BERLIN AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE

http://dontpaniconline.de/p/posts/art/berlin-as-you’ve-never-seen-it-before-by-luis-dourado

BERLIN AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE, BY LUIS DOURADO

Using a vintage map of Berlin from his archives, Portuguese visual artist and illustrator Luis Dourado has designed this exclusive image for Don’t Panic.

Oscillating across an array of mediums - digital, analogue, collage, photography and drawing - and using superimposition and manipulation, Luis Dourado produces works that are pervaded by a distorted and disorientating dream-like aesthetic. Reality and fantasy, vintage and modern, technology and tradition are simultaneously united and blurred.

Memory, illusion, and other matters relating to the mind are central themes in Luis’ work, and just like the human psyche, his pieces are intrinsically mysterious. His compositions are characterised by their absurd and abstract nature - akin to fleeting flashes of déjà vu or fathomless fragments of the subconscious - faces float, smoke billows, bodies cry.

We spoke to Luis to find out more about the image and his current work.

Can you explain your process for the map?

I actually got the map from my archives and in this piece, as in the others from my Maps series, the whole process was fully digital and intuitive. In "Maps" I usually manipulate the images using only three different shapes and for this Berlin map using the square form and something more rational felt like the right direction.

Tell us about your current projects.

Right now I’m working on three different personal series, one involving real statues of old busts. I started working on it in Berlin last year, and I’m now materializing the final pieces; it’s interesting, kind of different from what I’ve been doing previously. Working in 3D as been quite challenging for me - but I’m excited about the final results. I’m also preparing some exhibitions for next year and setting up an independent publishing house.

Can you name an artist or a movement that has profoundly inspired your work?

Not really, I do not feel a particular interest for any movement in art history. I used to be quite interested in antique and classic art but this has never directly influenced my work. I’m not sure what "inspires" my work but I always felt like it was a little bit 50/50, on the one hand, my background will always have a word on my works, on the other hand, I’ve always felt that a part of this will to create came randomly, by chance, directly related to my personal life and experiences and I like it that way, natural.

Manipulation seems to be a constant in your work, what draws you so often to this technique?

I like this appropriation-manipulation process for some of my works. I also love to create something from nothing but usually I get the most satisfaction from distorting reality in order to get a different and personal perspective of it, almost as if the artwork was a testimonial of something, a trace of your own personality. I love this idea of how you can collect something that’s marginal to your world, study it, and make it part of who you are, to reflect myself in the "real world".

Having lived in Berlin, what does the city mean to you and your work?

Berlin is for sure an inspiring city. What I got most out of it was access to so much old stuff in second hand shops and markets. I collected loads of stuff that I’m using now and that I’ll definitely be using in future work. I don’t think the city itself changed my work directly, but I guess that it gave my work different inputs.