Thinking about your trajectory as an artist, could you speak about how your artistic practice has changed since you were a student?
I studied painting at Escola de Artes Plásticas da UFRJ in 1997, since then everything I think about art has systematically changed as time passes. I believe this is due to the transformations within societies I am part of, the planet that also goes through changes, the places I lived, the relationships I had, my friends and artists. In the end, the way that everything remains in constant motion, a flow just like the process of thinking itself. But there is a core that hasn't changed and I believe is crucial to keep, that the artwork must make sense to me, it's a simple rule.
I was very romantic in college, I wanted to cause a shift in society, a very modernist thought for a very young me. I think it's important to keep this vigour, that is curiosity and transformation, although today I understand that what I do will reach some and a transformation occurs from those, from a few to plenty, in a smaller scale my ambition as a student remains.
Painting is always impressive, it transforms according to your thoughts and vice versa.
Being open to transformation and experimentation is fundamental for me. There are of course more warm and intensive periods, periods of incubation, which sometimes last up to a year in one go. It's not easy to deal with these moments, but they are fundamental, those are periods of deepening, even if without much artistic production.
Could you tell us more about you moving from Rio de Janeiro to Minas Gerais?
A few years ago I made a change that I believe has divided my life into two very significant moments. I left the big city of Rio de Janeiro and came to the country side of Minas Gerais, called Serra do Cipó. I left a city known worldwide for its scenic beauty and its political chaos, ups and downs, of exuberant nature and came to a place also with the exuberant nature, but completely different – from being distant from the seaside. I came for a dive, and this time in the mountains. I came in search of my family ancestry too. It really was a call this encounter between the cerrado, the mountains and myself.
Living here I feel as my artistic practice gave me a gift, this being the colours that did not interested me before, the plurality of different paints, something that also I had lost interest. It took me to a place that only intelectual exercise would not be enough to bring me to, I gave myself physically and emotionally to this place, and it feels like it could only happen here. I knew somehow that this change would bring me to this. It is a strong phenomenon, because it relates to truly everything.
It relates to being involved with society at large in a more familiar and organic way, in taking part in almost everything that the local community demands. Finally, a "whole life" in the sense of not living exclusively for my own world, opening my field of action in society is opening my artwork from within, in its process, in its flesh.
Could you share with us the challenges and current situation in places like Cipó in Brazil?
Brazil is going through a very difficult time in politics, and it is a course of action that clearly has no concern for the environment, as I live in a preserved area – it is a national park – but still very much neglected. This year we had the biggest wildfire ever documented in the area. For days I had to watch the mountains that I love burning, right in front of me. The full moon rising red, non-stop smoke in the dark sky.
How do you see your relation as an artist to these challenges?
It was one of the saddest moments in my life, but also a moment of new found strength, of transformation energy, endurance and fight. Being here allows one to be close to these fights.
Thinking about my artworks, I have paused for now, because all it is still happening within myself. Later it will manifest in the paintings, but for now it is inside of me.
Canticle of the Creatures
Curated by Brunno Silva
OPENART Online Exhibition
17 September- 30 December 2020