GAU | GALERIA DE ARTE URBANA
INTERVIEW WITH... PANTÓNIO Through the images illustrated in this magazine vol.02 of GAU, we realize that Pantónio really has synthesis capacity and is fitness to create an iconic image then persists in our memory, which then unfolds into meanings. We realize that Pantónio has such talented hands and an accurate look forms on what we all wanted to say and do, but do not know how. We realize that Pantónio has a unique sense of timing, working about the random as few. Pantónio, we have already realized that this city owes you some compelling pieces in the history of its urban art. 1. How and when did your stage name appear? It emerged in the way that pleases me most, someone called me PANTONIO naturally. I started working in the graphic department of a company and did a tantrum for them to invest and buy colour catalogues, specifically Pantone catalogues, which are expensive. After this, a good mood colleague gave me this nickname. I like it, because a simple “P” adds a character nature to my name, it’s not foreignism, and indeed if we remove the vowels and we play to hang with the P and T, we can write Portugal. It also reminds me of pantomime that is to communicate without words and that is more or less what I do, and draws are a gesture. 2. You were born in the Azores. How did you get out of the islands to the mainland? Yes, I’m from Terceira Island, São Mateus fishing village. I left the Azores at the right time in the best way: I left at 16 years old, to go to school to study Artistic Crafts in Vila Nova de Cerveira. I went by the insistence of artists who were friends of my parents and of teachers who already saw me skipping classes or going sleepy on them, because of spending the night before drawing and go stealing fences and gates to neighbours to make grids for frames and other things to do experiments. It was very good because I left the purview of parents, to become independent and meet and have as teachers the ones who were the artists that I admired, at an age of idealism too. So I took it all and lived what had to live at the right time. I remember I had the idea that all people on the mainland were very interesting, because everyone had access to culture, media,
Rua José Gomes Ferreira
Fotografia do Autor
02|2013
VOL.
Rua da Cintura do Porto de Lisboa