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15
Hello Nadia, and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
Hello Not Random Team, first of all I want to thank you for your interest in my work! Regarding your question, the subject of identity is completely inseparable from my artistic practice. For a long time I was in denial this subject had any rightful place in my work, I thought that it would be possible to remove my identity entirely of my artistic practice. This attempt to escape was, in fact, a cowardly attempt to push away whatever stands at the core of myself as a human being and which results from a very particular era in the history of mankind. Embracing my identity and accepting my painful biography was one of the most difficult things in my evolution as an artist (and human being). Art making, at least in my case, has no romance at all: it's like taking your clothes off a burnt skin, it’s giving birth to that which hurts, without any presumption nor regret, only a faint smell of shit. I had a very difficult childhood and adolescence. Undoubtedly, that shaped my personality, actions and, consequently, my artistic practice. Indeed, this artistic practice is not something apart from my life. We are one. And, the more I accepted my haunting childhood fears, the more raw and “clean” my art became. Surely, more complex! The conception of my studio (called the Cave) as a work of art in itself is the direct result of this acceptance. Therein everything is connected, all elements communicate with each other, from the scribbled floor (a talking map), to the pieces that hang from the ceiling like forgotten bodies. Between the light and the darkness it is also possible to distinguish the rooms of my heteronyms (Alice, Matilde, Constance, Odette, Helena, the Sorceress and the Bird-Demon). Writing, drawing, painting, installation, video and performance have a shared life within the Cave, and I say "life" because they really live there, communicate with each other, breathe, embody, transform... and, at the limit, they die.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
To answer this question it would be important to tell you a little about my life, I’ll try to do that in very few words. I came to Portugal when I was around 3 years old, along with my mother who was fleeing from Algeria for the same reasons refugees are currently fleeing. My upbringing in Algeria and Portugal was very traumatizing and so, from a very young age, I took refuge in paintings, drawings and inventions. I spent endless hours inventing things, from paper and cardboard constructions to carving tunnels in the playground’s sand. I was so obsessive with this Place-Invented-By-Me that, when the glue stick ran out and my family couldn’t buy a new one because we were very poor, I would go to the supermarket and steal one. I would only rest when my construction was completed. By this time I was around 8 or 9 years old. The funniest thing was that I did not know what art was and I had never heard of it, so I was telling everyone I was going to be a Scientist because, to me, creating was a scientist’s thing (laugh). Even today I am obsessed with my inventions in the Cave and I can’t sleep if I leave something unfinished or if I have the bad luck of running out of material and not being able to buy more. The Cave is my sacred place and this Place-Invented-By-Me, it seems, is as old as I am. Art making is not just a desire or a life meaning purpose, it is what I am, my flesh here and now. At the age of 18 I entered an art school where I gained contact with the knowledge and practice of others and there began my path as an artist. Still, seven years went by after graduation before I entered a master's degree in another university, where I’m currently developing my thesis. This interruption was very important because it allowed for my work to develop freely without any authority around me saying what I should or shouldn’t do, which was vital for me to cement my own thoughts.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual culture?
Hmm ... there are several artists that I admire, not necessarily an influence to my work but very important to my thought and my "vision". Life and the real contact with things is what more directly influences me.
As for artists, I love the work of Mark Rothko, I identify with him a lot because of the spiritualism his paintings convey. On the other hand, I admire artists who have nothing to do with Rothko because their works are much more "material" and often even abject, as for example Louise Borgeois, Kiki Smith, Bruce Nauman and Frida Khalo. I am also a big fan of Bergman's films, David Lynch and Terrence Malick and I am particularly sensitive to Béla Tarr's Turin Horse.
The literature and thought of Bataille, Deleuze, and Mircea Eliade have great ascendancy over the ramblings of my own thoughts which is later reflected in my work.
nothing to do with Rothko because their works are much more "material" and often even abject, as for example Louise Borgeois, Kiki Smith, Bruce Nauman and Frida Khalo.
I am also a big fan of Bergman's films, David Lynch and Terrence Malick and I am particularly sensitive to Béla Tarr's Turin Horse.
The literature and thought of Bataille, Deleuze, and Mircea Eliade have great ascendancy over the ramblings of my own thoughts which is later reflected in my work.