (see below).

Installations
Juried exhibitions
2008: VK-2008, spring exhibition in Vestsjælland, Holbæk, Denmark. 3 installations were shown at this exhibition. I obtained first prize for my installation: Homage to the innocents killed at war. See further
http://www.vk-udstillingen.dk/

Creativity and Facilitation
I have written a booklet given guidelines to enhance your creativity based on experiences from art and science, this booklet: “Enhancing Your Creativity: A 10-point guide”, can be retrieved for free from:
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/pubdb/views/publication_details.php?id=5160

My experiences teaching the facilitation of participative and creative problem solving have been presented in the textbook: “Creative and Participative Problem Solving - The Art and the Science”, that can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~vvv/CPPS/index.htm

Poetry
Finalist in “IX Certamen Internacional de Poesía y Narrativa” organized by Editorial Nuevo Ser, Argentina. Two poems were published in the anthology: La Nueva Literatura de Habla Hispana, Editorial Nuevo Ser, Buenos Aires, 2005.

78 short poems in Spanish and 23 visual poems. These can be downloaded from my Website (see below). 15 of these visual poems have been published in an anthology in Chile: Quinta antología: Voces online, Escritores.cl, 2007.

Virtual Galleries
Paintings:
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~vvv/galleri/
Installations and sculptures:
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~vvv/installations/
Ceramics:
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~vvv/Keramik/
Poems (Spanish):
http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~vvv/poems.pdf
Paintings and photo:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/a/1785.html
Drawings, Photos and sculptures:
http://www.artistasdelatierra.com/artistas/Vic
Paintings and photos:
http://www.equilibriarte.org/eqmember/3486
A poem (Spanish)
http://www.escritores.cl/elibros/microPoemas.swf
A painting in a digimural:
http://www.artistsnpeace.org/digimural.htm
Paintings, photos, installations and sculptures:
http://www.artmesh.org/profile_overviews/victor_vidal
Sculptures, paintings and photos:
http://www.artbreak.com/vic

Comments
For me Art is a way to express my ideas, reflections, socio-political concerns and visions about a better World. It is storytelling using different kind of materials, techniques, images, symbols and media. I do not seek a specific style, but I combine in creative ways different symbols, styles, schools and techniques to tell my story. For me the creative aspect in Art is more essential than aesthetics. In my creative work I seek to break boundaries and constraints due to material, traditions or routines. I usually seek in my work ambiguity, humour, criticism, playfulness and weirdness. I make Art for the brain not for the eyes. My pieces of art usually demand participation and involvement of the viewer, they are though provoking.

I started as a painter. I was lucky to have 4 fantastic teachers, all of them practicing painters: Caroline de Lannoy (UK), Per Johan Svendsen (Denmark), Ilona Ösz (Hungary) and Barbara Wilson (Poland). All of them created art using different styles and purposes, and were great teachers at the same time. My colour compositions and forms are very Latin-American and my favourite artists from this part of the planet are Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and Oswaldo Guayasamín. I have been highly inspired by the German art revolution known as Expressionism, specially Wassily Kandinsky, Otto Dix and George Grosz. Two paintings that had a great influence in my work were Guernica (Pablo Picasso) and Stalingrad (Asker Jorn). I have been fascinated by Jorn’s revolt against the Establishment and its traditional way to conceptualise art, and by Jorn’s ability to paint, made sculptures, graphics, litography and write theoretical papers and books about art. All what he touched became art. Later, I became interested on the relationships between Art and Science inspired by the British artist John Latham. When I started writing poems I became very much interested on the works of Andre Tapies, from Catalonia. These two artist had influence on my interest of art as objects in a three dimensional space.

I started producing sculptures, objects and installations inspired by the Dadaist movement. The works and ideas of Marcel Duchamp were of great inspiration, specially his concept of ready-mades. This resulted in a lot of trash art objects. In relation to this form of conceptual art the Danish artist Sven Dalsgaard has been of great inspiration. The Italian artist and very good friend Sandra Davolio introduced me to the world of ceramics; this gave inspiration to some of my work with sculptures. The Danish artist Kenneth Balfelt introduced me to the world of Trash Art. Later, I have studied thoughtfully the artistic production of Joseph Beuys and Felix Gonzales-Torres. Beuys political engagement and Gonzales-Torres generosity have been highly inspiring.

The British artist and my very good friend Julia Farrer taught me the art of printing, graphics and the world of poetry’s illustration. We had a common passion for Cesar Vallejo. I begun producing short (haiku) and visual poems and she introduced me to the works of Joan Brossa. And the circle was closed because he was a very close friend of Andre Tapies. In this connection I have been very fascinated by the poetry of Peter Laugesen.

Following the lines of the fluxus movement (Joseph Beuys, John Cage and Nam June Paik) I was fascinated by performance art. This has been of great support in my work as a facilitator of participative and creative group work. As a facilitator sometimes I am a director of a performance enhancing the creativity of a group of people, see above my publications on these themes.