GuestRoomMaribor 2012

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Mafalda Neves (PL)

Monsters go to Maribor

Mafalda Neves graduated in Visual Arts at the University of Algarve in 2008, and got her Master’s degree in Illustration at the Art School of Porto in Guimarães in 2011. Thus far, the young artist’s work was exhibited in Portugal, and her illustrations were published in two books (science fiction and children’s literature).

Her main medium is drawing, which she sometimes combines with photography. She uses different drawing techniques and ways of presentation (depending on the content layout) - from extreme precision of scientific drawings in illustrations for children, to stylized, lighter, or even completely simplified strokes (in the case of digital drawings). The subtle combining of drawing and photography gives her works a new dimension, and sometimes also introduces a humorous element to it. Combining techniques and playing with images, both on the visual and conceptual level, is also present in her collages, and the artist also uses (and expands) her diverse range of approaches when making objects in the papier-mâché technique.

The artist envisioned her residency in Maribor as a curious exploration of interesting corners of the city with a sketchbook in her hand, observing, and connecting to the city and its inhabitants through observation. In the end, she wanted to give these observations back to the city, so she prepared an in-situ project, which she named Monsters visit Maribor. She chose five locations in the city (Trg revolucije square, Lent, Ulica kneza Koclja, Ulica škofa Maksimiljana Držečnika and the City park), where she set up large format drawings that accurately emulated specific sections of the city panorama in the background. She then “enriched” these accurate depictions of different parts of the city with drawings of tiny monsters, which reflect her impressions of the city and the people she met while exploring it. These unusual creatures were also made up from different “parts of the city” – the artist created individual surfaces following the example of different colours and textures of the city, while their characters are collages of images that tell the story of her own impressions of Maribor.