Carlos Mota was born in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, studied in Brussels, where he graduated in Interior Architecture in CAD (Centre des Arts Décoratifs and painting at the Ecole des Arts D'lxelles) and currently lives and works in Lisbon. An artist residency in Ouro Preto, Brazil, opened the doors of the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, where he currently exposes one of his works.
Focusing on your painting and being Azorean is there is something of island in your work?
Carlos Mota: Our experiences and the place where we always are convey something. I inspire myself often in the landscapes to the abstract, you never truly identifies that is landscaping. There was a curator that said that, I'm a contemporary landscaping, ie the draft of Ouro Preto, where I did a three-month residency, I was inspired in the soul that area, on the sidewalks, because they were rich and in heaven, it was magnificent. And then I used the pigments of Minas Gerais, introduced the color pallet of them, through a university professor, gemologist, who helped me realize this esprecto color of the region. From there I develop for my painting, it is usually always the case.
The title "great finds" have to do with all this, with the discovery of the pigments, the natural beauty of the mighty Brazil and the smells of everything around you in Ouro Preto?
CM: I had a major exhibition called "raft" and thought that this project would continue in Brazil, but as I arrived at Ouro Preto to the residence from there I found this region. In the first week I found this magnificent teacher, Mauricio de Barros, who put me to speed about all these pigments because it is a region of immense ores and then I opened my soul and emerged this title. It was not the architecture, because it is recent, not the green, it was nothing lije that, my inspiration resulted from the observation because an artist does not look, observes, so I observed the sidewalks and the sky, and all forms of "great finds "are these sketches, with eight pallets of pigments of the region, which introduced the red that has nothing to do with the remaining spectrum of tones. So why the sidewalks? The sidewalks because it is the only point where today everyone goes incognito in Ouro Preto. People go there, since artists, intellectuals, kings and queens, everything goes now as before. Slaves built it, the whole town is beautiful, beautiful, inspires and red why? Because I think the city itself provokes passions and also focus on the suffering of the slaves who built it and it hurts, because some of my Brazilian friends say when they come to town there is a hardness.
How the invantation to exhibit your piece arose in Brasília, at the Presidential Palace?
CM: The curator where this project arose went very well, and it was sedimented, the artists in residence addressed a topic of interest that was Brazil and the country and from there if they like the work they invite the artist to exhibit it. In the middle of the residence I receive an email saying they were interested in having my work. They are to restructure the interior in terms of furniture and works of art from the Presidential Palace of Planalto, so I was the first foreigner to be invited. Was a great honor for me and for the whole of Portugal, I believe. I have a permanent work in this space, being the first foreigner, although there is a Picasso. It was a gift at the end of twenty-five year career is very good.
One of the definitions for your painting, is that you paint dreamlike worlds, imaginary, you revise on this reading?
CM: It's an idea that I observe, is never one to go to the canvas and dream, no. All that this in the canvas has a story, so I never put titles in the works, just put the name of the exhibition, because in my case it makes no sense, there is always a link between all frames, like all canvas has red.
Going back a bit ago, the USA had a major exhibition entitled "falling asleep on the subway," this body of work was inspired by the arquictetura city?
CM: "Falling asleep on the subway" of 2010, then painted with polyurethane, which I left a bit, arises when I was on the subway I would close my eyes I saw two trips that marked me culturally, one went to Peru and another to Egypt. Of 10-12 canvas painted in all, appears a very volumetric green appears that is Peru and another portion that is ocher representing Egypt. These paintings convey a lot of my feelings without anyone knowing it was that sense. The ocher itself if you notices has almost no relief, are almost monochromatic, despite having much mater are all very smooth, flat.
Regarding the colors you use in the works and you already discussed here Red, but there are other shades that are repeated in yout art works?
CM: There is in "Shall we be melted" who was in Canada and Porto, where the infrared appears, but is there because of other feelings. At the height of the crisis that color appears not as a passion, but as suffering, though we are still suffering, was my way to conveying my thoughts of the world's present time.
It's hard to be an artist only in Portugal? Therefore it is necessary to open horizons to be recognized as such?
CM: It's not easy, but it is not with easyness that things are done. I've been already doing public exhibitions since 1993 and now, for some time, I start to get some recognition. I think it's good that people have this idea of sharing, in order, to take advantage of the knowledge that has over time, because only when we started to have a certain curriculum is that we are invited and so we selected the projects we want. From 2009 I started to leave, I went to Boston, I've been in Canada this year, last year I was in Italy and Spain. It is a constant struggle, but getting out is important, then we again came back with fresh eyes, the Portuguese are also like that, unfortunately, as you well know, it's not easy. However, it is always good to leave, even if only to know our colleagues, who are very well internationally. My current project "great finds" will continue there in Brazil and will come to Portugal later, if it were not so, none of this would have happened, you must have exchanges, partnerships.
