interview
Pablo León de la Barra
On Tuesday, October 22nd 2024, at 3pm, the Rio-born artist Raul Mourão welcomed in his atelier the Mexican curator Pablo León de la Barra, who lives in Rio, for a talk about the exhibition Volume Vivo. Sitting between two big tables that support many works in progress and surrounded by some of the exhibition’s works, Mourão and de la Barra discussed not only the details of Volume Vivo, but also Mourão’s artistic practice and the affection they both nurture for the city of Salvador.
Following, some selected excerpts of this interview.
Pablo León de la Barra:
"Just as grilles allow to see what is on the other side, those who are inside can see some of the world outside, and they become a kind of mediation tool. It´s not about that idea of painting as window – the classical painting that is a window to another world – but grilles as mediation tools."
"You are rethinking this relationship between what is drawing, what is painting and can do the same with sculpture. The other day, when I visited your studio, you mentioned that they are paintings made by sculptures. Now I search for the exact quote of what you said, but the essence was, "in my painting, my tool is not the paintbrush, it is as if there were pliers as extensions of my hands."
Raul Mourão:
"My relationship with this exhibition inaugurates a kind of dialogue with the city, a tribute to it. It emerges from a certain energy that permeates my relationship with Salvador. However, I have a deep respect for the city and feel as if I was always initiating a relationship."
"The pictures of grilles return, but not as a comment about public safety anymore. Now, they are a comment about the city’s graphics, about a design that attaches itself to the architecture in a more poetic way, not brutalist."
Pablo León de la Barra:
"Raul, the artist, as a creator of structures that are not only physical structures or art objects, but also work structures, action structures and exhibition structures."
"In some way, you work explicitly as an artist-curator. I don’t know about curator, but you are a bit of an agitator in all this, allowing all these voices to create polyphonies, where they can coexist."
Raul Mourão:
"This relationship with iron and the tradition of steel is something I share. My grille there is a big colorful painting, not another physical object, as the grille we observed downstairs."
"The exhibition gathers the research of the safety grilles of the old mansions and the historical districts, in a dialogue with my grille photo series. In Salvador, however, I find another kind of ornamental and decorative design, a lighter metalwork, with simpler materials, that displays exaggerated drawings, a little bit beyond what is necessary for protection."
Pablo León de la Barra:
"What I find interesting is that how this relationship with the history of iron exists. Besides, many times, what seems to be decorations on the windows served to convey other stories. That is why I think that would be an interesting line of work that can still be explored."
Raul Mourão:
"The kinetics sculptures that will be at the exhibition have a kind of design that, for me, internally, refers to the city’s swing, a musicality that I notice when I’m there, on vacations, at the parties or carnival associations’ rehearsals and music shows."
To see the complete interview click here