Interview: Anita Bartos
Luca Curci talks with Anita Bartos, one of the winners of ARTIST OF THE MONTH – JANUARY 2021.

Artist Anita Bartos perceives the world very sensitively, its fragrances, colours, movements, she watches people’s behaviour and their stories. Her senses absorb the reality, dreams and their connex. All ingredients which she encounters and takes in every day, she processes in her own way, re evaluates, recasts, recombines and presents in her artistic manifestation. Collages are for the author an expression of her inner liberty and it allows the viewer to peek in Anitas internality. Anita Bartos is an artist, who is dedicated to analogue collages with classic cutouts and expands them with drawings. She leads courses focused on collage, where she connects artistic creation with art therapeutic elements. Anita completed the education of artefiletics and art therapy in Prague and is also a member of the Czech Art Therapy Association. She had exhibitions in Vienna, Bratislava, Prague and Brno. Anita lives and creates in Vienna, Austria.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Anita Bartos – Everyone has more or less their own definition of what art is to them. To me art is something that I need in life just as much as air and freedom. Art makes us human. It is like a mirror where we can see ourselves. It encourages, evolves and cultivates our perceptiveness, sensitivity, intuition and empathy. Art also makes us more inquiring and able to perceive our surroundings with all our senses. It not only addresses the human intellect, but also emotions very deeply. It gives a sense of purpose to living and a feeling for aesthetics even in places where there is a lack of it.

LC – What are you currently working on?
AB – Right now I work on a chronicle in shape of a book with drawings and collages. It will be called “a year of collages“ and span over one year starting 30.01.21 until 30.01.22 – you may think of it as a collage diary, where everyone can find a piece of themselves in…

LC – Which is the role the artist plays in the society? And contemporary art?
AB – Contemporary art is art under post media conditions. Artists express themselves freely, using whichever medium they selected in a chosen situation, which is then redefined multiple times during their career. Specific to the post media art is the fact that even when the artist “changes” the artistic medium, the identity of their creation remains recognizable. Even across mediums there are certain idées fixes, a certain kind of conceptual coherence that enables to detect the original gesture within a heterogeneity of mediums.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
AB – I spend a lot of time with people, exploring relationships, soaking in colours and letting them inspire me. Oftentimes my creative process is influenced by things and thoughts that occupy my at that given moment – my emotional state has a big influence on my work, no matter what the inspiration is at that time.
Inspiration is either there or it is not, there is no coming or leaving process. Sometimes it is just a moment and it’s there, then there are times where it just flows. All these phases have a very different impact on my process.

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
AB – My style changed slowly, it was influenced by my perception of society and music. Listening to music is a part of the creative process in my work, which accompanies me into the world of colours – these two disciplines are inseparable to me. The style of my art transformed into a more detailed and fine way, it became more expressive – but it is still a collage intertwined with drawings, this means ME.