1. How long have you been in Atlanta? What brought you here?
Since September 2009. I came initially for family reasons and when I visited the city for the first time in April 2009 I really liked it. During the summer 2009, visiting again, I was awarded the Francis Larkin McCommon artistic honors fellowship by SCAD to study photography. I had been working with photography since 2000 but never had the chance to really learn the craft and the history to be able to achieve the quality of imagery I wanted.
2. Did you go to art school? Do you have any degrees?
I finished my undergrad in Media 1998. In 1999 I was admitted at the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne, Germany. This is a well known art school in Europe, where you could make films, videos, photography, computer programs, Web or computer art, holograms etc. That time they had great names of art teaching there and unbelievable resources and amenities.
Ten years later I went back to school to learn more about photography and how I could improve my video works using the photographic equipment and the photographic eye... I just delivered my thesis to SCAD in November: „Study of Strange Things: Complexities of Interdisciplinary Thoughts“ – after a solo show with the same name at Solomon Projects. It is quite normal when you work with technology that you need to go back to school, as a student or as a researcher. The skills you learned 5 year ago are obsolete so you need to keep on learning. Resuming, I have now 2 final degrees in art.
3. Tell us how you got your start as a working artist.
I started in college. During my undergrad I was experimenting with video, audio, radio and TV transmission, with a group of friends at University of Sao Paulo. As a teenager I spent most of my productive time reading, going to drama classes and writing theater and film scripts – our currency had no value and any industrialized goods like cameras, films or tapes were too expensive. Pen & paper and theater were the obvious way to be able to do something creative. After a while I borrowed an orange typewriter from a friend. Nothing I wrote that time ever got filmed and only one play got performed so I see this all as a formative phase. In college the writing became more serious and the first non-linear narrative Non-authorized Biographies an audiovisual interactive computer program, in four volumes of 1.4 MB (you had to use ARJ to compress and divide the program in 4 floppy disks!). We still don’t have a good name for this kind of work... The work talked about these guys wandering through the night of São Paulo, meeting Nick Cave (the musician) in a bar etc. It was nominated to an art prize and shown at Maria Antônia, an iconic center in São Paulo, a symbol of the intellectual resistance from the days of the military dictatorship... yes, that was the start: 1996.
4. What are you working on in your studio now?
At the moment I am lucky to be able to dedicate all my professional time to my studio art activities so I have several parallel projects at the same time. First comes my research on proto-images, resulting in objects, photos and videos. Second is the research on how internal private imagery relates to the public and to art in public space, that includes my Studio 12 Encounters, a real/virtual “chat room” about art, with monthly meetings (www.marciavaitsman.com/studio12). It also included a large public intervention in Toronto, called Nocturnal Encounters (or Parkdale TV), a TV station in public space to debate TV as public space (www.marciavaitsman.com/nocturnal). Third, is my work in media art that includes photos and videos commenting media systems or reinventing some parts of these systems: lots of programing, fragmentation of image and time etc. All projects have overlapping characteristics.
5. What is it like to be an artist in Atlanta today? How can Atlanta improve?
Overall it is very comfortable. Just think about transit: in São Paulo sometimes you need 2 hours to drive 5 miles. The urban structure of Atlanta allows me to visit 2 or 3 shows in one evening, try to do that in São Paulo... There are amazing universities in town; you can go out every evening to a different cultural event, most of them for free. There are artists’ collectives providing amenities for printmaking, photography, metal etc. There is this fantastic area emerging right in the core of the city, the Goat Farm, very relaxed, flexible and based on inclusion.
The airport is the ultimate advantage for people who like or need to travel, it is quick to get there and you fly in and out so easily... If you get tired of Atlanta you can take a flight to Toronto and be there in 90 minutes. If you cannot, you can drive to Miami... or hitchhike to New Orleans?
I do miss the unpredictability of public transportation; when you meet people random, observe different faces and behaviors etc. Two months ago in San Francisco, in the streetcar, I met a writer who was a finalist in a program of Nexus in Atlanta (10 or 15 years ago?). I do like these random chats... I don’t really use the bus or Marta here. The spaces I transit in Atlanta are too safe...
Generally, I tend to think less locally, I enjoy things I see. And I have met wonderful engaged artists and cultural agents. We could try to see the city more as part of the world and not only as the unique city of Atlanta – this might be more the job of tourism agents. I already live here; I feel it and I experience it. I do not need a definition of what the city is. Large local corporations based here are not worried about defining themselves as local business, they might be right about it. I imagine that Hartsfield Jackson is a sort of new harbor and then think of cities that were influenced by the comings and goings of their old harbors, such as Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Hamburg, San Francisco, Hong Kong etc. How do these places define their local? I believe that things happening here are somehow related to things happening in other places... It is just proportional to the size of the city. But of course we could have more funding and could have more spaces for more experimental and trans-disciplinary projects.
6. What is the role of an artist in society? How do you see your role in this way?
Artists, as all human beings, should have some role in society – it is hard to tell another person what s/he is supposed to be. There are ethical premises in all professions and this is not different in the arts. I do not see the artist as more special, more prepared or more capable to solve social problems than other professionals – there are less methodological restrains to come out with an idea, which can become a solution to a problem but this is not necessarily what an artist needs, wants or has to do. I think the majority of the artists today have the role to survive and feed their families in the harsh economic reality and lack of a professional perspective. This situation creates sometimes an unhealthy competition for grants, shows and visibility (not only here, and not only in the States) but especially in places where there is not enough for everybody. Fortunately, circumstances that got worse will eventually get better again. Seriously, Atlanta is among the places I feel there is more collaboration among artists (this a mere personal opinion).
7. What is the job of Art?
What is the job of music? What is the job of dance? What is the job of theater? Do we all want to contribute to this larger soup of meanings? Do we need that to survive? Do we do that because we cannot do something else? Do we do that to connect with other people and so give meaning to our lives?
8. Does Atlanta have a specific role to play for Art/ Artists?
There is a lot of tolerance. Some people think it is lack of criteria - I don’t know. There is a chance to create the structures where art will be taught, seen, made etc. but we need to find ways to bring the general public to these arenas too. There are lots of challenges and possibilities out there.
9. Do you have any advice for younger artists?
Just to the very very young ones: if you feel that you really have to do it, do it and never look back. If you feel oppressed by your doubts about family, vacation, health insurance, restaurants and clothes, consider applying your skills and creativity in other areas like visual communication, design, film industry, fashion etc. (these are also fantastic professions)
