Misha Gudwin: In your works, you often use the material itself rather than an imitation of it. For example, the pizza object is actually made of dried dough. How important is this material honesty for you, and why do you choose to work with real materials instead of simulations?
Marcos: I would say that in the visual arts we tend to work with imitations, representations, ghosts; the shadows of things. We operate within a long chain of simulations in which the original reference has been lost, along the lines of Baudrillard's idea of simulacra. In that sense, we are essentially working with fictions. Even the slice of pizza we might consider "real" is, in itself, a fast-food version, an imitation of an Italian dish. Still, the idea of material honesty is very stimulating to me. When you work with more direct, raw materials, the materiality speaks for itself and doesn't need to be forced artistically. Organic matter, for example, has a living quality that makes the works continue to vibrate, in the sense proposed by posthumanist philosophers like Jane Bennet, and generates meaning even after it becomes art and is thus exhibited on the wall somewhere. It is not uncommon for institutions to call me to say that "there's a smell of spoiled coffee in the gallery, and it probably has something to do with your work." To me, these kinds of situations are an essential part of my practice.
Misha: If I'm not mistaken, you currently live in Marseille. Each region in France seems to have its own distinctive artistic characteristics. For instance, in the Alsace region I've noticed more installation-based, perhaps even slightly mystical art, while in Paris there appears to be more painting, and more commercially oriented painting - which is not surprising, as economic and social factors inevitably shape the art scene. What do you think is characteristic of the art scene in Marseille, and what reasons do you see behind this?
Marcos: Compared to other French cities, and especially Paris, Marseille is more camp, more relaxed, more impure, more trash, more chaotic, and more queer. These are aesthetic traits that, from my point of view, define the art practices here. Everything runs a bit in n'importe quoi mode. This creates a thriving context to experiment and explore less normative forms of practice. At the same time, however, it makes professionalization and being taken seriously as an artist more difficult. These aesthetic characteristics are precisely what interest me: it was the city itself that led me to work with precarity, urban waste, and leftover food.
Misha: Pain au chocolat or pain aux raisins ?
Marcos: Pain au chocolat, one of the key reasons for morning to France.
