Interview: Grécia Paola
Luca Curci talks with Grécia Paola during the 10th Edition of CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2022, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

Grécia Paola (n. 1994) is a Luso Venezuelan artist and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP). She holds a Master’s Degree and a High Degree in Fine Arts Sculpture from FBAUP. Currently, she’s doing a PhD in Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid. She holds a grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology. Grécia Paola has already exhibited at Sala de Exposiciones BBAA, Madrid (2022); O Estúdio, Porto (2021) Galeria Dentro, Porto (2020), Zet gallery, Braga (2020), International Light Festival of the Algarve, Faro (2019), Funchal Prison Establishment, Funchal (2020) PortoCartoon World Festival, Porto (2019) Municipal House of Culture, Cantanhede (2019) Expofacic 1st Cantanhede Biennial, Cantanhede (2019), Lugar do Desenho Fundação Júlio Resende, Gondomar (2018). Grécia also developed an artistic and sociological project at the Prison of Funchal 2020 and collaborated in the artistic partnership between the Paris College of Art and the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. She also participated in multiple performances. I question how the fragility, destruction, and transformation of the body (human and object) can be explored in artistic creation through sculpture, drawing, and video.

Through experimental work, the body explores its limits in an endless gesture capable of generating repulsion, attraction, exhaustion, or challenges that demand the observer to seek and go beyond. I perceive these challenges that ask the observer to move, bend over or interact with the object, manifest as an invitation. In my practice, the body is conceived from a psychophysiological point of view in an exercise of stimulating and inviting the body in a gesture of seduction towards the non-immediate. In the artistic research, I develop it is possible to notice a certain gestural and procedural repetition that explores exhaustion resembling the machinic body. But essentially, the artistic production focuses on the fragility, dichotomy and on the ephemeral dimension of life through ductile materials and through perpetuity. Finally, my practice seeks in an assumed experimental reflection and production, to understand how the creative will operates as a creative agent in the midst of a production centred on the action of gesture, movement and transformation.

Luca Curci – What are you currently working on?
Grécia Paola – I am currently working on several projects. For example, I am producing two spherical sculptures made of wool for Contextile 2022 – Contemporary Textile Art Biennial. The raw material for the pieces is of animal origin, so it is the product of the shearing that takes place in some of the most rural places in Portugal. I was interested in reusing this material since today we wear synthetic clothes and, many times, the wool is burned and is not used. These sculptures have an intense smell due to the material. I chose not to clean the wool and that’s why dirt and texture are present as cult objects. It is a project that was thought to be exposed outdoors, so it is possible that the weather and the moths will transform it. Another of the projects that I am developing and which is in the experimental phase explores the same subject that I presented in this exhibition, that is, wax. Wax is a fascinating material for me: it refers a little to the fragility of the body and, when hot, reacts to our touch. Wax is capable of taking on a skin-like appearance and it is amazing how only with the heat of our touch we can shape it. I’m experimenting with fire and direct intervention during cooling. It’s experimental for now, and I’m testing the combination with other subjects.

LC – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
GP – I believe that the experience that most defines my artistic work is the fact that I have been diabetic since I was four years old. I wasn’t able to express it through words and I was constantly looking for other forms of expression. The Fine Arts are endowed with a type of expression that for me has always been spontaneous. There are certain projects that I develop that reflect on the deterioration and the fragility of the human body, which metaphorically manifests itself in the fragility of the objects I produce. I could say that the non-acceptance of the ephemeral and the natural destruction of things is what most influences my research. At the moment I am working on construction and destruction as an artistic process and a result. However, my work also celebrates life and its profusion through the repetition of gestures and forms and an exhaustive desire to produce.

LC – Which is the role the artist plays in society? And contemporary art?
GP – The importance of the artist in society goes far beyond entertainment. It contributes to intellectual and personal development, promoting well-being, opinion formation, social inclusion, education, awareness and, finally, it proposes other ways to look and to feel the world. The artist is an explorer, a curious researcher by nature and in a way they are the creator of magic. Art will always be important to humanity as a means of expressing, interpreting and imagining. The artist brings this sensitivity, humanity and awareness. I look at contemporary art as a consequence of the past and a door to the future. What fascinates me about contemporary art, which is sometimes difficult for many to appreciate, is that it is open to different interpretations depending on one’s personal and social experiences.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
GP – There are multiple methodologies when it comes to artistic production. There are artists who start from a very specific concept and develop it through time (which means they have a plan from start to finish). There are others that create with intuition while in direct contact with matter and with no previous concept. It is in the making process that they find the answers. My production is very ambivalent: I have projects that are very defined from the start and that are challenging in their technical aspects because I don’t know may not have the knowledge of its technological part (ex: Arduinos); and on the other hand, my production is also spontaneous and often based on experiences. The biggest difficulty is how I’m going to conceptually explain an experience that I believe deserves to be developed, but that I still don’t know clearly where it wants to go. What I can add to my answer is the idea of containment because during the process multiple ideas arise, so sticking to a single project is the most challenging for me.

LC – Are your artworks focused on a specific theme?
GP – Not initially, but the works end up having some points in common, such as shapes that are repeated or recurrent in my practice (circle, sphere, holes), not only because of the type of material but also their subject.

LC – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the artwork presented been created for the exhibition or as a part of preexisting works?
GP – Yes, this artwork already existed, but it could have been produced in the context of this exhibition as in a way I have been working on similar themes. One can look at these pieces as a landscape of the future: arid, yellow, and dry; one can imagine mountains; or understand it through the notion of identity as my DNA is contained in the project through the needle in one of the lightboxes. Presenting this project which was not conceived from scratch to this exhibition, allows me to think about how it can be rethought through the lens of these themes and in this way it gains new meanings.

LC – Do you agree with our vision of art and what do you think about the theme of the exhibition? What do you think about the organization of our event?
GP – Yes, I agree. It was this fluidity, accessibility and connection that facilitated the process of participating in this event. Having the opportunity to exhibit internationally and to meet other artists and their practices was also important. The team is professional and throughout the event was always accessible. The exhibition’s theme is broad, so that can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, it instigates to produce and to think about several artistic possibilities and outcomes.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
GP – Yes, I would suggest a collaboration as I would also like to collaborate and work again with ITSLIQUID GROUP in the future. In general, your services are very complete from the point of view of exhibition, organization, and presentation. Artists need opportunities to exhibit and publicize their work.

LC – What are your suggestions about our services? Is there something more we can provide to artists?
GP – It would be interesting to offer an online catalog to participating artists. It would be nice to organize a kind of exchange between artists or even challenge collaborations between different artists.