Marco Godinho
FOREVER IMMIGRANT
Fresco in situ
2012

This work, specially created on site by the artist for the exhibit, spreads out like a moving swarm running on the walls of the gallery. From a distance, it looks like a cloudy sky, but by getting closer, one discovers that these shapes are made up of thousands of stamp marks resembling administrative stamps, only here they bear the text Forever immigrant. These two words pose several questions: the belonging to a territory, the “uncertain per- manence” of a migrant’s situation, exile and identity, as well as that of the fluidity of a world in which nomadism and cultural porosity can become a way of life. “I have been conducting for some years now a sensitive exploration of the questions of exile, immigration and geography. This reflection is nourished by my experience of a nomadic life, split between several languages, impacted by continuous displacements and various cultural and social influences, traversed by the presence of literature, philosophy and poetry”, explains the artist. Forever Immigrant is itself a nomadic work of art that the artist produces wherever he is, with simple tools – a stamp and ink – and a minimal and repeat- ed gesture.

About the artist

Born in 1978 in Salvaterra de Magos in Portugal, Marco Godinho lives and works between Paris and Luxembourg. In a conceptualist spirit, he is interested in subjective perception of time and space through exploration of the notions of wandering, exile, experience, memory and time as it is lived. From 2000 to 2005, he studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nancy (France), at the École Cantonale d’Arts de Lausanne (Switzerland) and at the Kunstakademie and Fachhochschule Düsseldorf (Germany). Between 2005 and 2006, he completed a post-graduate at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique in Nancy. Since 2006, he has had several solo exhibitions, including at the Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain (January–April 2013), at Faux Mouvement – Centre d’art contemporain in France (March–May 2013), Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg in Germany (July–September 2012), at l’Espace pour l’art in Arles, France (2012), at Mois de la Photo in Montréal, Canada (2011), at l’Instituto de Camões in Luxembourg (2008, 2011), at Centre d’arts plastiques et visuels in Lille, France (2009), at La Chaudronnerie – FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in Reims (2007), and the Hervé Bize Gallery in Nancy, which represents him (2007, 2009, 2012).

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Courtesy: the artist and 49 Nord 6 Est Frac Lorraine.