“Art is an opportunity to imagine the impossible”: A Conversation With Tuca Galvan

By Juliana Vannucchi

I spoke with visual artist Tuca Galvan, that brings inspiring artistic universes to life, deep and full of creativity.

Among his numerous achievements, your mail art project stands out, whereby, since 2020, Tuca delivers postcards to strangers, at random addresses.

A few months ago, Galvan, in an absolutely original and beautiful initiative, began sending cards accompanied by haiku poems, focused on a specific topic: the longing, feeling that, according to Tuca, “it is universal and affects people in whatever country they are in”.

In this reflective conversation we had, the visual artist told a little about this project, and many other subjects were also discussed.

Tuca, spoke, for example, about her appreciation for the experiment on the materialities of disposing of recyclables and his taste for aesthetic research in this universe, in addition to also talking about the demands and efforts that an artist needs to make to stay active, and many other topics that were covered.

1 – Tuca, Firstly, I would like to understand when art became part of your life. At what point did you start to recognize yourself as an artist??

A lot came from what I saw my parents do, and they taught me because I really liked learning.

My father, for example, I played the guitar and produced beautiful wooden pieces and my mother, She was an artisan and worked with a variety of materials.

For having these influences at home, I attended drawing schools, painting, ceramics, music, dance…

After 30 years as an entrepreneur in the health and education sector, I decided to stop touching art, and said yes, for my artist self.

And already in maturity, I decided to take photography courses, of visual arts, I participated in some study groups, mentoring with curators and artists and I did an artistic residency.

Thus, since 2018, I'm dedicating myself to studying, produce and want to understand art, and a little about the system…

There is still a long way to go, although, I see that I'm starting to let all this go on naturally, without so many strings…

2 – What is art to you??

Paraphrasing Lewis Carroll, art is an opportunity to imagine what is possible and sometimes what seems impossible, she is full of uncertainty. Perhaps a desire to create, of doing and thinking based on something that does not exist.

It's creating something that I don't even know exactly what it will be like or even have a function.

Hence the courage to continue doing, through a poetic, in a desire to realize and create consistent with my own repertoire of life and, happily, with some contradictions that place me within a normality of being and existing.

I think that… Allow me a parenthesis, Now I realized that I never really liked “I think” answers., however, Maybe it was an apprenticeship in the art: deal better with uncertainties.

I have a restlessness that leads me to a need to produce, produce and produce, in a universe of different manual techniques.

Each work is unique and comes from the need for my own production itself..

I don't understand why some things, but I want to keep doing it.

I support Clarice Lispector, when I said: “Don’t worry about understanding. Living surpasses all understanding.”

3 – Believes in art as a healing process?

I understand yes and no. She can save, but also distress. That's why I don't romanticize art.

So that now, activate, I feel that there is often suffering and a certain melancholy in artistic creation.

Art has very strong questions, beyond politics and poetics. It involves many other activities and services.

There are many questions to make it happen.

It is a gear of incessant research movements, readings and studies, exhibitions, projects, edicts…

The vast majority of artists follow the Artista S/A format, solitary and self-managed, without much support to carry out.

You need to know how to manage time to produce and work to generate and/or raise financial resources, if you really want to stay in it.

And art is very demanding when it comes to production., need resources, discipline, time, dedication… Personally, I say it's all worth it.

I already read in some book that art may not save the world, but, In contrast, she saves the minute.

4 – For you, What is the biggest obstacle an artist can encounter when trying to become a professional??

I wonder if the desire of the artist who dedicates himself to making art is professionalization…

Artists research, experiment and study for artistic production.

And there are specialists in the arts and institutions that require an academic background. But the vast majority of artists who work with art, is not exclusively dedicated to artistic production.

These have an accumulation of functions working in public or private cultural institutions, art galleries, in research sectors, in cultural production, assembly, in studios, museum education, art spaces, independent. And many who make a living from art are not artists.

And it may seem contradictory, but even with the precariousness of art and in our country, where less than 10% of the population consumes art, with a critical government budget slice, public policies and other scarce resources, negotiation and commercialization of works of art with rules that are not very clear, anyway, there are many obstacles, but I still want to conquer some spaces and maintain myself as an artist.

In my first training, not corporate world, were 10 years for me to complete a degree, two postgraduate degrees and other extensive courses.

In art, I don't see myself being able to fit in, the way I want, before this deadline.

And I'm not guaranteed to win, but I keep moving to accomplish, participating in courses, of exhibitions, projects, signing up for notices, visiting exhibitions to discover new works and other artists…

5 – Could you tell us a little about the recent exhibitions you have participated in??

I recently finished participating in the exhibition Casa Corpo São Paulo (@casa__corpo).

A group of only female artists, I loved being part, intelligent women who made this process the creation of a space for listening to the feminine.

A movement for guidance on women's bodies, health, diseases, care, women's literature, it was a wonderful job.

And other group exhibitions, with incredible artists, under the title Other Landscapes, no Museum of contemporary art, MAC_Niterói and National Museum of the Republic, MUN_DF (@outraspaisagens). Currently, I have an exhibition at Correios Cultural Center_RJ, Mailings: memories and identity.

In this current exhibition, I'm reactivating a project in which I distribute postcards, com haikais, for unknown people, at random addresses.

It's like a gesture of attention and empathy towards people, small movements of donation to what reaffirms what is human.

And in November this year I will participate in the collective exhibition, From the thread that weaves affections (@fioqueteceafetos), at the Pinacoteca of São Caetano do Sul_SP.

6 – What are your main artistic influences and sources of inspiration??

Phillyda Barlow, Louise Nevelson, Fayga Ostrower, Andrey Zignnatto, Rauschenberg, Paulo grinders, anyway, many others too.

Commonly, inspiration comes when I'm in my studio, working and thinking about art. There are many incentives to get your hands dirty and produce.

I inherited this working method from the years I worked in the corporate world.: 10% of inspiration and 90% of perspiration.

I have a passion for rescuing and experimenting with materialities from the disposal of recyclables and researching the aesthetics of this universe.

I grew up watching my parents reusing items, that would be ignored, at a time when a minority spoke about this subject.

Is today, I'm proud to know that this is in me too, because they put me in this place.

But of course I take breaks, change environments, I'm very urban, I love walking, observe architectures and the insistence of urban nature and its traces of survival in metropolises, I love.

Sometimes I turn on my “little vacuum cleaner” and go out to see the frenzy of the city, observe people and their connections, the way they relate to their surroundings, listen to stories… understand the uncertainties of life.

But there are other factors that I value, how to organize myself and dedicate time to reading, listen to music, see exhibitions, shows, movies, travel, to stroll…

My inspiration is to live in the present and keep life moving.

Social Media:

Instagram: Tuca Chicalé Galvan