Madame Pagu

Perdão
8.9″x8.9″x0.6″; assemblage; 2020
Forgiveness (Perdão) is something that permeates our thoughts, often invading with concepts or dogmas. This work was inspired by the work of Manuel de Barros, a Brazilian poet who has a unique way of talking about human feelings. And in the poetry I wrote specifically for this work, I express a bit how this concept permeates our minds, even if in a veiled way. I worked using a printed photo of porcelain (found in the house where I live) and stones that I collected on the beach of Antisamos, on the Greek island of Kefalonia.

Madame Pagu
Montaldeo, Italy

STATEMENT

I sew things.
Metaphorically and materially.
All the time.
I put together parts to tell stories that are important to my eyes, whether through photography or through the interventions I make on it with collage, textile art, mixed media and destructive procedures. It gives me an immense freedom to invent other worlds where we could live. How to deal with memory, its inside-out and its unfolding and to investigate what we understand as identity are themes that drive me to create, and I have worked a lot with found photos, which helps me to ask about the passage of time. This kind of making with my hands puts me in connection with people I haven’t met, but are now part of my daily lives. My choices enable me to participate in the cultural revolution of slow movement, by involving my creative process in the reuse of abandoned photos and things and creating a new universe, giving them another life cycle. And so, sewing everything I find that thrills me, I seek to encourage dialogue, question entrenched values and honor the tradition of female making.

BIO

Madame Pagu (1967, São Paulo, Brazil) has lived in Italy since 2015, when she left her life as a lawyer and university professor to dedicate herself completely to art. Her images are rooted in how we deal with our memories, our identity and how we deal with the passage of time. She sews things metaphorically and materially to tell about the connection between people, creating universes–in their photographs and in found photos–to talk about the temporary relationships we build around dense themes. Her works reverberate the revolution of slow movement, the culture of creative reuse and the tradition of female making. Her work and research involve collage techniques, textile art and mixmedia. She also teaches courses and offers mentoring for artists.

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
www.madamepagu.com

IMAGES

O Casamento
9.8″x7.4″; collage, embroidery, and assemblage; 2021
The Wedding: This work communicates the various feelings of unity and disunity that permeate a marriage. During the 2020 pandemic, all of these impulses were boosted. Vintage photo (from Genoa, Italy), vintage razor blade and interventions with embroidery threads were used for the execution of this work.
Atlante del Silenzio
11.7″x16.5″; collage and embroider; 2020
Atlas of Silence: When I moved to Italy in 2015, I had no idea that I would face a much greater challenge than living in another country: facing the unknown that social isolation due to a pandemic can cause. From one day to the next, it was as if everything was on hold. There was no longer any talk of neighbors, the noise of cars, or the sound of airplanes flying very high over my region. From one day to the next it was as if the world had stopped. So many other people, who, like me, live far from their loved ones have been unable to find them. It was not just outside, silence also came to rule within us. It was a strange period and we still have no real knowledge of what is to come. All of this impelled me to create this work entitled SILENCE, where I represent all the people who were distant from each other, even if they lived close by. The red lines serve to illustrate the airplane routes that were silenced with the lockdown, but also to talk about the dependence on the internet that increased during that
period, since it was the only way to feel close to those we love. Many vintage photos were used on paper and embroidery threads.
Perfume
8″x11.2″x1″; assemblage; 2020
Perfume: This work was inspired by a poem by Manuel de Barros, a Brazilian poet that I admire so much. Among the many smells we experience during our daily lives, I chose to communicate the scents we feel at weddings, using assemblages and working on a photo from the early 1900s, purchased in Britain, vintage elements, dry botanical elements, a hand-embroidered vintage female scarf , and a fossil of a shell and stones that I collected on the beach of Antisamos, on the Greek island of Kefalonia.
As mulheres que ele pensou amar
11.7″x8.3″; collage and mixed media; 2021
“The women he thought he loved”: This work is part of a project that is under development that deals with violence against women and the exponential growth of femicides during the 2020 pandemic. I used reproductions on paper of vintage portraits of women and acrylic paint for the realization of this work.