10 Questions with Manuel Seita

Manuel Seita is a Portuguese artist, based in Vila Verde de Ficalho (Portugal). His work has been exhibited and published in Portugal, Germany, and the UK.

www.exteril.com | @manuelseita

ARTIST STATEMENT

“My body of work is multidisciplinary and includes drawing, painting, sculpture / object, ceramics, video art and installation.
The interest in all these ways of working is difficult for me to explain. I often happen to be working on an idea, with a certain material and during the process I am taken to other fields.
I often find objects made of stone, wood, aluminum ... that I take to the studio. When starting these surveys, the materials show the way forward. Well, it is not part of a project / drawing or sketch, but rather a reflection on the nature of the materials and how they can be worked.
Objects already have their characteristics: they have a certain shape, weight and size. It has its history and usefulness. I like to work with objects of natural origin, such as tree trunks, shells or stones carved by the sea. Sometimes it is enough to just let these exist for you, exposed.
But, I am also interested in the remains, the leftover materials used by the industry and which have lost to this economic or utility value.
I try not to modify these materials excessively because I believe they have their history, their time.” - Manuel Seita

INTERVIEW

Before talking about your art, could you tell us ab bit more about yourself? Who is Manuel Seita?

First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to talk a little about my work. I am grateful to my friend Carlos Tomé Sousa for translating the interview from Portuguese to English. I am a Portuguese artist, I am 50 years old and I live in Almodôvar, in southern Portugal. I graduated in Visual Arts in 2005 from the School of Arts and Design in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. 
I am passionate about Art and its power when it comes to conveying ideas, energies, emotions, beauty... I mean, the human being's capacity to interpret and recreate itself in the world. When we have the opportunity to see a new artistic experience, our perspective on life improves and the Arts bring human experiences closer to reality. Life and the Arts meet and are inseparable. Artistic objects are thus there as a means to transpose the banality of the real in a more profound and spiritual sense.

Why are you an artist, and when did you first become one?

I believe it was in elementary school as I don´t remember engaging in drawing, before that. I was apparently very good at drawing and these factors must have allowed this continuity. But it was nothing serious at that time, it didn't have to be. I used to draw wherever I wanted, I never lost the focus. I discovered the Dada and Surrealist artists in the few books I had access to. These were a revelation.

When I travelled to Lisbon, my favourite places were always museums: the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Center, the Chiado National Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Museum of Ancient Art as well as some art galleries, like 111, São Mamede… These were important moments for my education. I discovered the work of Portuguese and foreign artists. In these trips to Lisbon, at a very young age, these experiences were particularly touching and emotional.

When I was 20 I took an intensive pottery course for 1 year. I learned on a manual wheel, I had to push the wheel with my foot to model the clay. It was a very intense and interesting experience as I learned to master the entire process of modelling, decorating and cooking clay. And I go back to ceramics from time to time.

I finished my degree in 2005. I was 35 years old and it was also a good experience and I learned to better understand things and to focus to be able to work in a free and spontaneous way. As a result of this Degree, my work diversified and new untried ideas and materials have emerged. Like aluminium filings, glass, wood. Since then I have been working a lot with materials that I find here and there and which I mix. Work has become looser, simpler and I intend to experiment. Many of my works are laid down simply on the floor, in a particular place.

I started showing my work in 1990 mainly in Alentejo in group exhibitions. I had my first solo exhibition in 1993 in the town of Castro Verde, where I presented painting and ceramics. I kept showing my work in other locations such as Beja, Évora, Lisbon, Porto and Almodôvar (where I live).

You are passionate about drawing, painting, sculpture/object, ceramics, video art, and installation. How do you successfully express your art with different mediums?

It’s difficult for me to explain as this should be an almost automatic, simple answer. But, it is not. When I start a new cycle of work I try to do a series of works and to explore that idea until I realise that there is nothing more to say. 
I moved from there on to photographic depiction. I used to build ephemeral sculptural elements that I used to lay down on the floor, in precarious balance, such as wooden bars and slats or sheets of platex (wood agglomerate). And sometimes I used to combine iron bars with glass.

I love to go back to this type of work in new exhibition contexts. Remaking is really rethinking, reviewing, rereading and reflecting. And when we remake things it's because it makes sense and there is something deeper, hidden or the answer is quite simple: it's a happy work, it has met its purpose.
I bring objects that I find on the street, or in wood, aluminium or stone workshops, to the atelier. I started doing this when I was taking my degree. I sometimes store them and leave them there for a long time not knowing what to do with them, without immediately finding the answers to what I am looking for. I thus experiment and remake.

My work doesn’t really fit in a traditional sculpture process. I find personal achievement in collecting these fragments from the industrialized world. I like to think that these fragments have a shape, volume, weight, colour and texture of their own. It's all there, but the process is not over.
I like to think that drawing is always there in my work, a reflex of thought, gesture and words. And yet it is there in all objects, in nature. As an artist I see art everywhere, there is no way around it. Everything can be the reason or the answer.

You have been noted saying that the materials exist in the world and are available to the artist. It is this possibility of questioning the relationships that exist between them that can bring the revelation that is sought. Could you tell us more about this statement

Imagine the following situation: when working with clay, wood, stone, we can model a shape, a human representation or something else. The artist knows that what he represented is the result of his technical, expressive qualities, his sensitivity. But, if on the contrary, he tries to find other possibilities as regards the use of this material, he will probably engage in a process whereby he "forgets" the techniques he does master and moves on to a free experimentation field. This, among other things, allows him to leave his comfort zone and create an artistic identity, which may not be defined by style or trend. I don't identify with that idea of performing things according to this or that style because it's either in fashion or brings more. 
In my work processes, I try to find an approximation, a dialogue between different materials. I think that the time of confrontation, of relationship and difference, is relevant for what we are looking for.

The best way to explain this is to establish a parallel with the act of developing a photographic image whereby we have the image we captured moments before right there, immediately, in our hands. It is like an apparition, something that is there like we had not seen before in reality. To the same extent, when I work on a sculpture (sometimes on several sculptures at the same time) the ideas are often mixed and these dynamics make way for the answers to emerge. From the experience gathered in a particular work, I naturally move to another, as I believe that this moment will reveal itself again in a quite original way.

However, it is not just about the creation of objects/sculptures. The relationship between objects laid down in the exhibition space creates an energy, a living dialogue with the audience. This artistic experience encourages questioning because, as is well known, art is there first and foremost for the artist himself and only later for the audience. In any case, works need autonomy, need to be shown to the public.
Also the crossover of ideas between the object, the title, the materials, the poetics, the humour there are elements that I find very interesting as they lead to exponentiation of the interpretations of a particular work.

Do you have a role model that you've drawn inspiration from when creating your art?

It depends on the context in which I start the work. I am generally interested in the freedom of creation that materials may offer. I did some experiments in the past in drawing and I would like to try these ideas again in a larger format as they are references that reappear in my body of work as a resonance of memory. This need is also there in painting and ceramics and in the work I have been developing with felt and objects. I work in series or cycles intensively and with large output. That is how I feel completely absorbed and involved in the work. 

The choices and the positioning are naturally crucial and influential as regards the development of my work. I don’t feel the need to repeat formulas as I am a multidisciplinary artist. 
I have been using felt (fabric) a lot to build colourful sculptures in simple and minimal shapes, both light and appealing. I developed also several projects for sculptures in notebooks during my ceramic work in Germany and I made collages with cardboard. The landscape element was recurrent in Germany.
The objects I collect and reuse came out of the need to find new forms of expression, particularly during my Degree, because they are cheap, diverse and easily available. 

In the first stage, there is this very intense relationship with work, I mean; an immersion, an abyss between us and loneliness, in an attempt to understand this emptiness that art will help to provide answers for. I feel these moments in a very spiritual and intense way. I don't mean this out of vanity, it's rather the learning and the awareness that we must move on. My feelings are of joy and sharing with people. 
I prefer to think of something like a “spectator” because it reminds me of a more intimate idea, of someone who offers his time, who generously makes himself available through his work. This is undoubtedly a sharing relationship.

Another aspect I would like to mention within this context and which I find very interesting and challenging is the possibility of working depending on the room and space available. As I cannot do this on a regular basis, the alternative is to work in the studio and later present these objects in the context of an exhibition. In the atelier, one has more time to think. But, when working directly in the exhibition area, the room becomes the atelier. There is, therefore, obviously, another relationship with space, as we create based on a particular room and space. 
In my understanding, there is a relation of scale between the human body and the structure of a particular space. Scale is thus important when creating the work. As the presence of the work with space occurs in opposite terms, as a sort of occupation a large or small impact intervention can fill the void. 

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

Unfortunately at this moment, I have a very small studio and I have the problem of packing and protecting the work. It is stored in three different places. I keep working but at a slower pace. I have many projects that I would like to develop and present but unfortunately, there have been no invitations. The fact that I live in a small town may have some impact as it makes it more difficult to be closer to the artistic milieu. Hence the importance of talking about my work.

How do you describe the gesture of reflection or abstract thinking in your work?

As I mentioned, drawing is always there in my work. I am not an artist who is interested in representing reality, but images have emerged that suggest landscapes, mountains. Either way, they are abstractions.
For example, in the exhibition “Paraísos Artificiais - Artificial Paradises” I glued aluminium fragments to a wall and I thus drew an imaginary landscape. In another reinterpretation, I drew a circle on the wall, a light projector that helped to reflect the brightness of these small fragments.
“Limalhas - Filings” was an exhibition using aluminium filings. One of the works consisted of a carpet made of this material that I laid down on the floor. It was strongly illuminated and reflected light, which granted it a “precious” quality. The visitor could walk on the filings and participate in the work. There are also drawings that I made with natural oxides; iron, copper, cobalt on paper or even on the floor. Etc.

What experience of your life would you say that is reflected in your works of art?

Over the years we accumulate life experiences, situations that make us more mature. I believe that artists try to convey these experiences in their body of work. And if we look at the work of an artist over the years, his work undergoes transformations and it becomes clear that his experience becomes increasingly clean, clearer and simpler. 
All personal and external aspects are related or clearly there in art. These are inseparable issues.
Thinking about a world without Art will be the same as thinking about the world without people or nature, of which we are part of. There is nothing radical about this thought. Art is the spiritual expression of humanity in this world.
Over time, many experiences have been engaged in my work. Perhaps the most unexpected was ceramics because it emerged in my life at a time when I didn't really know what to do. I was very young, but it turned out to be a great decision.
I cannot describe myself in artistic terms exclusively as a painter, sculptor or ceramist. I cross disciplines and I see video as a drawing or a performance. Sculpture as a banal object or an Installation. Painting as space, a place. 
I like to shuffle all these concepts in order not to stagnate in the same artistic practice.

What do you hope that the public takes away from your work?

Hope, Dream, Utopia. 
These are strong concepts but it is exactly what I feel and try to find in the work of other artists. In fact, it is a relationship of sharing, of exchanging experiences.
Hope, because art, even the most radical, e.g. certain Performances, is a movement of change, of breaking pre-established ideas. In my case, hope for a better world for everyone.
Dream, because imagination is a place without limits. Having the ability to believe in dreams is to materialize ideas and thoughts in art.
Utopia, because we need to believe in a civilized, more developed and harmonious society. Art as a truly transforming symbol of society. 

Lately, we often hear and talk about the impact of virtuality on the way we present ideas and artworks. How do you engage your art with the new trends of technologies?

It is not really a field of expression that I had tried, even though the Internet is an excellent way for an artist to show his work. However, I don’t create content to be presented exclusively on the Internet. 
In the exhibition “Paraísos Artificias - Artificial Paradises” I made a video that I called “Once Upon a Time”. It consisted of a video installation, filmed on the spot. It was actually a performance that consisted of throwing one window blinds in the air, over and over again and let it fall in its vortex, in balance. This work resulted in “Once Upon a Time II”, an audio recording separated from the image with the sound of the impact of the blinds against the floor, suggesting the sound of a storm. 

Finally, Are there any projects you are currently working on and able to speak about?

Right now I am developing ideas that cross my experience with clay and other materials, objects that I find here and there. I am also developing research with industrial ceramic materials, which are generally used in civil construction such as; glazed tiles, roof tiles, bricks and others. In fact, this is an old idea.
In addition to appropriation and reuse, I intend to question its usefulness or function. How does an object with certain characteristics become a work of art with poetic sense and meaning…
These research processes are interesting and in fact are not easy to work with because we start from a functional, formal concept that the object already has. We don’t start from scratch, it is already there in the world. We need to forget somehow, erase it from our memory and make it become our work.