A high-vis Portuguese artist
Joana Vasconcelos drawing Photo: © Atelier Joana Vasconcelos
Portugal’s best-known living artist, Joana Vasconcelos, is recognised for her large-scale installations that challenge traditional conceptions of the female.
Vasconcelos’ extensive exhibitions and commissions span the globe. In 2012, Vasconcelos was the first woman to be granted the prestigious annual exhibition at the Palace of Versailles.
PORTUGAL A BANHOS [PORTUGAL SWIMMING] 2010 – Fibreglass, iron;
1000 x 500 x 300,5 cm; Administração do Porto de Lisboa, Lisbon
Photo: © Atelier Joana Vasconcelos
‘Marilyn’, a nine-metre-high pair of stilettos constructed from numerous stainless-steel cooking pots, stands on the roof terrace of the Arter Museum in Istanbul in the permanent collection. Vasconcelos’ work can equally be found at Waddesdon Manor, the English home of the Rothschild Foundation. Eclectic art collector the late Jacob Rothschild commented on one of several Vasconcelos pieces in the Foundation’s collection: “We found her ‘Wedding Cake’ irresistible.”
My Zoom conversation with Joana Vasconcelos takes place the day after the United States presidential election. She comments on Harris’ loss: “A new paradigm is happening, there’s no way back, but it’s going to take more time for people to change.” I ask her if she’s a feminist: “I feel blessed to live in a part of the world where women have the same rights as men, but in much of the world, women still don’t have the same human rights.” She finds the feminist label limiting. “I think the concept shouldn’t exist, there should only be humanity.”
Vasconcelos was born in Paris and came to Portugal with her parents when she was three, in 1974, just after the Revolution.
BOLO DE NOIVA [WEDDING CAKE] 2023 – Viúva Lamego ceramic tiles and ceramics, glass, metallized and thermo-lacquered wrought iron, galvanized and painted iron sheet, LED, optical fibre, power supply unit, hydraulic system, iron; 1100 x ø 1300 cm;
Waddesdon, The Rothschild Collection (Rothschild Family Trust)
Photo: © Merriman Photography – Courtesy Westgreen
“I’m based in Lisbon, but I consider myself a European artist. I feel I’m a product of European as well as Portuguese culture, and an ambassador for both. I was raised in a country with a Baroque culture; it’s natural I’m influenced by the Baroque in Portuguese culture, but this Baroque period was in many countries throughout Europe.
“I’m a result of all the changes women artists have made throughout art history, step by step.” Vasconcelos references three women artists as having a particular influence on her work: Louise Bourgeois, Niki de Saint Phalle and Annette Messager.
Vasconcelos discusses being an artist in Portugal, and in particular a female artist. “Helena Vieira da Silva went to France, she couldn’t go back to Portugal, and Paula Rego emigrated to England to be free to express herself – at the time, Portugal couldn’t accept such a big artist. I feel very privileged I can work from Portugal and haven’t had to go to Paris or London to exist as an international artist.
“I’m also inspired by the conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp. All my work is based on ideas, not on materials or scale. I begin with an idea, so in this sense, I’m a conceptual artist, but you can equally associate me with the Nouveau Réalistes, the Surrealists or Pop Art.”
MARILYN (PA) 2011 – Stainless steel pans and lids, concrete; (2x) 297 x 155 x 410 cm; Work produced with the support of Silampos
Photo: UNIDADE INFINITA/BRUNO PORTELA © LUÍS VASCONCELOS – COURTESY ATELIER JOANA VASCONCELOS © LUÍS VASCONCELOS – COURTESY ATELIER JOANA VASCONCELOS
Vasconcelos takes everyday objects and creates a new context for them. “If you take my work ‘The Bride’, 2005 (a scaled-up chandelier form consisting of 14,000 tampons), I’m not changing the tampon, just incorporating it to make a different object, so you think of it in a different way. If I’m working with a cooking pot, it’s the pot which dictates the scale of the work, so the scale results from the concept.
“My work decontextualizes a lot of things, not only Portuguese crafts. When you use a pot to make a glamorous shoe, you’re decontextualizing the role of women in society, the traditional role of housewife in the kitchen, mother or carer; you’re assuming a different role for female existence, with women owning a public life and their own sexuality. This raises the question – where do you stand, in the future or in the past?”
Vasconcelos works from a 3000-square-meter studio in Lisbon, presiding over a large, specialised team – production, architecture, finance, communication… “I’m involved in everything in the studio; I’m an artist and, at the same time, I have a company.” Vasconcelos fills innumerable sketchbooks with her ideas, some of which are then produced by her team, before being sent to museums, galleries and collections around the world.
“I used to be a workaholic, until I understood my health wasn’t going in the right direction and I had to change. This studio is like a monastery. I have my home and my monastery. I do yoga and meditation regularly, and include my team. I believe if I take care of my health, I’m a better person and, therefore, a better artist and studio director. I used to be much more rigid and military.” At the recent Vasconcelos Plug-In exhibition at MAAT, in Lisbon, visitors could participate in The Heart Chakra Meditation.
Photo: © Luís Vasconcelos – Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos
How does she view Lisbon’s current popularity with people from other countries? “It’s great! We were lost and alone at the end of Europe, and now we have all these people joining us and being part of this beautiful city. I think we didn’t know how to engage with other Europeans because, for so many centuries, we were too occupied with our colonies. We’re now feeling we’re part of a larger group of people, Europeans, and this gives us an opportunity to share and learn.”
What advice would she give to a young artist at the start of their career? “Never give up, always believe in yourself! I’m an example of somebody who survived, but it’s very hard to be an artist in Portugal.” To mitigate this challenge, she established the Joana Vasconcelos Foundation. The Foundation awards scholarships to allow students to become artists through paying for their studies, in Portugal and abroad. It also supports European crafts, working with the Michelangelo Foundation in Italy to encourage young people to continue working with traditional craft skills.
And what does Vasconcelos enjoy doing when she’s not in her ‘monastery’? “I love to live in a world where culture is important, to go to exhibitions, movies, concerts and contemporary dance, to travel and meet people.”
First published Portugal Resident, 'Portugal Forward' November 2024
