Margarita Brum
Montevideo, Uruguay
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
My work is always an evocation. It is the same evocation of the same memories that I fear to forget, as if one could capture in a tangible piece a perfume or the timbre of voice of someone who has passed away. I'm always thinking about the mental and sensory processes that take us back to a specific moment in the past and the feelings they trigger in the present.
What inspires you?
I am often inspired by the books I am reading or the music I am listening to, as well as my own experiences or reflections, but I am not truly aware of where the inspiration comes from. Much of the work process is rather intuitive, and sometimes it's not a single moment of inspiration, but rather a series of work sessions, trying, discarding, and trying again many times.
Can you speak about your process?
A project of mine can follow one of these two paths. Sometimes a visual idea comes to mind, I describe it and sketch it in a notebook, making a rough outline of the composition. Other times the process begins with a pre-existing image that I like, usually a photograph. In that case, I start imagining how to alter it, how to reframe it, and so on.
Then I decide what medium I'm going to work on—whether it will be a paper collage, or if I'm going to work on the image on canvas and then embroider it—I start playing with the materials and experimenting. Often the initial idea ends up completely modified or discarded, and I continue down a different path.
During the process, changes of direction occur, and I try to be open to that, although sometimes it might cause frustration when things don't turn out quite as I imagined.
How did you become interested in art?
My interest in art was always there, ever since I was a child. Besides drawing, which is something all children do intuitively and spontaneously to represent the world around them and the one they imagine, I made toys out of fabric. I learned to use a sewing machine when I was little. My parents weren't artists, but they were very interested in art, and they were also skilled with their hands: sewing, knitting, and carpentry were activities that were part of our family life.
Then, when I was 8 or 9 years old, I was given a camera, and I remember that moment as something that opened up new expressive possibilities in my mind.
Buying film and developing photos back then was expensive, at least in Uruguay, and you couldn't take thousands of photos like you can now. I remember thinking before taking each picture, composing the shot, choosing what I was going to photograph. I used to make clothes for my sisters and friends, do their makeup, choose props, stage scenes, and then we'd have photo shoots that were just a game, but now I feel there was already an artistic element in that game, even if I wasn't aware of it. Then that game became more professional when I had to decide what to study: first photography, then film, screen printing, and so on. And a bit of that mix resulted in the work I do today.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
I have so many favorite artists! Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo are two visual artists I adore, among many others.
I just finished reading some excellent books by Claire Keegan and Natalia Litvinova. Much of what I read influences my work; there are words or fragments that resonate in my mind and lead me to think of an image, which then triggers an idea that I later develop into my own artwork. The same thing happens with song lyrics I love the books of Clarice Lispector, Joan Didion, Svetlana Alexievich, Lucia Berlin, among so many others.
My tastes are quite eclectic in general, and particularly in film. I love the films of Ken Loach, Pedro Almodóvar, Abbas Kiarostami, and Aki Kaurismäki. And the documentaries of Eduardo Coutinho and Agnès Varda. Some of my favorite films are Cria Cuervos by Carlos Saura, The Commitments by Alan Parker, and La Ciénaga by Lucrecia Martel.
What advice do you have for younger artists?
Let them read, listen to music, spend time with different kinds of people, and take an interest in the place where they live and in the world. Inspiration, background, and influences don't just come from the artistic discipline one develops. I believe it's important to draw inspiration from everything around us and from what came before.
