You look at the artwork, the artwork looks at you. It's the artist's gaze.

Navigating through the works of Lídice Silveira, 27, Brazilian visual artist and art director, born and working in Brasília, the observer can expect almost anything. But rarely, invented stories: "In the end, even if I paint an abstract painting, it will still convey some of my feelings," he reveals to me, in an exclusive interview for Phygital Mag.

"Les Yeux Sans Visage" (2023) devours you while touching you: "I make art because I want to be free to create whatever I want on my terms," he states, reflecting and making us reflect on his process as an artist. At that moment, coming out of a period of introspection and social isolation, post-pandemic, "Les Yeux Sans Visage" marks the artist's desire to observe. Eyes of contemplation.

"Most of my works are observations, about feelings, emotional processes, power dynamics. It's a process of psychomagic, I would say. I recreated myself, and today I completely rely on these works - in the sense that they gave me a reason to live, a reputation in the cultural scene, and a way to sustain myself - which are fragments of real moments that I had to feel and experience at their peak, until I could transmute them into art that communicates that, and ends up generating empathy with my way of living or my point of view."

Blockchains with organic matter

"There are no greater protectors of nature than indigenous peoples."

AI, 3D, performances, fashion collections. Among his main references are Ana Mandieta's brilliant work, and her relationship with the body, nature, and gender. And ephemerality. It's no coincidence that Lídice uses organic materials as support for his art.

"Beyond myself, I like to deal with ecology, organic materials, philosophies of indigenous peoples, and ancestral technologies. But it ends up being self-referential again since I'm in the process of reclaiming my Guajajara indigenous ancestry. There are no greater protectors of nature than indigenous peoples", he states.

Academic Life and NFTs in Brazil

The artist studied Visual Arts at the University of Brasília (UNB) and believes that academic training helps maintain the production exercise at the beginning of one's career, learning techniques and debating subjectivities. "But the course doesn't help at all in entering the art market," he confesses. "At most, there are some group exhibitions promoted by professors, but nothing that guarantees an artist's subsistence."

"I find it funny how people demonize things they don't understand, or simply reproduce a ready-made discourse. Selling NFTs, immaterial arts, impacts my material reality."

Today, with works on the blockchain, Lídice is categorical: "My work finally feeds me." What is strange is, not infrequently, in Brazil, the fact that an artist has NFT works is a reason for mistrust and prejudice.

"I have friends who think I've turned into a crypto bro, ancap, or that I'm liberal - when actually, I'm still anarcho-communist. I've seen posts that were directed at me with sayings like 'If you can sell your work, it's because you sold your soul for validation,' things as hideous as that. I find it funny how people demonize things they don't understand, or simply reproduce a ready-made discourse. Selling NFTs, immaterial arts, impacts my material reality. I've got a good computer, then a good cell phone, and many other things I never even imagined," he vents.

Past and future

Lídice, who first heard about NFTs through the artist Grimes, decided to mint his work at the invitation of the curator and also artist Taís Koshino, his friend in Brasília, from the founding team of the Hic et Nunc platform. "That's when everything changed, the whole paradigm of distributing and selling my work," he says.

The first NFT work was "9 Coins" (2021), which the artist considers to be very symbolic of his relationship with NFTs. He minted it on Hic et Nunc, after watching over two hours of tutorials on the platform, in a YouTube video by the artist Alexandre Rangel.

Regarding the future, high hopes: "I want to eventually exhibit in international and national biennials, Venice is a dream. Right now, I'm starting from scratch in music, I sing well, and I'm learning to compose in Garageband. My new ambition is to release an album or EP. Even though I continue actively producing visuals, texts, videos, etc., including for other artists, I'm a little saturated with images. It's strange because it's something I love and will never stop doing, but my heart desires to work with music too, so I don't want to waste time waiting for the right moment. In a way, one knowledge complements the other - what would musicians be without visual artists?" he asks, concluding.

And I ask myself: what would all of us be in this life without visual artists, as well?

FIND.FOLLOW.FORWARD

Lídice Silveira

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