To enter Laura Lima's universe, it is necessary to cross the border of the comfort zone. Nothing is handed over with a kiss. There is always a tangle of ideas that require patience and attention from observers. Referenced in some publications as the first Brazilian artist to have works acquired in the performance category by a museum in the country, in this case the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, she does not even recognize her works as such. “To this day, it happens that one document or another comes to me referring to my work in this way. When it happens, I return it to the institution”, says the artist, world famous for her “living” works, in which people become matter.
With three decades of career completed this year, while preparing a retrospective for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, scheduled for March, the 51-year-old artist talks about it without any change in tone of voice or impatience. She has a calm soaked in the mineiridade of someone who was born in Governador Valadares. It was there that she learned to question. Daughter of a sociologist and a doctor, she grew up in an environment rich in political debates, at the same time that she spent hours entertained with books on her father's illnesses. In this same context, she experienced a definitive turning point when one of her two brothers suffered a psychotic break. “The way he started to deal with the language was quite difficult, but also fascinating, without wanting to romanticize it”, she narrates. “You begin to realize that the way you build ideas has many weaknesses. And that became a daily exercise.”
