João Manoel Feliciano
João Manoel Feliciano is a Spanish/ Brazilian artist, active both in Europe and Brazil. He graduated with a degree in Art Education at the Federal University of Pernambuco and a master’s in art therapy from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid / Spain.
João Manoel Feliciano, photo by Pete Purnell
Entrevista/Interview
What was your first impulse to create art?
I don't exactly remember my first impulse to create art, but I always felt like it was there. Creating art was a way to deal with this world of imagination that always enveloped me. When I was about ten years old, to mention something concrete, I remember in my hometown of Pernambuco, Brazil I made some drawings and asked my relatives if I could knock on the doors of my neighbors to sell them. I think I came home with some coins that day.
So the question is, does it remain the same idea? More or less, I think it's almost a dimensional idea. I think the preferred form of art depends on what would be the best way to pass this idea as closely as possible to the original idea or, better yet, to the original atmosphere.
What is your preferred style of art and why?
It is a good and difficult question. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. It is clear that as an artist you always choose a technique that serves as a better vehicle to shape your idea. But the same idea can take shape in drawing, painting, photography, performance etc.
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How does your everyday life influence your art?
I think that life can be read as signs. If we imagine life as a movie or a dream, we can see that all the elements that we see as an image can be read, although I think that they are never fully understood. But this small notion of what we have from those moments in life, if we pay attention, can fit in with this dreamed world, this art world.
For example, in my performance work I often use my hair as a bonding element. The hair itself already carries a series of meanings and symbologies. My hair is afro / brazilian hair and specifically is formed in dreadlocks and is male hair. These are meanings and concrete images linked to my hair and I have to be aware of it.
So I pay attention to life and look for other elements to connect with my hair, for example, a boat in my Crystallus Capillus performance.
A boat already carries many significations, like the boatman Charon of Greek mythology, connecting dimensions to ships that cross the oceans.
So, I thought, “what if I tie my hair and pull a boat, like the boat that brought my ancestors as slaves to the Americas?” Is the work that pulls the boat that which pulls life? Meanings and pieces that can be joined, but never fully explained. For me, real life and art are elements that converse but do not explain themselves.
What relation do you have with the name of the magazine, Interespacios?
Note from Eric: From Omar and I, we would like to extend the sincerest thanks to João who without his contribution the aesethic of this magazine would not have been possible.
The name is extremely significant to me and I am very happy for the invitation that Eric Rummelholff gave me. As I said in the previous answers, the connections between dimensions, ways of thinking, languages and spaces are the key elements of what interest me in art so the name of the project is perfect.
