Could you please introduce yourself?
My name is Donat, I’m from Switzerland, I’m 25 years old and I did my bachelor’s degree in HEAD at Geneva. It’s the art school in Geneva and I did fine arts, but they called it visual arts. I did specialize myself in installation there, so I did three years of installation and sculpture. And after that I wanted to see how the art world really works and to see how it is like outside of the school bubble because when you are in school you have everything already there for you, you have a studio, you have materials for you. And I really wanted to see the reality of the art world and how I can manage to have my social life on the side, my working life on the side and also doing art. It’s been one year from now and next year I will apply to a master’s degree because I’m interested in doing art teaching in high school. And I need a master’s degree to do that.
What kind of master’s degree?
I think I’m going to try to stay at the same school and I’m interested in two master’s degrees. One is for my own practice or the solo practice and it’s really like to get you in the art world in Geneva. The other one is more like education, collaboration and also creating some exhibitions. So, this one really interests me more in a way that it really gives me more to learn about teaching.
And from where did the idea of teaching came from?
Because this year I began to do some replacements in primary schools in Geneva. So, I did get to teach some things to kids, and I really love teaching. And I think I have this kind of… I get some good feeling about it and I’m happy to do that. And for me, I think we can’t really be only artists anymore… except if you are focusing 100% in art. Things that I don’t want because I think that it could burn myself out from art. I think it’s also important to have some stable and comfortable situation. Having this job of a teacher on the side would be the way for me to balance art life and also personal life. And also, I was invited this year to do some workshops in a primary school. That also gave me much more confidence to get into this job.
Why did you decide to come to Lisbon? How did you find Prisma?
I found Prisma on the Rest Artists website. It’s a website that lists a lot of residencies. And I was just interested in doing residencies also to see what it can bring to my practice. So, earlier this year I did a residency at Akureyri in Iceland. It’s a small village of around 20,000 inhabitants in the north of Iceland. It was a very different experience than Prisma because there in Iceland I was like completely alone because it’s such a small village. I couldn’t like really to meet other artists. I was the only one in the residency. So, it was completely focused on arts. And for this time, I wanted to try other residencies when I would get some artists to meet and some other people to collaborate with. Then I learned about Prisma and that there are several artists doing the residency and that the association is also doing a lot of events. And I was really interested in meeting new artists and really meeting a new art scene outside of what I know. That means like the Switzerland art scene.
What was your first impression of Prisma when you arrived?
My first impression was that Prisma does a lot of events and that’s nice because it gives you from the first moment a way of meeting new people that are always coming to those events. They’re always interested in arts. And for me I was really surprised by it because when I compared to my past residency, it’s completely different.
And I like to see that we have also some kind of… There are people that watch out for us. They do curating sessions with us. We talk about our works. That helps to get you in the artistic process because you have this organized event when you talk and when you get also new ideas.
How does the residency influence your work so far?
This residency… Let’s say it helps me to really know more about this city. In my practice, I’m really interested in the settings, in our surroundings. I’m interested in the way how can inanimate objects gain dynamism and gain life. And for me, it comes a lot from urban settings. I’m really interested in this concept of Pareidolia. And the Pareidolia concept is the way of seeing faces in the world, seeing faces like in the clouds. This concept gives a lot of movement and lightness to some really serious things. And when I got here in Lisbon, I just wandered around for two weeks just to get the feel of the city.
I think there’s a lot of interesting elements that are going on in Lisbon because we see all these kinds of buildings, the contrast between the centre of Lisbon when you have more like this postcard feel to the city. And when you get a little bit further, you get to see new neighbourhoods, social buildings, and you get to see new architectural styles. I really love the contrast between these different parts of the city because you feel that you are not in the same city anymore and you feel that the city is always vibrating around you. I’m doing this artwork that is Lisbon-related. So, I try to combine these different parts of Lisbon, to contrast the old city to the new, also to get to show more about the concept of Pareidolia that we can see in the city.
This concept really interests me also because I think that sometimes we are so stuck in our routines, in the monotony of urban life, that we tend to not find the things around us interesting anymore. And it just takes to open your eyes a little bit more, to hear a little bit more, and you will see this kind of moving objects around you, but they are always inanimate. But with seeing these figures, these faces in the buildings, in the parks, in all that stuff, you see that it gives so much lightness to serious settings, and only with a face on a wall, you can brighten up a whole building. And for me, it’s really like this… How can the inanimate give emotion to people? That interests me a lot.
When did you first start creating art?
So, I first started when I was 9 years old. I began to write a little bit, but it was mostly fan fiction. That’s not so interesting. I just took what I loved, like the anime or the movies that I liked, and I just rewrote some stories in the same universes. So, I didn’t really create something new. I always took some background that was already there. I also drew a bit, but it was mostly also anime drawing and things like that. After that, I gave up a little bit on art, because I went to high school, and high schools in Switzerland are really challenging. So, I fully focused on my studies, and it was really after that, that I met someone in a job that I did in a nursery home. I met this guy in this nursery home, and he was doing many things like painting, drawing, he was always doing something. And even if he was not an artist, he was so passionate about that, that he gave me also the impulse to get back to art.
I got to do some illustrations, some 2D animation, and then I went to the art school, because I was just telling myself, OK, if you are interested in art now, why not try this bachelor’s degree?
And why installations?
Because before, I always did 2D artworks, like the illustrations, the animation, and even the writing, it stayed mostly on paper and in 2D. And I really wanted to know something new, and to learn about something completely new, and how these 2D things can also take volume and take space. I think that even in my art now, you see that I was a 2D artist before because first, I always begin with 2D, with simple plain surfaces, and then I give them volume by putting them together.
I began to work with wood also, because I loved the materiality and all that you can do with wood. It gave me a lot of inspiration, because I could really relate to it. In my childhood, I would always see these houses full of wood, full of wood furniture. And that’s where you see maybe an inspiration from furniture in my work.
Where did the Pareidolia come from and when did you start incorporating it in your projects?
So the Pareidolia came a little bit from itself, like it came to me in the way of… I was doing this project where I just did like these furniture shapes, and sometimes they would gain animal features. On one you could see a dragon, or a dinosaur and I was really interested in why I did that and why I chose to do it this way. Because it was not automatic that I knew what I was doing, so after that I started to research more about Pareidolia and why I was interested in that and the answer that I got was that it makes sense for the rest of my practice also to be connected to this concept.
Your exploration of Pareidolia involves finding faces, robots and animals in architectural forms. How do you balance the whimsical and imaginative aspects of this practice with deeper, potentially critical interpretations of urban environments?
It’s funny because once I had this critic session with some of my teachers back in my workshop. And they told me that one of my artworks reminded them of fascist architecture.
Because of the symmetrical obsession that you can find in some of my art pieces. And so at the first go I was like… Why do they say that? I don’t understand. I took it really badly and then I tried to find a way to avoid that. I did some research, and I got to this realization that, yeah, with the symmetric parts of some of my artworks you could see some inspiration. You could see, not inspiration, but some similarities to architectural styles that are criticized and that are related to political movements. And then I just tried to compare it a little bit more with my artwork. And I saw this kind of architecture related to political movements, this critical aspect of architecture. You could define them by the symmetry. Let’s say you have a building, you have four faces to the building, and you have the exact same number of, let’s say, windows, of doors. And they give the idea of perfection. They give the idea of nothing is unbalanced. It’s all perfect. I compared them to the things that I did. And the way out was just to see that always, even if I was attracted by symmetry, I was always also attracted by asymmetry. And I always try to introduce some imbalance to my artwork, to give imperfection, because with that you also create some kind of movement in your art. You see, maybe these faces would have four windows, and the next faces would have three. And with that you create a circular way of discovering new things and of unbalancing and giving dynamism to the sculpture. This is a concept that I really try to explore more. And the contrast between asymmetry and symmetry which also always interested me.
That’s why you see a lot of contrasting colours, contrasting shapes, like here with this artwork that I’m doing for Prisma. You can see that I have this really serious shape, rectangular shape that can recall of buildings and I also try to mix them with more decorative shapes, like the shapes that you can see in the fences, in the tiles here and all the other things.
So I always try to seek for the contrast for what will create the strongest contrast. To also unbalance and go away from the seriousness of architecture.
You mentioned a desire to explore the professional dimension of the art world. What are your specific goals in this regard?
So, I just want to find some balance between doing art and having my own life on the side. And I don’t think I have… Before, I had goals about doing exhibitions, having grants, doing solo shows and all that stuff. I really wanted to live as a full-time artist. But then I just realized that if you want to do that, you also must really fully focus on art. And as I said before, it can really drain your soul, it can really burn you out. I don’t think, for me, it’s the kind of art that I want to do. I don’t want to do art that is related to the urgency of doing art, the urgency of gaining money. So, for now, I think my goals are just to… Like I try to do in my practice, I try to have fun and to also show the fun that you can see in serious settings.
I think I just want also to feel free to do what I want, to feel free to do light artworks. And also, I think there’s too much seriousness in the contemporary art world, too many conventions that you have to follow, like trends or things like that. And for me, I don’t see myself in this kind of art scene because before I was doing this kind of things. I was doing really conceptual art, really serious art. I was following the rules. And then I realized at the end of my bachelor’s degree, if I was a child, would I see my artwork and would I like it? And I was trying to feel like a child again. And to see my artwork with my child eyes. And I was just saying to myself, I can’t even understand it. And if I was a child, I would just be bored of it really fast. So, I try to keep a playful practice about my art. And to also open my art to… Trying to open my art to everyone.
In projects like “Beep Bap Boop”, you bring buildings to life with imaginative narratives. How do you see storytelling as a tool in transforming how we engage with static and often overlooked urban structures?
13 pieces, variable dimensions /2023
For me, the storytelling is a part that I’ve developed just after this specific project. It was the project that I tried to see with my child eyes. And I was asking myself, how can someone that doesn’t know anything about art enter this world and also grasp the playfulness of my artwork. So, I tried, I wrote some small texts that I incorporated in my portfolio and I think that in the future, when I will showcase my work, I will always begin with reading these texts. I think it can really give a way to people to enter this world and also to understand more about if it is really architecture or is it something else.
You’ve spoken about your fascination with rhythm, symmetry and contrast in your work. How does this visual language influence the emotion or thoughts you aim to invoke in viewers?
I think they can influence the emotions in that playfulness behind the contrast, you can see the life, you can see the dynamism getting injected into these inanimate structures. I think it’s really the movement that you can see that can also give emotions to people, that can give them some questions, that can interrogate them. I also try to focus on the small details because I think that the small details are the ones that can give countless new ways of interpretation.
Your sculptures integrate elements from the architectural landscapes of specific locations. How do you approach preserving the culture and environmental identity of a site while adding your imaginative interpretation?
I was thinking about this, about if I am legitimate to take inspiration from cultural elements from cities that I’m not used to? I was thinking about the first residency that I did, because the whole in situ works has begun in Iceland. Because my work in Geneva was different but I think that residencies are also a good way to try to work in relation to those cities. And in Iceland I was seeking for what is appealing to me as a person from Geneva, from Switzerland.
I tried to make the connections between my home country and Iceland. And I was always interested in the shapes of buildings because I think that in Western culture you see a lot of similarities between each country but also every country has these own elements to it. In Iceland I was really interested by the shapes of the windows because you had these houses everywhere and they looked pretty much all the same. But then you would get to see that they are all different just by seeing the windows. They were like American suburban houses, but they were all different on their own. And I was really interested to see the human aspects of it. Like why someone has these windows like this and why this one is completely different.
When I get to elements that are culturally related, like the tiles in Lisbon, I try to not replicate them. I try to always give my personal aspect to it. So, I took some inspiration from tiles of Lisbon but I try to do my own drawings and my own tiles. Because I think that you can find tiles everywhere. But in Lisbon, some these tiles are very specific. So, to feel legitimate to use this element of architecture, I would create my own way of doing that.
In Iceland you created site-specific works. So how does Lisbon architectural and cultural landscape change or inspire differently compared to Iceland?
In Iceland, as I said, it seemed quite boring. Because you had the same kind of houses, and you don’t get that much diversity in the architectural landscape. But in Lisbon, you get the city so vibrating from different neighbourhoods, from different architectural elements. And for me, that’s the whole difference. Like in Lisbon, if you go to the north of the city, you will get to see these really modernist buildings. And when you take the boat and go to the other side of the river, like in Cacilhas, you get to see new whole city. And that’s why I think residencies can be so interesting because they are never the same and you are never in the same place.
Given your interest in transforming static structures into dynamic living forms, where do you see your practice evolving in relation to the future of urban development and art’s role in shaping it?
I want to also simplify a little bit more the abstraction that you can see in my work. Because I think that I can also close my practice if I focus too much on architecture. So I want to get to know other parts of our routine to get used to, to do some research. And maybe after focusing on the outside of our surroundings, like the urban setting, I will focus more on the inside, on the houses, on what makes up our own monotony. What makes our own banality. I think I’ll focus more on the furniture side, on the inside of the houses. I think if I try to focus too much on the same subject, my art will become dull after a moment. And I think that I’ve got to a point where I also need to focus on another thing, to always get my art dynamic like my sculptures.
Has Lisbon, with its dominant street art scene, provided you with something new to your practice that you can keep drawing from?
Not that much, because I was not really interested by the street art part of the city. Even if it’s really engaging and you can find street art pretty much anywhere. I think they contradict a lot with what I want to say, because the power of street art is adding life to buildings and that’s also what I want to do. I don’t think that I need to incorporate street art, because street art is doing its own thing and I want to do my own thing, even if we have the same objectives.
You describe your pieces as occupying space and transforming it. How do you achieve this transformation of the space? And what are the specific ways in which your pieces interact with the space they inhabit?
For some artworks, like Beep Bap Boop, my artwork was really incorporated in the setting where it was. It was like this space with white walls and grey ground, and I painted the pieces with the same colours that come from either the ground or the walls. So, the pieces that were on the walls were white and the pieces that were on the ground were completely grey. I wanted also to do this chameleon effect so that you can see that these pieces can emerge from our surroundings as the details that can emerge from your eyesight when you get to see specific elements that can be interesting. For that artwork, it was really environment-related and also, I think that the different scales of the artworks that you can do can also create some conversation and some invisible lines of action between the surroundings. For the art piece for this residency, I only made one sculpture, but this sculpture is be connected to the other residents’ artworks because I think that this residency was such a social experience that I don’t need other art pieces to be closing the discussion between my artwork and the artwork of the other residents.
Can you elaborate on your interest in collaborative work and how do you envision incorporating this into your residency project?
So here, for example, for this residency project, the collaborative work really came from the people around me that were always giving me new places to see. They would send me pictures of cardboard that they would see in the city so that I would then go and collect it. The collaboration came more for the collecting and preparation part, so when you see all these materials that are in my sculpture, it’s not only mine because it also came from other people’s suggestions and help.
I also really liked this workshop that I did in the primary schools before, and I think that maybe the collaborative work will not necessarily come from my own practice but will more come from side works that I will do with children or maybe in the future when I’ll get to be an art teacher. I’m also interested in curating, so I think this is also a different kind of collaborative work and I’m always open to discussion with other people.
And what are your expectations for the potential impact of the residency project on your artistic development?
Residencies are always good, because you get some limitations within them, because you are not in your home country, you are not in your comfort zone, you don’t have your own studio, you don’t have necessarily your materials, so for me I really got to see new ways of creating art. For this one, for example, I did some cardboard work before, but I really tried to learn something new, so I tried to really get the monumental feeling with this artwork. Instead of doing little cardboard pieces, I did a much bigger one, so for me, residencies can always help you to interrogate your thoughts and finding new ways of doing it.
About | Donat Prekorogja / Donat Prekorogja (@do.jouant)
Interview: Aleksandra Stinia