the street is our gallery

After recently bumping into Forest Dump, while preparing an article about his latest art work ”City Life”, we realised we had to meet him better. Happily he gave us this opportunity and we talked to him. Enjoy the Interview.

(ISSA) -What you choose to drink? Coffee, Tea, Beer, Soda or something else?
(Forest Dump)) – Beer. Sagres is my favourite.

-Introduce yourself to us!
I’m from Lisbon, Portugal.

-Where does your tag name come from?

I needed a tag name because I wanted to be anonymous, because my work is on the public space and mostly without authorization and if no one knows who I am, I feel more free to work about everything and criticize everything.

-How do you define yourself? Artist? Street artist? Anything else?
I’m an artist, mostly of the times I do it on the streets because that way my work can reach all kinds of people, and be less elitist. I have a really close relation with outdoor spaces, and I look at the street as my home that’s why I’m constantly modifying it. But I don’t want to be locked in the street art concept that’s why I think I’m a street artist too but mostly an artist.

-How did it all start for you, and what is it nowadays?
I’ve been changing the streets to the way I want them to be as far as I can remember. I started with graffiti and that was how all began. I think graffiti made me conscious of my surroundings in a way I never been. It was part of my growth, but I took a few years to understand that I need more than just write my name on the streets, when I realized that was kind a selfish I needed a change. So I started to think in a way to express myself and also tell something relevant, about the cities and the forests, about me, about people and the nature, about society, about what is wrong and what is right, and that have been leading me up to this.

-What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
I look at my window and start to plan my day. I’m a regular camper, so every month I run away from the city and go to an isolated beach surrounded by forest. That’s my favourite way to wake up!

-Street art is mostly a visually stimulating form of art. To add one more sense to it, what music would you pick to accompany your art work?
I love music all kinds of it, if it’s good let it play…when I’m working I love to listen what surrounds me if I’m surrounding by nature, in the city the noise its rich but much more stressful. When I’m less motivated I like to listen to hiphop, I love to listen to jazz, bossa nova and fado when I’m happy , If I have to choose something to listen with my work I would choose something from António Zambujo.

-In all forms of art, inspiration is crucial. What is it that inspires you?
I think mostly it’s the bad things, the mistakes and what I think is wrong in the world, because that always create in me a need to changed it. For example one day I got to the beach where I usually camp and the beach was full of trash (cigarettes, plastic pieces, cotton swabs, etc.) and that was desolate for me so I knew that I needed to do something about it, so I pass the next three days collecting all the trash that was on the beach, and made an installation about it.

-What is the hardest part while working on a piece of art?
It’s the time between the idea and the materialization of the idea. Because when I have an idea it always seem easier to materialize than it really is, and if it’s in the street and illegal is usually harder to do it, for me the key is to be persistent and self-discipline. Sometimes random people help me and other times random people call the cops or security for me, but usually they help.

-Do you have an artist(s) you admire and what for?
A lot of them, the artists I like the most are linked to specific periods of my life.
When I was in high school my favourites were almost graffiti writers but also some classic masters like Rembrant. But it was when I went to college I discovered the artists that really influenced me, Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Morris were my first obsessions, I was really inspired by their ideas and works, I felt like a sponge when I was learning about them. And now I’m more focus in street artists like Biancoschock, Spy and Bordalo ll.

-Which cities are the most inspiring for you?
I love my city, Lisbon because it’s near the sea, cosmopolitan, liberal, full of history and you still feel like you are in a small town village. I feel really disoriented and even meaningless in cities without a natural form of water like a sea or a river or even a big lake. But I also love Berlin because it has it all, and I fell like there is always a new opportunity around the corner.

-What other passions do you have apart from art?
I LOVE NATURE! I love camping in the middle of nowhere, cooking on a fire pit, take a shower in the river, fall asleep looking at stars and wake up on the next day and surf for hours straight and get out of the water occasionally to eat. I like long dinners with great histories and intelligent conversations. I love to make my own food and surfboards.

-Do you have a wild project that you dream of achieving some day?
I have a lot of them… I would like to travel the whole world, make my own eco friendly home, plant a big forest, have a big garden full of plants and eat what I hunt, fish and grow. I would like to make something for the planet…

-Tell us about your art, does it include symbolisms, messages or repeated patterns?
All my art has a message I am really literal but sometimes I use symbols to represent something. My work are my constantly materialized thoughts, there is a pattern I sometimes repeat I go to a nature panorama and I see something that I like and I try to repeat it on a city panorama, I do that a lot, but not always because it’s not always about nature.

-How long time does a piece of art work of yours usually survive for?
My work survives forever in time but not in space, I think that is a reflection of the era we live in, with all the social media and technologies it’s easier to use a photo as representative of the work. So normally I don’t mind if a work doesn’t last too long in space. The time depends if its plants or objects and where it is etc.. But it usually lasts for a week I think. Anyway some of them last just a few moments and a others last forever in space…

-What do people first think of, or feel, when they see one of your works on the street?
I think it comes in phases, usually people get some kind of miss belief and surreal feeling, but it depends … It’s rare when they don’t even notice, but some people are so blocked, they don’t even stop to think a little bit. Normally people feel happy and curious.

-Do you have a secret you would like to share with us? 🙂
I’m just a kid.

-What are your creative plans for the future?
Keep working, I have some really good ideas for some big scale installations so I hope that somehow I have support to do it.

-Is there a specific thought or message you would like to pass to our audience out there?
The world was not made for us and we are privilege to be here, so we should to enjoy the most of it!!

Thank you Forest Dump! It has been a pleasure to get to know more about the mind and person behind these inspiring works.

Check out the artist profile of Forest Dump

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