10 Questions with Leandro Marcos
Leandro de Sousa Marcos is a Portuguese artist born and raised in Faro (1992).
His artistic career began in 2012 when he attended the Degree in Visual Arts at the University of Algarve, where he was a student of some of the most influential artists of the second half of the XX century in Portugal (XANA - Alexandre Alves Barata, Pedro Cabral Santo, and Rui Sanches).
In 2015 he was invited to join the Collective Polychromy by Nuno Viegas A.KA. Metis and MENAU leaving in 2017 and joining the collective of 289 Associação Cultural until today, where he has a studio shared with his colleague Régis Ribeiro.
Since 2018, it has maintained a partnership with IPDJ (Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth), where it develops artistic projects, namely exhibitions in the role of artist and curator.
He currently works and lives in Faro and has shown his work practically only on national soil.
New American Flag, Mixed media on wood, 75x120 cm, 2016-2020. Leandro Marcos©
ARTIST STATEMENT
"The artist's initial choice was for the pure forms, a conscious appropriation of a method which is also a way of thinking about art: the painting is the only surface painted, and the lines and colors suffice for what they are, forms, not what they can mean. There is no narrative or dramatic intent. There are traits that intersect and create patterns. A more ascetic art in which the artist distances himself of what he creates, through a continuous and repeated gesture, a work formally well resolved and, purposely, without a soul. After engaging in various projects that demanded of the artist a position, an exit from his place of comfort, his work moved in a more personal and intimate direction - transfiguring the gesture of the first works in a minimal movement, almost in a non-gesture, or using the screen as a diary in which he could express feelings and clarify issues that art has put to him along his journey."
Bate-me, Mixed media on canvas, 70x60 cm, 2019. Leandro Marcos©
INTERVIEW
Could you tell us a little more about your background?
I started by doing graffiti; I grew up in a semi-poor neighborhood in Faro, at a time when there wasn't yet that technological boom that we witnessed at the beginning of the 21st century. Smartphones didn't exist; computers were very contained and simple, video console games were very few and with fewer resources than now... This made the children, including me, go to the streets to play. Playing among other things with other children, I ended up making many friends. We were always on the streets, and there we saw a lot of graffitis or something similar on the walls, and it was through this, I ended up doing small things that we can say were something similar to graffiti. Within the group of kids, I was included in, I was the one with the biggest ability to draw or the one who thought better about the construction of the piece we wanted to make, so it was always up to me to be the "artist" on duty to paint the walls. It was around this time that I wanted to build the path for myself that started to be clearer for me. And that is how I ended up graduating in visual arts. It's also important to emphasize that I always had huge freedom and support from my parents to be and do what I always wanted, and in my most recent works, you can see their influence and presence in my life.
What is your personal aim as an artist?
When I started with this idea of being an artist, I had great examples of great masters like Picasso, Pollock, or Kandinsky in mind. What does that mean? I wanted to create a unique image, something that only I could do, be the expert of this technique or formality as Picasso was in Cubism or as Pollock was in Abstract Expressionism with dripping or even as Kandinsky in Abstractionism. With this idea in mind to create something and become a master, I started developing a language, my own visual language, my first manifestations, and works as a visual artist. For me today it's obvious that this was a very beautiful idea. Still, with time and the confrontation with reality, life, and what happens to us daily, I started to have the need to expand to other fields, other disciplines at a formal and conceptual level. And the magical idea was destroyed at that time because I realized that I needed, first of all, to be a master of myself before trying to be a master of art. So I got involved in several projects, risking work and exploring other areas, which made my work multidisciplinary.
For me being an artist means that we have the opportunity to do what we want. An artist isn't the one who only paints one thing many times or draws the same way repeatedly. An artist is the one who makes art, whether that is manifested in drawing, painting, video, performance, sculpture, etc... Consistency in the artist's work is simply the continuation of artistic practice, no matter the discipline in which the artist manifests himself, even if it's not always the same. It's a need to do things, to leave traces of what you see, what you think, what you live!
Nowadays, with what I have lived, learned, and explored, I feel that I don't have a well-established goal. I want to be an artist and make art until I can't do it anymore. And if what I do is recognized and people relate, if they like my work, and if I can transform and improve the world with my work, this for me is more than enough. As one of my favorite artists, Ai Weiwei, says, "art is meant to awaken consciences and at the same time keeps those who do it awake."
From matter to matter (papel), Mixed media on canvas, 120x60 cm, 2019. Leandro Marcos©
You have a very eclectic series of works, from paintings to installations and even performances, like in your video "Destruir/Construir." How do you define yourself as an artist?
My work today is multidisciplinary, and that makes me a multidisciplinary artist, but painting and drawing are the areas that I most like to express myself artistically. This multidisciplinary vein comes from the fact that my life is reflected a lot in my work indirectly or more directly. This is also because I'm not yet an artist at a professional level, so I have other jobs that give me what I need to live, be it money, food, clothes, or even material to make art. And then, when it comes to being an artist, I like to try different things. I search, read, and hear about a lot of subjects, all from different areas and everything, to have a huge experience so that I can have content to work with and also so that I can grow and evolve as an artist and, above all, as a person.
How much do you think living in Faro, by the ocean and surrounded by natural beauty, has influenced your work?
It has some influence. In most of my work, I notice that I have very colorful things and few neutral things, and I think this is precise because I live in an area where there is a very evident contrast between the urban landscape and the natural landscape. We can be in a short space-time in the middle of the city and then in the middle of nature without any civilization trace.
In my work, globally, we can realize that this factor influences if we look mainly at color. Still, I also don't know how to answer this question correctly or concretely because I also never worked in another environment. I have always lived here. I have always been here, this is where I graduated, and this is where I have my studio.
From matter to matter (plástico), Mixed media on canvas, 120x70 cm, 2019. Leandro Marcos©
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?
I'm always working in art, either physically or mentally. The space to put practice is mainly divided between my house and my studio, as I work during the week as a constructor worker. The simplest part like researching, writing and reading, drawing, or painting small things I try to do at home, leaving the bigger, more serious, or dirtier work for the weekend when I go to the studio. This is basically my routine.
I consider myself a very observant and curious person, I'm always reading things from different areas, and I'm always attentive to what surrounds me or of scenarios that I find. I do this always with the purpose of being able to take ideas for artistic work. I am also part, together with other artists, of a cultural association called "289 Cultural Association". We develop several artistic projects, which makes me sometimes leave an artist's position to exercise something else. Still, I feel that to do that; there are always things to remove from the artwork.
What is the most challenging part of your work?
I don't know what to say or answer this question because I never thought about it. While taking a degree in arts, a teacher told me that if humanity were represented on a spear, artists would be the tip of the spear, they would go ahead and then behind them, there were the designers, engineers, scientists, etc ... this is to say that what I think is that all artistic work is challenging, I think that art is super challenging, it challenges us to leave our comfort zone demanding that we challenge ourselves. Due to my work being multidisciplinary, sometimes it seems to be visually incoherent. It can become challenging because as I do so many different things or work in different ways, it's sometimes difficult to get a starting point or do something. And this is challenging for me because it gets overstimulating. For those who see it, it can be challenging in the sense of perceiving or understanding things. I think that an artist who works in one of two ways is easier to recognize or recognize his work while an artist who works with what suits him, with what he has or what exists for him, with many things, is more difficult challenging.
Sex on the beach, Posca on paper, 70x50 cm, 2018. Leandro Marcos©
Where do you find inspiration?
My inspiration comes mainly from people, everything they bring, how they manifest themselves, how they think, but it also comes from the place where my mind is and, above all, from what I feel. I talk to many people, family, and friends about art, politics, reality, what's going on in our homes, city, country, and world. Perceiving what they tell me, perceiving what they think. If I, as an artist, manage to reach a level through art where it's possible for me to transform or change mentalities for the better and make life a better thing, I will continue to make art because that's my inspiration. This is what I feel for example, when I look at the work of Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, Vhils, or Obey, the way they get involved in projects and the way they manage to get people involved in their projects for me is an example and an inspiration for what I intend to achieve as a person and achieve as an artist.
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?
I continue to work with my colleagues in the association of which I'm a member, at "289 Associação Cultural" and continue to develop projects in partnership with IPDJ (Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth) here in Faro. I was recently selected to exhibit a piece, the painting "Sex on the beach", at CANVAS INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, in the "MIXING IDENTITIES" exhibition, but it has been postponed because of Covid-19. I was also invited to a collective exhibition with two more artists, GAT.UNO and BASAP, who were my colleagues during my degree in arts, in one of the most important galleries for me, and old ones in Faro, the TREM Gallery was also postponed without announced dates Covid-19.
I have other projects in mind, but these are still "in the oven," so I'm not going to talk about them.
Composição 7, Posca on canvas, 90x155 cm, 2017. Leandro Marcos©
What does "being creative" mean to you?
To be creative is to try to see more things than what we see, which makes us think critically about what we see and do. But it's important never to forget that creativity is synonymous of work; they go hand in hand. As supposedly the great Picasso once said, "it is incredible how inspiration and creativity appear to me whenever I am working".
And finally, what other interests do you have outside of art?
Mainly sport because it's always stimulating for me, mentally or physically. I like running, gym, surfing, soccer, cycling, skateboarding but not only. I can't live without music and books. I like DIY too, and I have a tattoo passion, but above all these, nothing like friends and beer!
