Renata Laguardia, painting doll houses and Brazilian favelas...

Renata Laguardia is a young painter from Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais. She shares her artistic world, mixing doll houses and Brazilian favelas…

How did you jump into painting?

At the age of 13, I saw the movie Titanic. As many girls, I was shocked by Leonardo, who played a beautiful painter. Thus I decided to paint! I joined an Art school, then a more famous one, and finally, I went to study Fine Arts at the university. 

Then I went to France to complete a Master’s thesis about Group Portraits. I was interested by the representation of different social groups, including “Gutter Punks” (“Punks à chiens”), non-conformist people, soldiers…

 Later, I started to explore the representation of the Houses. I was living with a strange roommate from Georgia, and I couldn’t get on with her. So I started to search for other rooms to rent on “Leboncoin” website. The pictures from the classified ads catched my attention: bad-quality pictures of empty places, very cold, with no soul. I wanted to prove that painting could give life to these ugly pictures. 

When I came back to Brazil, I felt good at home. My paintings turned more intimate, focusing on details, such as doors. Today, I’m working on the notion of intimate house, painting dolls houses, aquariums… I will exhibit my work in January at Forum Lafayette (Belo Horizonte) with exhibition catalogs made by my boyfriend, Daniel Pinho.

Now, I would like to take pictures of Brazilian favelas, and paint dolls houses on it. I want to show the contrast, the idealism and the artificiality of these concepts. On Google Maps, I found pictures of favelas, and we can see cops arresting poor people! This is crazy.

Who gives you inspiration to create?

I love the work of South-African painter Marlene Dumas. She’s painting very expressive portraits, with a subtle color palette. She deals with strong thematics such as dead people…
Also, there is the work of Wilhelm Sasnal, a Polish painter. He explores many different topics such as war, politics and Nazism.
And of course, Anna Elisa Egreja. She is Brazilian, She also paints houses, but in a different way from my work, in a very realistic way. Her artistic world is fabulous. I had the chance to meet her in her atelier.
 

How do you feel working in Belo Horizonte?

I love Belo Horizonte. It’s very lively, great for young people. The city isn’t so beautiful, but you have a lot of cultural events, street art, good exhibitions, many music band playing in the parks. It’s a bit hipster. And people are extremely kind.

Now I want to move in Sao Paulo, because this is where everything happens in the art sphere. All art institutions, curators are there. International famous artists are living there, such as Solange Pessoa and Paolo Nazareth. For a Brazilian artist, Sao Paulo is unavoidable… And there is a lot of corn! I love to eat corn!

Also, I would like to go back to France. Living in Brazil is difficult now, especially with the new president…

What are your favorite places in Belo Horizonte? 

Circuito cultural
There are many good museums all around Praça da Liberdade: Museo Mineiro, Centro de Arte Popular…
Adress: Praça da Liberdade, s/n° Prédio Rosa, Belo Horizonte, MG 30140-010 

Palacio das Artés
This art center organizes good exhibitions, and there is also a free cinema with independent movies. I went to see all the movies of Luis Buñuel.
Adress: Av. Afonso Pena, 1537 - Centro, Belo Horizonte - MG, 30130-004

Carnaval di Rua
This is one of the best Brazilian Carnival, in March. At the beginning, I didn’t like Carnival, it was too crazy for me. But once you discover it, it’s just incredible… 

Praia da Estação
During Summer, it’s like a big beach in the city, in Praça da Estação. People chill, in swimwear. Firemen put water on them.
Infos: www.facebook.com/praiada.estacao

Text & Pictures: Angela Perigot

Thanks to Margot Grygielewicz !