IN CONVERSATION WITH BRAZILIAN ARTIST LIA CHAIA
IN CONVERSATION WITH BRAZILIAN ARTIST LIA CHAIA
I’ve been spending a lot of my time this year searching for inspiration, artists that move me and say something and make you feel something. While everything has been on pause the past few months I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time doing art research for an upcoming professional project and came across a lot of artists I wanted to learn more about, one of them being Lia Chaia, a Brazilian artist. Born in 1978 in São Paulo where she currently lives and works, she graduated in Fine Arts at Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado in 2003. She also studied Dance and Clown, the art of the body is of really great interest to her. She works with different mediums, including; Photography, Video, Performance, Installation, Audio and objects.
Lia tell us more:
The research I have been developing refers to the permanent tension between culture versus nature, being part of a process of reflection on the way nature has been appropriated by the standards of urban culture. I am also interested in thinking and perceiving how the body reacts to everyday stimuli and disruptions.
Some highlights in my career are: Art Residencies at Cité des Arts in 2003, Currents Art and Music in Beijing and Iberê Camargo Grant / Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros and Galeria Garash in Mexico City. After graduating the work I started to develop with Galeria Vermelho team became quite significant. I was invited by Agnaldo Farias to make a Solo Show at Tomie Ohtake Institute (2002, Experiences with the Body), which was challenging as a first exhibition in a space already seen as a reference among Brazilian Art Institutions.
It is worth highlighting my participation in the 10th Istanbul International Biennial in 2007, being the only Brazilian artist in the exhibition. And, in 2012 I participated in the 11th Bienal Internacional de la Habana.
Other activities that I consider important are the courses and classes I teach allowing theoretical and practical exchanges in the multidisciplinary work that I have been developing.
What are your greatest inspirations or influences?
Immediately, my sensitive perception is open to events that occur in cities, in nature and in the relationships between them that cross the body. I am attentive to what happens in art and its different forms of existence, such as cinema, dance and theater. The influences of Dadaism are strong, for subverting the logical sense of reality and enhancing performance; pop art and minimalism for valuing the use of industrial and everyday materials, and thinking about the viewer's body in relation to the work and the work in relation to space. I am interested in anthropophagy in Brazilian modernism.
I research works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Duchamp, Gego, Pina Bausch, Cildo Meireles and Lygia Pape. Other forms of knowledge also inspire me, such as the mythologies and worldview of different peoples. The comic aspect of cinema, theater and the arts attracted me a lot, such as Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati.
I consider the search for origins on a planet marked by migratory flows very strong, so I try to know and problematize the origins of my family; so Arab culture also becomes part of my research and artistic practices.
Tell us about your creative process
it is based on reflection, observation, practical and theoretical research. Take time to test, build, make and redo. I usually work with several simultaneous ideas, each one has a unique time and paths of achievement. But there are times when I have to project ideas and then it is interesting to be focused on the project that requires exclusive dedication.
The practice and thinking of the work go together, the reflection of the production happens a lot in the process of making.
Conflicts usually interest me enough to support my research. Thus, such tensions or imbalances are present to think about the body, the relationships between nature and the artificial and the body's contacts with the city and architecture. There is a constant experience of relating to reality in this tension between inside and outside at the same time. I am attentive to the pulsating life, what is good and also what is painful.
What are some of the responses you have heard regarding your work?
Art must have a meaning mainly for those who are doing it. However, this sense is not only one way and is placed in a network of relationships. At the same time, art is a potent experience, when it affects the relationship with others and with society. Therefore, the meanings of art are also multiple.
I realize that my work is open and attracts many looks, whether by age groups or different social groups, making communication and exchange happen frequently.
How do you feel about being in isolation and how do you feel he art world will change moving forward?
Right now, we are in isolation, which is a sad state of exception, however, much of my work process has always been lonely and my studio is an annex to my home, so I live and work in the same place.
What makes the situation even more difficult is that, in addition, we are experiencing a serious political and social crisis in Brazil, generating greater tension in the air. In the midst of this turmoil of events I try to live each day with the balance and attention that the current circumstances allow. For me, working in the studio is a personal need that carries multiple forms of experiences such as poetry, politics, knowledge, risk and freedom. It is a permanent experience that presses the limits of everyday life.
I think that even in this tumultuous situation what matters now is the artist's demand to produce, a propitious moment to radicalize thought and the way of making art. It is necessary to continue making art as a way of life and a strategy of resistance. Accepting human and social frailties, we are at our fingertips, in a shifting terrain that points to continuity and some ruptures.
Thank you so much Lia. xx
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