NUNO TOMAZ

Mouraria, Lisbon,

16.11.15 11.30h

Nuno Tomaz is a sculptor, scenographer,property master.

He meets me in the atelier he shares with his colleague and friend João Calisto in the center of Lisbon.

He describes his work, and its development through the years, in a process in which life and work are deeply connected.

For Nuno the Atelier and the House are one the extension of the other and have a direct influence on the typology and on the scale of the work he develops.

From earlier pieces made with a wooden oven in his previous working space in Sintra, to the ones developed coming back to Lisbon.

Nuno describes a dialogue among different factors of interest: the experiments with various materials, the curiosity for architecture, the interest for the question of space and the concept of "ephemeral"; the use of the brick as module to articulate speeches in permeable conversations.

One of his works, "M3/Movimento3"(a 500kg piece)embodies the confluence of cultures, the difficulties of interaction and communication lived in the multicultural Bairro of Mouraria: lines crossing, languages, families, solitudes, and the need of the artist of finding an alternative for himself to the lack of physical space.

I jump from the work to the intimate space of private life and ask Nuno what for him represents the idea of Home/Casa, if he has memories of his first house and if he associates the possibility of having a close-protected space to the idea of freedom.

What makes him feel free?

What makes him feel trapped?

...to listen is to imagine...

Thank you Nuno for letting me enter the atelier world and come a bit closer to your work-life!

Good listening!

SPACE:

This interview took place in Nuno's Atelier, a open space on the ground floor in the center of the historical district of Mouraria.

Despite some traffic passing in front of it, and the street life of people walking up and down in front of its door, the atelier is a quiet space to work, and speak, observing the many working tools and interesting objects it contains.