Interview with Luis Dourado
by MAUD HEGEMAN
The Porto-and-Berlin based Illustrator and Graphic designer, who was featured in our last Objects-Issue, presents his new series. Luis Dourado was born in Porto, Portugal in 1984. Began his studies at ESAD, Escola Superior de Artes e Design of Matosinhos, Porto where he graduated in Product Design in 2006. In that same year he travelled to Barcelona where he concluded the Master program in Public Space/Communication at ELISAVA School. Nowadays he lives in Berlin where he collaborates and works in several projects in the areas of Illustration and Visual Art. Luis' work is never loyal to any specific technic. Although oscillating in between digital an analogue method in different series, the works talk with each other and share several references.
Interview with Luis Dourado
Why do many of your works include the shaping/covering/remodelling of faces?
There´s no specific reason for that. I do like the idea of manipulation, always reminds me that you never see nothing as it truly is. The faces and portraits...I think they are just a visual choice. I do like to explore the theme of personality and "soul" somehow, the idea of behavior is something that really interests me..
Your work is very clear with sharp edges and geometric forms. How come?
I do like to explore several aesthetics, sometime I can go a organic and round. Still, I do think maybe my relation with Geometry comes from my mother and sister. Both as mathematicians, I´ve always been visually stimulated with Math and Geometry elements since kid, maybe that´s the true explanation. Still, appart from that, I do like Geometry a lot, I´m exploring it in some new works I´m now developing!
What led you to become an artist?
The idea of being an artist never occurred to me in a concrete way, or at least as a goal...I mean, I just started doing visual experiments and exercises since I was very young, collaborating a lot, never putting any boundry. Eventually all those activities lead me to this situation. But I think the idea "labels" sometimes is tricky, specially in contemporary creative dynamics.
You work with a lot of different materials. What is the difference between your paper work and the digital work?
The truth is that despite they are different, in the process for me there´s no difference at all, I mean, in the end they are just means of getting something done, an idea, etc...I do not like the Anti-Analogue/Digital and Pro-Analogue/Digital speech, both ways are interesting, I just go in one or other direction intuitively I suppose... looking at them, maybe the analogue ones are more intimate, but in the end, I think all the series have the same value for me.
How does the travelling and experiences you collect in different cities inspire your work?
I think traveling and getting stimulated by different cultures is for sure something very important in my work and in my process. After spending almost a year in Berlin, I traveled now to Barcelona where I´m working only in my own projects. Of course the input from Berlin and Barcelona is very different so the impact in my works is sort of inevitable, although my creations are always very personal.
What are you working on at the moment?
I´m now working on several new series in parelel. I´ve been collecting a lot of materials last year and now is time to give it a hand. I´m also collaborating with a couple of initiatives, but still, if I can focus on my own pieces it´s always better, I suppose I´m trying to find the in between point. This year I´ll also come up with some initiatives of my own, with one or two friends, but the "thing" is under construction so I cannot reveal that much.
What are your future plans?
Right now I do have no plans at all, keep working and working. I definitely want to start exhibiting more my work in galleries and spaces. I´ve been publishing online and offline quite a lot lately, I think it´s time to let the public see my works "in the space".
www.luisdourado.net