Interview with Zoé Valdés. By Osiris Valdés López

 Exploring the Mystery of Creation: An Exclusive Interview with Zoé Valdés

 “Life is too palpable and evident; creation is the true mystery.”
                                                                         — Zoé Valdés

 In this edition, I have the immense honor of presenting an intimate conversation with Zoé Milagros Valdés, one of the most prominent voices in contemporary literature. Zoé is a multifaceted writer whose more than thirty titles include narrative, poetry, essays and screenplays, all imbued with a critical and nostalgic vision of life in Cuba.

 With a career that has taken her from her homeland to Paris, where she has lived since 1995, Zoé has received numerous awards and her work has been translated into multiple languages, including English, French, German and many more. In addition to her literary work, she has left an important mark on cinema as a screenwriter and filmmaker.

 Les muses ne dormment pas ( The Muses Do Not Sleep ), published by Éditions Stock in France. This work of fiction recounts her experiences and impressions after spending a night alone in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. Through a sensual and magical narrative, Zoé explores the links between painters and their muses, offering a unique and deeply personal perspective on art and creation.

 In this exclusive interview, Zoé talks about the transformation she experienced while writing this book, her sources of inspiration and her unique vision of the relationship between art and loneliness. We also learn about her future projects and how she maintains a close connection with her readers.

 Join us on this fascinating journey and be seduced by the words and imagination of one of the most influential authors of our time.

 Interview

 Zoé, in “The Muses Don’t Sleep,” there is an importance of sensuality, of the desire expressed in the paintings, of your love for art, for infinite creation. To what extent did the wonderful feeling of creating this work transform you?

You're right, I hadn't thought about it, but it's true that this book transformed my vision of the museum, of the idea of ​​works trapped in a museum. Now I think that works occupy and find spaces of greater freedom in a museum. Then I realized that there are two ways of appreciating art: in absolute solitude and isolation, and with the public, feeling their breaths, their steps, their touches. That night planted in me many and varied desires to return to painting, to drawing, to brushstrokes, and at the same time to let myself be carried away by the beauty of the strokes towards a story, and for the first time, to let the story dominate me.

 What will readers find in the pages of Les muses ne dormment pas ?

 Readers will find in particular the works of Canaletto, Balthus and Pierre Bonnard, told and narrated through my own story and my imagination, through real and fictional characters; that is, what for me is truly the mystery of literature, which is to give to the other the most elaborate part of one's own solitude, which is longing and creation, translated into sketches of invented people who pass, run, balanced or unbalanced, vibrating on the tightrope of words.

 Muses are young girls, sometimes teenagers, innocent people sacrificed on the altar of painters' desire. Could you tell us in less than a hundred words the most erotic scene in the work?

I think that, without being directly like that, the most erotic scenes are those of Maria with Sergio, the photographer. Although they do not touch each other, nothing carnal happens between them. But something bigger happens, greater than their own desires; without these desires being consumed, they take over each other mentally, through their looks, and then through their memories over time.

 The book is divided into two parts: the first, under the guise of a playful imagination, in which a young model poses for Balthus, playing cat and mouse with the master of “Passage du commerce Saint-André”. The second part shows us another muse, Renée de Monchaty, Pierre Bonnard’s idealised lover in “Femme à sa toilette”, who committed suicide out of disappointment in love in 1925. Why did you choose these particular paintings, muses and painters who encompass the creation of the work?

When I was young I briefly posed for Balthus and I did not come away the same from that brief experience of observing a creator as he created sketches studying my body and my stillness or serenity. Balthus is a painter about whom I have written a lot and whose work I appreciate. In fact, as it could not be otherwise, he is a character in The Weeping Woman, my novel about Dora Maar. On the other hand, Pierre Bonnard is my favorite painter. The story of Renée Monchaty, his model, lover and friend as well as his fiancée, Marthe, who became his wife, and the way she committed suicide in Rome recreating a Bonnard work, the depression into which Bonnard fell, the fact that he traveled to the Antilles and probably spent a few weeks in Cuba, made me delirious and pushed me to conceive the story.

What would you say were your main sources of inspiration? What was the creative process of the book like?

My source of inspiration is the work of these painters themselves and my relationship with them and their work, both sentimental and literary. The creation process was fast, I had everything very well planned in my mind, because I had been nurturing these stories of muses that become true, essential and unforgettable destinies, women who inspired so much, yet so little is known about them, and who even prefer to be erased because, even when dead, they disturb too much in their past longings for freedom and love, for desire and permanence.

Do you keep in touch with your readers? Through which channels can they get in touch with you?

For years I have been communicating with some of my loyal readers by letter. Now there are other ways, such as email and social networks, and also through my blog zoevaldes.net or my newspaper ZoePost.com.

 How did you approach the construction of the book? Did you follow a routine or did you let yourself be guided by inspiration?

 I am very methodical, I study every detail, and that takes time. I am not attracted to routine, but rather to discovering day by day the possibilities that appear in history, which always surprise me. Inspiration, of course, and daily work. Literature is a priesthood; Without perseverance and dedication, it cannot give you what you demand of it.

 What are your future plans for the book?

 The book is published in France by Éditions Stock and has just gone on sale. I am presenting it today in Strasbourg; I will also be participating in the Nice Book Fair and other fairs and exhibitions in France. My literary agent is looking for a publisher in Spain.

 Through the power of writing, something truly magical, we can achieve the dreams we hold dearest. If you were to have a conversation with Balthus and Bonnard today, how would you approach these two masters of suggestive and erotic posing? What topics and curiosities would you discuss with them?

 With Balthus, although I could, I didn't have conversations. He spoke very little while he was working, and when he did it it was more like an extraordinary monologue; I was very young and preferred to listen to him. I don't like to talk when I feel that others have more experience and more things to say; I prefer to listen to them. With Bonnard I didn't have the privilege that I had with Balthus... So I asked Bonnard about the secret of his mauves and yellows in his brushstrokes, how he achieved those shadows between those colors, shadows that look like little bugs moving inside the painting... Well, today I would ask them much more about their works than about their lives.

We have concluded this interview to learn more details about the work Les muses ne dormment pas (“The muses do not sleep”). Zoé, it has been a pleasure to have you here, and I want to thank you for sharing this conversation with me. Finally, I would like you to greet the readers and encourage them to read this spectacular book.

A big kiss to each of the readers, they have made me who I am as a writer, their readings have opened incredible horizons for me. Accompanying their solitudes with mine has been my greatest reward. I would like you to read this book because it speaks of the essential: love and creation, through desire and art.