Tiago Margaça

The work presented by Tiago Margaça evokes several artistic disciplines: the movement of drawing in space articulates with performance; the ink drawing of organic elements is associated with painting; the expanded drawing executed directly in the space gives form to sculpture, or rather to the site specific. We could summarize his practice as drawing-specific: a drawing that takes shape, is completed, and operates on a specific space. The process of the work, the experience of the artist in the space and the action of drawing are its mystery. The words of the artist make us realize the importance of natural elements in the process, execution and meaning of the work: “What fascinates me the most is the relation between light and nature. These two inseparable forces relate in the exact same way as the action that I perform in space. Just like earth needs light, my “painting” does not exist without its space. In the same way that a tree grows according to the sunlight it receives, my action also propagates and feeds itself from what surrounds it.” The organic elements that spread and cover the ground, walls and ceiling, like a climbing plant, operate in a constant redefinition of territory. Just like the climbing plant that restarts its task of growing towards the sky over the seasons of the year, the action and movement of Tiago Margaça share the same organic quality that lets his drawing choose its own direction. It is the flow of the ink, the line drawn by the brush, the position of the body in relation to the support (wall, floor or ceiling) that direct the progression of the drawing. The drawing is discovered in its act, implying its shifts and deflections, moving at the mercy of a breeze, let loose by a gesture in space.