Murga and Candombe are very much in my blood. They are the music to my memories of summer Carnivals, light, colors, songs, rhythm, expression, freedom, and dreams. I remember sitting by the pavement with my family, water balloons and confetti in hand, anxiously waiting for the parade to start. The joy and energy are forever etched in my memory.
Music can transport us back in time or take us to a dreamed future. It awakens memories and elevates us to finer thoughts. Music unifies us with nature and the cosmos, with others and with ourselves. Paintings do the same but in a different way. Music is more subtle whereas visual art is more direct.
My work is more than anything an invitation for viewer to enter dreamlike, sometimes surrealistic worlds. I want the viewer to escape for a few seconds from their day-to-day reality without asking questions, only enter and dream, like a type of hallucinogen…
When I was nineteen, I had an experience that could perhaps be described as transcendental. Walking on a country road one day, I saw an abandoned house. I remember walking into it before losing consciousness due to exhaustion from the oppressive heat and humidity of Uruguayan summers
I vividly remember the moment when an abstract painting by Matta captured my imagination as a seven-year-old. I was flipping through an old textbook, and an image sucked me in like a whirlpool or wormhole of sorts, into the inner world of the artist.
Ancient cultures regarded caves as places where transcendental experiences occurred: they were the first sanctuaries; they were gateways to the underworld, to the interior of the Earth itself. In the beginning there was chaos and wilderness, where the earliest humans took to the caves for survival, regarding them as sacred shelters. The epitome of this cave-shelter symbol is that of the womb of the Mother Earth, a place of solace—a common motif across times and cultures.
When I re-approach my works as a viewer, I imagine the images as framed and displayed in a certain space such as a gallery or a museum, since I don’t know how I feel about a painting until it is hung on the wall. Hence, one of my favorite parts of exhibitions is when people tell me how they feel about and what they see in my works, and then I become a viewer of viewers.
Mauricio, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Many life situations inspire me – artists are a little different in the sense that we see differently. I was born in a small town on the shore of La Plata River with the most gorgeous sunsets in the world, carnival, Murgas, candombe, bohemian life, good wine and beautiful women, contemporary artist in New York