performance_11xMaria_ 2015_documentation by João Carneiro
Briefly describe the work you do.
In my work I explore the constant and incorporeal presence of Time, using excerpts of general life and expanded memories, as my base material. My memories, memories transmitted to me, collective memory, lived times transformed in to symbolic images.
Using different mediums, with a main focus on performance art, I built memory repositories to explore the complexity of memory behavior itself. Memory as a temporal phenomenon that reverberates hybridity on the body, on the mind and on external beings and objects. By reframing a given memory and agglutinating my personal narrative I create a new imagery, a new visual emotion, a new frame for visual external recollection.In my recent works I have been exploring the beautiful lie created by the natural process of the mind movements over time. I bring into existence new realities that I share with the audience to be experienced, taken in and rebuilt. My works are open metaphors of the collective Time intangible presence. The movement and aesthetics of memory is the core of my work, for exploring parallel correlated issues, around the body and it’s the place lato sensu.An aestheticized past constructed and codified in a visual work, a conceptual link that leads the Other to a body of gaze. Visualized or abstracted form emerged in a performance, in a video, in an audio poem, in a photography or in an installation work.
Tell us about your background and how that has had an influence on your work and on you as an artist.
My background can be described as a constant research of a missing piece or maybe a missing medium. Growing up in the outskirts of Lisbon in the 80s allowed me just to experience the conventional art classes and mediums. On and on I found myself in creative writing classes because it was the only medium that did not confine me to the limit of the medium itself. I just found my voice many years later.In high school I start theater and dance lessons. In University I study photography and finally graduated in Art History. Continue with theater and dance workshops until I found the medium to give voice to my writing.
Since I remember I always write about UNcategorized nameless projects. Performance art and all the performance environment is my main medium to create any work and my work is definitely influenced by my background experiences.
performance_Maria#2_ 2014_video still
The concept of the artist studio has a broad range of meanings in contemporary practice. Artists may spend much of their time in the actual studio, or they may spend very little time in it. Tell us about your individual studio practice and how it differs from or is the same as traditional notions of “being in the studio.”
My studio is my body and the space it occupies. I am a breading studio that travels. In my individual practice I do not need a physical space to work. But I think that is very important to have a working area or a reserved space to experiment and produce my work. Because I work several times with site specific installations the notion of being in the studio is open enough to the space where I can materialize my ideas.
What roles do you find yourself playing that you may not have envisioned yourself in when you first started making art?
Producing and promoting my own work. I understand now that, yes we can have other people filling this roles for us, but to be an artist is a full-time job with many different roles. I am happy to fulfill any role for continuing sharing my work with an audience.
When do you find is the best time to make art? Do you set aside a specific time everyday or do you have to work whenever time allows?
I do not know if a fully understand the concept of ‘’making art’’ in this question because, I am always creating. There is no specific time, this is a 24/7 job. My conceptual process can occur everywhere at any time of the day or during all day. Anyway I found myself more productive during the nights.
How has your work changed in the past five years? How is it the same?
It’s my belief that we are constantly changing. In the last five years I experienced different changes in the process of executing an idea. I constantly use repetition to deepen my work. For example, Tempo 4 (Time 4) is a long duration performance based on the daily repetition of a simple action. This project started on February 29th, 2012 and will finish on February 29th, 2016. Every day, for 4 years, at 4 pm I repeat and register an action. Through the ritualization of a simple action I deepen the time imprint in my body and in my work, as well as, I explore my understanding of time as an existential and cultural concept. In other series of works I use the same core concept over the years, returning several times to the same subject. l started Maria series 2013 and continue developing it until the present day. My work changes, grows and develops as I deepen, explore and experiment my core concepts over and over again.
How have people such as family, friends, writers, philosophers, other artists or even pop icons had an impact on the work you do?
An artist without references is a dead garden! I believe that we are influenced by everything around that surround us. My father was a poet and I started my artistic discovery through poetry and creative writing. I am inspired every day by people, other artist’s art, music, my mother, my grandmother… because I work with memories as my base material all that I live inspire me, all that I hear and other people’s memories inspire me. I can refuse some idea and work the opposite of it making sometimes what I refuse, or do not like trigger my inspiration. Is a very abstract subject because we are sponges living in a collective memory pool.From all the creative external impulses maybe writers are who influence me the most… writers and the unknown Other.
Have you ever been pulled in the direction of a pursuit other than being an artist? What are your other interests?
Yes. I also worked as a curator assistant and has a producer. I like to work with other artists and especially to produce their works. But at the end I am an artist. I can do other jobs to pay the rent, but being an artist is who I am.
About
Artist, teacher and researcher in contemporary art. Studied photography at IADE (Creative University, 2002), graduated in Art History (FLUL- University of Lisbon, 2007), and pursued her studies in the same area specializing in Contemporary Art (FLUL – University of Lisbon, 2009). Working with performance, photography, video and installation, in her investigations she explores the fragility of the presence of time, using excerpts of life and her memories, as a metaphor of that intangible presence. Currently, she is developing a four-year performance entitled Tempo 4 (Time 4).
In this work she is exploring her understanding of time as an existential and cultural concept, as well as, its imprint on her by the repetition of a daily action.Patrícia has exhibited and performed in public spaces, galleries, festivals and museums, such as, Grimmuseum (Berlin, Germany), City Museum of Lisbon (Portugal), VI Art and Culture Biennial of Sao Tome (Sao Tome and Principe), BU – Performing Arts Festival (Bangkok, Thailand), CWS Gallery (Toruń, Poland), WAR<SO>VIE 2013 performance festival (Warsaw, Poland), CIPAF – International Performance Festival (Nicosia, Cyprus), 3rd edition of Visual Arts Festival (Bielsko-Biała, Poland) and National Museum of Contemporary Art (Lisbon, Portugal).
365 Artists | 365 Days 