Gallery Fifty Six: March 2013

The month of March is special for Gallery Fifty Six and the city of Memphis because Argentine artist Mariana De Marchi will be visiting us. Mariana will be flying from Buenos Aires to New York this week. From there, she will visit friends in Atlanta, and then she will come to Memphis. One of her goals while she is in Memphis is to paint a mural on the fence along the drive at the Gallery. If time permits, she will paint this mural:

I recently had the opportunity to interview Mariana. I hope you enjoy reading it and that you will learn more about this wonderful artist, Mariana De Marchi

1. Tell me a little about yourself.
I have always realized unconsciously since a little girl I wanted to build my life around art, though I had no idea how to make that. I’ve studied it but mostly I had continued my formation after the ‘formal’ studies. I’m always trying to find different ways to express myself and my impressions about different things and lived circumstances. Art is not only present in the making of a piece like a canvas, a drawing, a sculpture, etc but it’s also present daily. I like reading a lot (Faulkner, Cortázar, Sábato, García Márquez, Pavese, Borges, Dostoyevsky, and so many others…) and listening to different kind of music.

Friends and family, affections are very important in my life, despite sometimes we don’t see each other as much as we like; I know I can rely on them.

2. Where do you live and what is your city like?
I live in BA, Argentina. To be more accurate I live in San Isidro, which is a city, located in the North of BA, 30 minutes by car from downtown. I was born and lived here since then, though I had a lot of moving in the same city. I currently have my studio and home by my own. It’s a nice place, not as full of people as downtown is, it’s a more quiet place, although we also have a lot of different activities and great places for visiting.

3. Tell me about your educational background.
I went to the art school right away after finishing the middle school. Before that, I’d gone to a few ateliers. I was always drawing since I was a little kid. Before applying for the art school I went to a sculptor’s studio who couldn’t afford the model’s payment by his own so we shared it between all of us…we had a really cool group there, it was not a very ‘formal’ education but I gained confidence in drawing an entire figure, with hands and toes, without the need of hiding them…that helped me a lot in my formation. Then art school, we first had all the disciplines (drawing, sculpture, printmaking and painting, among theoretical subjects), then the specialization… 1st of all I choose drawing but I felt I was losing my time because the level was too low (or I had very high expectations) so I continue with it, but begun sculpture at the same time, after that a post degree studying different techniques in wall painting, artistic graphic and lithography.

4. Are you currently employed? If so, where, and what do you do?
Yes, I am. I’m a professor. I teach art, mostly in my studio. I have more than 20 students there during the year.

I also teach in 2 public schools, but just a few hours. I had to leave the rest of them behind because I couldn’t deal emotionally with the different problems the kids have, marginality, violence, teenage pregnancy, etc. I’m not really prepared for working under those circumstances, so I decided to work fewer in schools, but keeping some of the hours for being in contact with this reality. I’m aware of the situation they live but the fact is that I can’t manage it too much time. I think we have to recognize when we are capable of doing something, the fact is that I don’t fit quite well in the educational system the way it is nowadays in my country, with a lot of unattended areas, such as the psychological and social ones. I teach art I’m not a psychologist neither a social worker so I stepped out.

In my studio I have students from 15 to 70 years old, who come to study with me because they enjoy art and decided to do something with that, not because it is an imposition as it is in the middle school, so everything is easier that way.

5. Tell me about your art.
I work with different mediums and techniques from sculpture to painting, drawing, and printmaking to wall painting. I like to try different challenges, because every single technique and surface gives us different possibility of expressions.

Thematically speaking my works generally move between absurd and introspection.

Sometimes (not always though) a representation of an ‘inner’ self, a sort of alter ego is used. This image is not strictly related to how she looks but as how she feels. In a more general way, it could certainly be anyone because the appearance is just an excuse for telling something else; connected with states of mind and spirit, and it’s there when it becomes a symbol.

About other images, such as the fish or lately the red points …they are mainly absurd/ alien elements that bursts in a context where they are not suppose to be. The human being is always searching for a reason. When there is a lack of the justification that the human reason need, the sensation of ‘no sense’ appears. That sensation moves us to think and to search for significations. Those significations can be as many as people seeing the work, and that would be bound directly to our personal thoughts, ideas and point of views. We could certainly be all staring to an image and that would have different lectures to every person that sees it, no matter what the author’s real explanation could be.

6. How long have your been an artist? How did you become interested in it?
I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting since I was a little kid. But I guess the moment was when I started to study art, an entire new world opened to my eyes and I realized it was not just about drawing or painting, but it also had to do with transmit an idea and feelings. And I realized that we are also communicators, because art is about communication at the ends, a visual one. The work is complete by other people’s look, it’s useful to express ourselves but it’s incomplete without that feedback.

Art was present in one way or another in my family….my mum was about to apply for art school when she was younger, although she finally studied something else, and my dad used to work as a draftsman in a dockyard projecting shipping when I was little (but he was an art lover, he has always enjoyed art and art history) so they both had skills in drawing and also enjoyed art, as the rest of my family did, so they weren’t surprised about my inclination towards it.

7. Are you working on any new projects or have you completed anything recently?
I’m currently working in a life-size sculpture in clay (transitory material); it’s almost finished; I just need to complete the mold and the definitive material of it. It’s a woman whose head is being ate by a skull, the concept behind it it’s human nature and relationship between people, based on the latin phrase Homo homini lupus est meaning "man is a wolf to [his fellow] man." which can be interpreted to mean that man preys upon man. It is widely referenced when discussing the horrors of which humans are capable. Since I’m a woman and I feel identified with that phrase, instead of using a male figure I’m working on a female, of course the conception remains the same.

I’ve recently completed 22 illustrations for the book ‘Odore a (Caracas/Torino senza ritorno)’ from the italian writer Antonio Nazzaro Zambon. It was a nice work because I had to make an interpretation of the author’s writing; fortunately I really like his narrations so it was a great experience.

8. Have you painted murals before? Explain.
Yes, I did. I began to paint them a year ago, thanks to a Fbk friend (Chirag Patel) who suggested that my works would look great in the wall. I’ve always wanted to have a bigger canvas for expressing myself; I felt the time had come and finally I began to paint bigger in public places.

Since then I’ve been painting in different locations in BA, the last one was the bigger one (2 floors high) as well as the most gratifying one. It’s situated in a public building, a library, they work there for the inclusion of the children, teenagers and young people who are socially vulnerable, and in pursuit of reversing the lack of opportunities they have in poverty, marginality and discrimination contexts. I could felt the recognition and gratitude from the people who lived in that neighborhood, and that’s the best part of doing murals, you have the feedback right away, kids loved it and I was very glad about that. Being in the studio creating is generally a solitary activity so when you have the chance to create in a public place you have a completely different connection with the place, background and people you’re working for.

9. What brings you to the United States? Where will you visit and what do you want to see while you are in the U.S?
I want to visit mostly art galleries and museums. I’m visiting NY the first days of my trip, afterwards Atlanta and Memphis, maybe some other places if I have the time!

I want to see the art scene by myself in the States so I guess this will be the perfect time. Moreover, I’m going to paint Gallery56’s mural so that’s a big good reason apart from the fact of visiting these amazing cities.

10. What is your life's goal?
That’s a pretty hard question…I guess the answer it’s kind of existentialist by now. Keep exorcising my inner demons and try to reach a spiritual balance and wellness without hearting anyone else, I think I’m unconsciously and constantly seeking that; I feel we all are, in a way, looking for that calm in the middle of the daily storm.