Isabel Coixet: "We are experiencing a pandemic of widespread stupidity. And I include myself in it."

Rebellious since childhood, Isabel Coixet (Barcelona, 1960) found in fiction the definitive way to rebel against a reality whose script she has rewritten in a thousand different ways to always focus on what doesn't appear in capital letters. Minimal stories like the ones she now cuts and pastes to tell the world in a different way in 50 collages exhibited at the Thyssen. The title says it all: Learning Disobedience .

Don't tell me that being a nonconformist also requires a master's degree.

Rebellion requires learning and a lot of effort, especially being very aware of when you're being obedient so you can break the rules. I've had a lot of practice and I usually manage to do it.

Among your collages is an unflattering self-portrait, an anti-selfie in the age of filters.

I chose that photo my phone accidentally took of me to remind myself that we are all accidents, and beauty or ugliness means nothing.

To show up like this, without having produced anything, seems like an act of courage today, when everyone is constantly editing themselves for the eyes of others.

Pleasing others is especially required of us women. No matter your age or your appearance, we are expected to be kind. It's something I rebelled against as a child, things like the obligation to greet someone you don't like. I don't like the indiscriminate hugging and kissing.

They said they were going to disappear with the pandemic.

Not at all. In fact, I think they've doubled. I'm hungry for hugs from those I love. But these constant outpourings...

Pleasing all the time is lying. When have we decided that the truth is unacceptable or dangerous?

The problem with the truth is that we no longer know what it is: reality seems like a parody. Those newspaper headlines... And I'm talking about serious news. You read the political section of The New York Times , the most respected newspaper in the world, and you can't believe it.

"Someday everyone will have taken a picture of everyone else." This underlines another collage. What is this desire to capture everything like a filmmaker?

Before, you had photos of your cousin's wedding, your communion, a family paella... but not systematically. Nobody took photos of everything like they do now. The consequence is that, by having everything recorded, we imagine less and less. I can imagining my past from the family photos I keep in a little box. Today, however, all this exhaustive documentation means I don't feel that need to imagine.

The magic has been broken a bit, then.

And it's not just the photos, but the idea that when we want to go to a street, we just have to type it into Google and navigate through it virtually. So much so that when we physically visit a place for the first time, we don't discover anything.

It's also becoming difficult to travel to surprising places. People usually book ahead of time to take pictures in the trending angles. Just take a look at the sunset in Santorini. It's packed.

The thing I hate most about sunsets is the people clapping. It doesn't make sense. But it's true that many people go to photograph the same corner or to drink the matcha tea that a TikToker recommends. Going on an adventure without a preconceived idea is increasingly difficult.

Who wrote this perfect summer script?

I think it's a kind of pandemic of widespread stupidity, and I include myself in it; don't think I place myself anywhere else. Sometimes I wonder why I wasted the whole afternoon looking at houses I'll never be able to afford? In fact, my big goal this summer is to give up my cell phone.

It will be difficult with so much professional commitment.

Yes, but these are also things you impose on yourself. You don't have to be so glued to your phone. Leave it at home.

What anxiety.

I did it last summer and survived. I even recovered some brain cells.

With collage, you're now opting for an old-fashioned format, like a teenage portfolio from the 1980s.

That's precisely why, to get back to doing things with your hands: cutting, gluing, harmonizing, disharmonizing... As you do it, the materials start speaking to you.

It seems somewhat meditative.

Well, I'd say meditation isn't my thing. Like the gym. Although it's true that when I'm working on collages, all I can do is meditate and smell the glue.

In them, you portray a reality in fragments that must be made sense of. When does everything finally become clear?

Reality layers things on us like a collage in our lives. And between those layers coexist materials, memories, and experiences from many different eras. The problem is that you'll most likely die without having understood anything.

Doesn't getting older reveal the mystery of life?

Not at all. In fact, as you get older, your face starts to look like my self-portrait. Your mouth even opens. Sometimes when I walk down the street, I notice people of my generation. We all have a look of great astonishment. A face that says, 'We've reached this age and still don't understand anything.'

You say you are a happy imposter.

I was referring to a dilettante. Someone who likes doing a lot of things and won't stop doing them just because they feel like an imposter. I've directed many films, but I have a degree in history. I never went to film school. And I learned to write screenplays... by writing screenplays.