biography
MURO LX_2021
portfolio
Artur Bordalo
(Lisboa, 1987) is today known as BORDALO II, the artistic name he chose as a
tribute to his grandfather, promoting a continuity and reinvention of his
artistic legacy. His youth was spent in the company of his grandfather, the
painter Real Bordalo and his incessant passion for watercolours, and his
adventures around illegal graffiti in Lisbon’s underworld. He states that the
eight years he spent at the Fine Arts Faculty of Lisbon allowed him to discover
sculpture and the experimentation with various materials which distanced him
from painting, the original art expression which led him there in the first
place.
The public space would become the chosen canvas for his explorations on
colour and scale and the platform where he gradually transformed his habits and
channeled his experiences in construction and development of his artistic work,
currently focused on questioning the materialistic and greedy society which he
(also) belongs to.
The excessive production of “things” or the exaggerated
consumerism, which results in the constant production of “trash” and
consequently in the destruction of our Planet, are the main themes of his
artistic production. That “trash” becomes the singular and peculiar raw
material which he uses in the construction of small or large scale pieces which
he has spread throughout the world and which aim is, above all, to be an
universal manifesto.
BIG TRASH ANIMALS
Big Trash Animals is a series of artworks that aims to draw attention to a current problem that
is likely to be forgotten, become trivial or a necessary evil. The problem involves waste
production, materials that are not reused, pollution and its effect on the planet. The idea is to
depict nature itself, in this case animals, out of materials that are responsible for its destruction.
These works are built with end-of-life materials: the majority found in wastelands, abandoned
factories or randomly and some are obtained from companies that are going through a recycling
process. Damaged bumpers, burnt garbage cans, tires and appliances are just some of the
objects that can be identified when you go into detail. They are camouflaging the result of our
habits with little ecological and social awareness.
Local:
Synopsis:
“Participating in MURO means participating and contributing to a city with more culture
accessible to all, along with other artists, promoting Lisbon as a city interested in
cultivating its inhabitants and visitors."
“In a long, covered area, the idea is to create some elements of repetition, referring to
the idea of old film. The new series, Big Trash Animals - Lighted Plastic, which
incorporates neon-LED and other programmable light frames, applied between and
under the plastics, in order to create textures, transparencies, contours, etc.
emphasizes this idea, with the lights giving even more life to the (already) very
colourful pieces.
With this premise, when passing through the tunnel of Av. de Padua, the pillars that
initially could be a condition for the observation of the piece as a whole, become part of
it, creating an effect of breaking the image, a rhythm that makes you lose track of how
many animals there are, or if we are seeing the same piece again, in a time and space
divided by seconds, as we go forward or backward through the tunnel.
This effect is achieved not only by taking advantage of the characteristics of the tunnel,
but also because the various owls are identical, always appearing to be the same.
There are 12 Owls that will give life to this tunnel, always bearing the message of the
entire body of work of Bordalo II – the urgency to reuse, recycle, stop consuming for
the benefit of our Planet and everyone who lives here."
biography
MURO LX_2021
portfolio
