Walk the length and breadth of Lisbon, and you will likely see the works of Joana Vasconcelos, as these beacons of creativity appear more relevant to the city than so many of the more obvious sites. Over twenty years on, Vasconcelos returns to the site of one of her first recognised exhibitions at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, MAAT, Lisbon. A building that has itself mirrored Vasconcelos’ success, going from a small exhibition space to something resembling a retired factory. That for the duration of the plug-in retrospective has been positively illuminated, with much of Vasconcelos’ studio appearing to have relocated to the museum.

Plug-in is a survey show of everything significant to the artist’s practice, curated as an autobiography of visual objects, including I’ll Be Your Mirror 2019, as a mask of mirrors that evokes something of Narcissus’ mythological self-interest, Solitary Ring 2018, epitomising Vasconcelos’ reclaiming of the readymade to address society’s ambitions and ills at the same time. War Games 2011 has one of her first cars reappropriated as an artwork, with coloured toys and plastic guns covering everything on the inside and outside of the car, the soft and the sinister side-by-side. Tree of Life 2023, coming from the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes in Paris, is a work that references another longstanding fable, that of the Greek goddess Daphne feeling the advances of Apollo; transforming herself into a tree. Beyond the much celebrated Valkyrie series, which again turns back to mythology to the deities of Valhalla, towards the back of a darkened adjoining gallery is one of the works from the original one-room exhibition, Strangers in the Night 2000, which appears as an upturned leather sofa, encased by a metal framework and wheels, to which she has applied every possible size and shape of reclaimed car lights, that are illuminated like a coloured disco ball, to the iridescent sound of Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night; individually bursting with unlicensed energy the like of which Vasconcelos carries with her always. 

Interview

Rajesh Punj: That you come back, full circle, to where you had your first meaningful solo exhibition, curated then as now by João Pinharanda, is almost a fairy-tale. Do you see it as magical?  

Joana Vasconcelos: It is a full-circle moment in my career, absolutely. To be able to go back to the starting point 24 years later is utterly amazing. Twenty-four years ago, being awarded the New Artists Prize by the EDP Foundation allowed me to buy a handycam and create www.fatimashop (2002), as well as other videos and I never stopped working ever since. After all this time, it is great to return to MAAT and show in the city where I live and work what I have been showing around the world.

 RP: And do you feel your fate and fortune are tied up with the development and expansion of MAAT as an institution? 

JV: An award like the New Artist’s Prize can truly change the life of an artist and that has happened to me. Therefore, my career is strongly related to EDP and now to MAAT. That award shaped me, structured me, and gave me the strength to carry on. It gave me my first major solo exhibition, my first catalogue, my first contractual relationship with a gallery, and my first salary. I remember that catalyst with gratitude and affection, as I do with everything that contributed to making me who I am today.  

RP: You explain that it was, alongside Versailles, as the only two occasions that you were genuinely surprised by the opportunity to exhibit. Early on in your career, MAAT I understand as having been overwhelming, but Versailles, for very different reasons, clearly confirmed your journey to becoming internationally known. Do you see them as defining moments in your career?  

JV: Certainly. Versailles was a great turning point in my career. To this day, I am still the youngest artist and the only female one to have an exhibition in Versailles. When I walked through the salons and the gardens of the Palace, I felt as though I was between reality and dream, everyday life and magic, between the festive and the tragic; almost as if I could hear the revolutionary crowd, the echo of Marie-Antoinette’s footsteps, the music, and the festive atmosphere of the salons. To interpret and confront the dense mythology and the history of Versailles with contemporaneity, evoking the presence of important feminine figures that inhabited the Palace, crossing my identity and my own experience as a Portuguese woman born in France, was definitely one of the most fascinating challenges of my career. Recently, I had a similar experience at the Uffizi Galleries and Pitti Palace in Florence. I am strongly influenced by the Baroque and I love to exhibit in these amazing palaces, full of charm and history. I revel in the dialogue between classic and modern art. 

RP: Where do you see Plug-in at MAAT in relation to what has gone before?     

JV: Although I have been working with technology for a very long time now, this exhibition allowed me to show, through a selection of artworks using lights and electricity, which is also present in the core essence of MAAT since day one, the liaison between crafts and technology. I don’t believe one should have to choose between one or the other, I love to combine them in my practice, it’s like bringing together the past and the present. And that allows us to have another perspective on the future. 

RP: Living and working in Lisbon, to have such a major exhibition (a retrospective of a kind), in your city, I know is incredibly important for you. Is there still a new audience where you want to introduce your work to?  

JV: I am always glad for the opportunity to exhibit my work in Lisbon, the place I chose to live and work. I am either travelling around the world for work or I am in the studio creating new pieces but I am always grateful for the opportunity to show my work at home. There is always someone to introduce my work to, I have many pieces that haven’t been shown in Portugal and this was an amazing opportunity to do so. I am fully aware of the fact that I wouldn’t be doing the kind of work that I do if I were not a woman and if I were not Portuguese.

I was born in France (my parents were exiled in France during dictatorship) but I grew up in Portugal and I was always mesmerized by the wealth of Portuguese culture and the connection between arts and crafts so present in my work. The tiles, ceramics, textiles, embroidery, jewellery, gilded woodwork, the abundance of colour and the use of light are all declinations of the knowledge of the country that made me a true artist of the Baroque, and showing my work here is also a wonderful way for me to work with all this heritage. 

RP: Coming back to MAAT, what do you think your younger, precocious self would have made of the major exhibition now?  

JV: I think she would have loved it. 

RP: I recall you saying it was incredibly important for you to exhibit in 2000, and to be given your first major solo show; do you see that still, that the works needed to be exhibited/to be seen; for them to come alive?  

JV: Considering the scale I usually work with, it has happened that I am only able to see the final artworks when they get exhibited, some of them are so big that even though I have a big studio and workshop I cannot fully assemble the works in there because they simply do not fit! Apart from that, what interests me is the relationship between the work, the space where it is placed, and the interaction with the public. Naturally, I only get this whole experience when the work is exhibited, and that experience is for me the moment the work is alive; as you say. 

RP: Your audiences clearly adore you (having attended the MAAT preview), because of your ability to identify and deliver something essentially Portuguese in all of your works, that celebrates where you come from and are going; that other artists are less able to do; do you recognise that gift you have?  

JV: I believe that once an artwork is completed, it becomes its own entity, detached from the artist. An artwork absorbs the artist’s understanding of the world and is intellectually stimulating. I do not believe in telling people what they should see and feel, and I am always amazed by what people project on my artworks, what interpretations spring to life, which is always connected to intimate life experiences. This creates a safe space for the viewer to interact and relate with my work freely. On top of that, I have a profound respect for the Portuguese heritage and use it as a lexicon throughout. More than replicating the traditions I aim to modernise them and recontextualise them in my practice.  

RP: Taking your works to different countries, to very different locations, in which you have to negotiate your works for new spaces, as we have discussed before, how do you have them still hold onto their essential essence, of you and where you come from?   

JV: My work establishes a relationship with the surrounding space. When the space changes, the work itself adapts. Also, the heritage and culture of the place/country/cultural space where my work is shown will eventually add more layers of meaning and symbolism to it. All of this plays a huge role in the creation of meaning and understanding; the work does not exist in a vacuum. For me, it is important to acknowledge all of this when planning an exhibition. This relationship and mutations interest me a great deal because, through this process, I see how different people all over the world relate to my work, create their own connection with a piece and enjoy themselves.  

RP: The scale and ambition of certain works, has that come as a consequence of your working with a team of individuals that have allowed you to think big?  

JV: I don’t do large-scale for monumental sake. The scale of my works derives from my choice of materials to convey a message and Marilyn (2009), for instance, is a good example of that. I picked a medium-sized pan (for everyday use in Portugal, number 18, used to cook rice for a family of four) and used it to create a symbol of glamour, elevating the status of housewives. I work with ambiguity a great deal and, quite often, will start from a small, ordinary object, using it to create a new, larger form through decontextualisation and repetition. The scale by itself does not have a magical quality; the main goal is to offer different perspectives on reality. Certainly, working with a team of more than 50 experts in different fields such as architecture, communications, finance, production, workshop, textile artisans and welders is what allows me to accomplish this. 

RP: With works like War Games (2011) and Drag Race (2023), and much before that Strangers in the Night (2000), how important is the readymade to you (all of the objects that fulfil and fill our lives)?  

JV: I use everyday objects in my practice to maximise their aesthetic potential, creating new meanings and offering new perspectives. It is not a uniquely conceptual work as it is traditionally ready-made in art history. The aim is to question the way these everyday objects are perceived, not by simply elevating these objects to an art object status, but by incorporating them in my artistic practice as materials. The conceptual gesture remains but it is elevated by the aesthetic choices I make on or with these objects. Also, the objects I choose for my artwork are of emotional importance to me; I have a direct relation to them. The Morris Oxford used in War Games was my first car, gifted to me by my grandfather who was a car collector. I do not simply place the car inside the museum to elevate it to the art realm; I use it as raw material; adding laser guns and plushies to create new meanings with the piece. It is the transformation of the everyday objects that interests me.   

RP: And then there are the other kinds of works, more fanciful and fantastic, the Valkyrie series that appear to draw on your creative and very colourful imagination, where the reality of the readymade is so far removed, that they are essentially abstract forms. Do you see there being two kinds of works, those based in reality or that are born of the readymade, and those which are more of the imagination?  

JV: I do not look at them as two diverse ways of expression, but more as a use of different methods and materials. The Valkyries have tentacles that multiply and occupy the space, their round and huge bodies and limbs spreading out within different environments. Like the drawings, a constant in my practice since the beginning, Valkyrie’s shape is abstract. Physical representations of feminine power are inspired by the female figures of Norse mythology who flew over the battlefields, bringing the bravest warriors back to life to join the deities in Valhalla. Made with textile materials and a variety of fabrics, crochet and trimmings, they result in a surprising combination of volumes, textures and colours. Many of them also combine the artisan’s expertise with technological components, through the insertion of light that – simulating vibration and breathing – provides movement and life.   

RP: How important is colour to your work when we see Valkyrie works, and Drag Race?  

JV: I have never been afraid of color and, therefore, it has been present in the Valkyries from the very beginning. Not only do their big silhouettes occupy space but also their bold colours also mimic this, happily imposing their presence. In Drag Race, the colour expresses itself mainly through the feathers, they add an extra depth to a very Baroque artwork which combines the male and the female universe but also the freedom to be who we want to be.

RP: To see so many of your works together, in the way you would have at Versailles, how does that make you feel a sense of accomplishment or the desire for much more?  

JV: The great thing about doing different shows in different places is that it allows us to create different dialogues between the artworks. That has happened here on different levels, the concept of technology throughout but also the “car room” where three different vehicles dialogue with one another: War Games, Drag Race and Strangers in the Night come together with a common theme offering different perspectives. And allowing for people to add their own narrative, I love the way people project their own life experiences onto my artworks in what remains a unique experience for each individual.

RP: Having joined you at the studio, and you walk me through all of the different professional elements that come together, ‘sewers’, ‘engineers’ and ‘architects’ alike, how do you initially decide on an idea, that everyone comes to believe in?  

JV: I couldn’t do this kind of work if I didn’t have a big team supporting me, and we are nearly 60 people! Every project starts from a sketch in my notebooks, that the architects turn into a technical drawing and goes on to production, finance, communications… The different departments work together to create something that many deem “impossible” at first. The crochet team, for instance, is much more prolific in crochet than I am – even though I know how to crochet and am good at it, I would never have the time to do everything by myself – and I always bring to the team individuals that know more than me about their specific craft. It is a hugely enriching process.  

RP: The public and the private is something we have talked about previously, and how that manifests in your work, of the inward and outward. Do you see the secret being as significant as showing off? 

JV: I have always been very interested in creating a bridge between the domestic place and the public arena, that’s why I bring the pans outdoors and the garden sculptures inside the house. I don’t want to stick to limits and I love to create for the public space as much as for museums and galleries. I love to surprise people and dichotomies play a huge role in my practice. It’s the dialogue between different universes that interest me.

RP: I suggested before, you intend to celebrate everything you see, but is there an element of your critiquing the status quo?

JV: Certainly. I believe every society produces its own artists. I’ll be Your Mirror (2018) is all about that, the role of the artist in reflecting – and questioning – tradition and why we continue to do things the way we do.

RP: We have also previously talked about making sculptures and conceiving major installations as a woman artist, which is a male-dominated arena. You explained very eloquently before of having to deal with that at the Guggenheim Bilbao, with your Valkyrie work being within touching distance of the permanent Richard Serra. How do you approach situations like that, where the space available to you appears compromised in some way?  

JV: Taking up space, as a woman and artist, is crucial in the context of feminism and equality.  It has happened to me quite often to be the first woman to achieve certain milestones in the art world, such as Bilbao or Versailles. And rather than taking the opportunity to congratulate myself, I always wondered why it had not happened to so many talented female artists before me. It is not a coincidence that stone and metal continue to be regarded as “noble materials” … The art world remains very male-oriented and, therefore, while there will be women artists who do not earn as much or are given the same opportunities as men, we need to continue to pursue the feminist fight.  

RP: It is not just physical space that you are negotiating within your work, but mental space, of the need to retreat and remove yourself entirely from the modern world, how do you continue to manage to do that?  

JV: I would never wish to remove myself from the modern world! I find it fascinating with all its challenges. My job was one of the first mankind took upon itself, drawing on the caves, and I love to look back to all the contributions before me and be able to add my own dimension. 

RP: Like colour, how much is humour essential to your work?  

JV: Dichotomies are present, and the dissonance these inflict is often what enhances the humour in the work. The humour, and consequently laughter, is disruptive. It is a tool to prevent over-rationalisation of my work; it might seem light and non-threatening, but joy and laughter add another dimension. I see it as an act of courage. There is a sincere subversion, in potency, to work with and about joy or humour. This is revolutionary in an art world where so much of that which is masculine, cold and brainy prevails. With humour, one can bring humanity back to art.  

RP: I know drawing and applying coloured pencils to paper is hugely important to you. Are the sketches the beginning of everything for you?  

JV: It all starts in my notebooks, which I always carry around, to dump information, ideas and drawings. For me, drawing is a way of thinking. It allows me to feel free and creative daily, and that is crucial for an artist. During lockdown, I found myself locked up at home, away from my team. I could not bring my studio home with me, but I could draw. Some artists draw very figuratively. That is how you learn the technique, by reproducing what is around you. I am more figurative when sculpting and more abstract when drawing. Drawing for me is a space of freedom. It reflects the poetic rather than the concrete side of things. There is a dynamic in drawing that takes me back to the spirit, movement, and curves of the Baroque so present in my work. 

RP: What comes next for you? 

JV: I am just packing my bags to travel to Hong Kong, Swire Properties has commissioned two pieces for ArtisTree and Taikoo Place, so I’m bringing a Valkyrie and an Enchanted Forest to Art Basel Hong Kong, which I always thought looked like a place of the future. In March I will also be opening an exhibition at Hangar Y in Paris, in April opening Chateau de Valkyries at Gottorf Castle, in June I will be travelling to New York and in October I will be opening the MICAS in Malta, which will be a great honour. Let’s just say it’s going to be a busy year, travelling with my art around the globe. 

Read More>> Please Subscribe our Physical Magazine