At the moment [late 1992] I am making a film for British television, Channel 4. It is called Las Soledades, the name of a long poem by Góngora. It was made in Chile, using many poetical elements of that country.

Chile is seen through the eyes of a Chinese painter – any traditional Chinese painter who uses the eighteenth century ideas of Shih-T’ao. So again I’m making something where, apparently, two elements shouldn’t go together.

It is not immediately evident that something from Chile has anything to do with Chinese painting. But what happens in the landscape of my country, the south of Chile where I was born, the first thing it provokes in me is fear. It is a crazy landscape. But in crazy landscapes you can have very reasonable people talking, and that makes it more crazy.