Interview with Mara Mascaro
q)So, can you tell me a little about yourself? full name, age, some background info, etc?
a)My name is Mara Mascaro. I was born in Milan in 1981, on the 11th of May. I lived for 19 years in a little town by the sea called Varazze, between Genova and Savona. After graduating from a Scientific School in Savona, I moved to Milan and entered the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera. I got a degree in Painting in 2005 and I’m now finishing a master in Arts Graphics (Engraving).
q) What has influenced you the most?
a)I spent all my teenage years chatting on the internet (from 1997) and drawing mangas. The dualism Japan/Internet has been a fundamental characteristic of all my life and surely influenced my artworks.
q) How would you describe your art?
a)All my works are based on my personal experience on the Internet and follow the idea that friendship and love can exist even in the so-called cold world of the Internet. Net Art? Chat Art? Haha, I don’t know.
q) Which other artists (current or historical) influence your work or inspire you?
a)I don’t think I’ve been influenced by any artists in particular. I can say I admire the work of Sophie Calle and Erwin Olaf.
q) What are your current projects?
a)I’m currently working on the relationship between e-mails and handwritten correspondence in the Twentieth Century.
q) How are the reactions on your work in general?
a)People usually tend to say that the world of chat is far from reality, and that nobody could have a real relationship with people known behind a screen. That’s exactly the prejudice I’d like to overcome.
q) Do you have many connections in the underground scene?
a)What do you mean? I know all my colleagues and teachers who work in Brera. I once met Australian artist Stelarc, because I had to translate his speech in our Academy.
q) Any advice you can pass onto aspiring artists/designers?
a)Travel as much as you can, experience new cultures and different concepts of art. Try spending a year on an Erasmus program, maybe. It can help you to see things from a different perspective.
q)Tell us about a recent dream you had.
a)Oh my.. my dreams are usually nightmares actually. I have recurrent dreams about losing the ones I love or about running and being chased after. Oh yep, and dreams about tortoises with deformed shells.
q) Ultimate Goal?
a)Talking about the internet from a different perspective, making the others know that love can be found even on the screen.
q) What is your favourite medium to work with?
a)Photography, Interactive programs, videoart
q) Are there any particular works you’ve done that stand out as your favourites?
a)“Chi no Tsuki – The Wall”, my first video. I tried to make visible the impossibility of communication of some relations born on the Internet: despite the fact that this medium can create the basis of the birth of real friendships, it has the boundary of the monitor. If one of the two users decides to hide behind the reassuring protection of the monitor, the other one can only be subordinated to the conditions the first imposes on them. They can just approach to that virtual barrier, but can’t go beyond it. I love it because of his personal meaning (I used real “logs” to make the video) and because it shows the wide range of deep emotions one can have in this kind of relationships.
q) What is freedom to you as an artist?
a)To be able to say what you really think and feel without being censored.
q) Take us inside your process a little bit. How do you begin a piece? What inspires the concept?
a)When I start a work I usually think about something I really want the others to know, something that’s inside of me and want to share. Then I think about a medium that could let people understand what I mean, and work on that idea until I have something physical
q) What is something about you that someone probably wouldn’t guess?
a)I’m a paranoid freak and a mad perfectionist.
q) What other areas of the arts, if any, do you do work in? (Writing, Music, Film, Painting, Sculpture, etc)
a)I write poems and love singing. I once wrote some song lyrics, but it was a unique experience. And of course, I draw mangas.
a)Be yourselves. Never let others change your personal beliefs if you truly believe.
q)Your contacts…e-mail…links…
a) helaine@email.it / phiria@virtualqueens.net
www.virtualqueens.net
www.virtualqueens.net/emote2
