My Weekend: Photography is the way I connect with the places I have lived

Silvio Severino is a Brazilian artist living in Cork and is the the organiser of the ‘No Word From Glue’ poster collage exhibition running at Cork City Library until the end of the month. He features in our weekly feature  My Weekend.

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

My name is Silvio Severino, AKA @loop_conspiracy on Instagram. I’m originally from Porto Alegre, south Brazil, I moved to Europe just before the millennium, started my journey in London, and after I moved to Zurich, Budapest, Brussels, and I am now living in Cork for nearly five years with my partner and two cats, Bouboo and Ginger.

I’m a freelance artist working in collage (analogue, mainly, but also digital ), photography, illustration, and short animation (GIFs).

I also curate and promote art exhibitions in Ireland and Europe.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

Friday is a good day to go out, fewer people than Saturday. With the pandemic, everything gets a bit more difficult. When possible, I enjoy a few drinks, probably around Douglas St, and a music concert is a good option.

Lie ins or up with the lark.. which is it for you?

I’m surprisingly a morning person! I love to start my daily activities early morning. After my coffee, I review the work I was doing in the previous day. If the work still looks interesting the next morning, it’s probably a good work!

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

As a freelancer and artist, it is very common to work on weekends. It always depends if I have a deadline or if I am working on a personal project.

If money was no object, where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

Certainly bring my partner with me: Any place with interesting architecture, good food, and culture does for me. There are quite a few places in Europe I’d love to visit. Something I would really love to do one day is travel to Berlin for the time of Berlinale, and watch as many films as I can and stay in a 4 / 5 stars hotel: You said money was no object, right?

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

There are many places in West Cork and Kerry to visit, all really beautiful. An easy option is a Sunday walking to Blackrock Market, stopping at the Marina Market to relax. I love walking, and I regularly have my camera with me to take pictures. Photography is the way I connect with the places I have lived. To register them visually helps me to know and understand the place, culture, and the people around me.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

All my family and old friends live in Brazil. The weekend is a good time to chat with everybody on Whastapp.

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

I don’t know if it counts as a hobby, but I’m always searching for great music, discovering old albums, and seeing what is coming new in the music scene excites me. It’s a great time to discover new music.

Also, cinema is a great way to be inspired. I’m always on the look for new Irish and international cinema.

Entertain or be entertained? If it’s the latter, do you have a signature dish?

I’m not the best cook you can have! On weekends, normally my partner, who is a great cook, does the food!

We have so many places to eat out in Cork — where are your go to spots for coffee/lunch/special meal?

I’m vegan, there are quite a few places in Cork with vegan option now. The vegan sausage roll in Dukes Café is a great option when I’m in the city.

Sunday night comes around too fast.. how do you normally spend it?

Sunday night is a time to catch up on TV, things we didn’t have time to watch during the week. Maybe catch a film on at Triskel!

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

There is no difference between weekends and Monday morning. We normally wake up on Cat O’clock!

Anything else you are up to right now...

I have an exhibition in the Cork City library at the moment. It’s a poster exhibition with artists all over the world.

• ‘No Word From Glue’, inspired by Eduardo Mendoza’s book ‘No Word from Gurb’ (Sin noticias de Gurb). This is a simultaneous show in Cork and Brussels.

MORE ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

‘No World From Glue’ continues at Cork City Library until the end of January.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza’s book ‘No word From Gurb’ (Sin Noticias De Gurb), collage artists around the world were invited to create an artwork inspired by the iconic book.

The works in the show reflect the diversity of collage as a creative medium. From analogue to digital, found images, and assemble pictures to mix media in a great array of creative possibilities.

The book is a parodic taken on the city of Barcelona at the time of the Olympic Games. The book depicts the day-to-day life from the perspective of an alien in a urban environment. The book reflects on many contemporary social issues, such as gentrification, consumerism, social acceptance, and much more, in a humorous and fun way. The artistes were free to create their own perspective from Gurb adventures to create a unique piece of work.

The exhibition is organised by the Cork-based artist Silvio Severino, together with Art In Places.